Old Books, New Readers discussion

Perhaps the greatest and most popular Gothic novel of all time. What do you think of it? And which is better Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre? Say anything you want about it. :-)

Oh I loved them both so much I don't know if I can pick. Wuthering Heights was very sad and the ending was happy, but not how you thought it would end. In that regard I have to say I like Jane Eyre better because I like Happy endings. But Wuthering heights was also terrific!

Wuthering Heights was much different from what I expected.great story but I didn't like the frame narrative in Lockwood's and Nelly's perspective. Also I don't really understand the Byronix hero concept. Jane Eyre was better to me because it was in Jane's POV. It was more personal that way.

I read Wuthering Heights recently for class. It's a bit darker tale than Jane Eyre. I think the main difference, for me anyway, is that Wuthering Heights is more selfish. Jane Eyre has more hope in it.

I recently had to read Wuthering Heights for my AP Lit class, and I did like it somewhat. My main issue with the book is when Lockwood narrates at the beginning and end of the novel. For some reason I just found those chapters really boring and impossible to get through. Also does anybody agree that Linton Heathcliff is a big weenie?

Yes, poor Linton is a wimp in spades :)

I don't know if this may sound weird, but Heathcliff is my favorite character...even though I was glad when he died. I didn't like Catherine...the original one though.
And yes, it is a dark book. I read it one Sunday when it was raining, my room was dim, and I was curled up in my bed. It seemed so nice reading it during that...I was totally into the story.

Strangely enough, I liked Heathcliff too, although he probably needed me to slap him a few times ;)

Oh yeah...I was all for punching him a few times..as well as a good kick in the rear. ;)

I think you are right Sara, there was less hope.

And Nelly' POV was the best. I practically skimmed through the Lockwood parts.

Linton was a wimp but that was because he was dying of consumption. It was prevalent in the Victorian Era. Then again Helen in Jane Eyre suffered from the same thing and wasn't as pathetic. Just remember Isabella was his mother lol

I want to read this, soon I hope. For now, I just read your review. LOL

I love this book. I mean absolutely love it. I read it every year - maybe more than once! It's SO good! I love Heathcliff! Yes, sometimes he makes mistakes and does cruel things, but I think I'd probably react the same way (or close to it) if I was in his situation - Hindley beating him, loving a girl and hearing he's not rich enough for her, and then going off to better himself and returning to find his love married to the absolute wimpiest man EVER!!!!
I could keep going, but I'll spare you all and stop! :)

Emi, I agree with a lot of what you are saying, except I don't think Edgar is the wimpiest man ever...that title seems more fitting of Heathcliff's son Linton...oh wait maybe Linton only counts as wimpiest teen because I don't think he was ever over 18 :P

Well all that in Heathcliff's cliff's situation is understandable. But after Cathy's death he was just cruel. Even to her daughter! You'd think that young Catherine would've been spared because his love for her mother but no!

Thomas - Ok mayyyybbeee that was a little extreme, but he still just gets on my nerves! But I have to agree with you, Linton (Heathcliff's son) was much worse. I feel like being raised by Isabella alone though had a major role in getting him to that epic level of wimp.

Jada - I think she was spared, at least physically. After Cathy's death I wouldn't put it past Heathcliff to hit a woman. But he was willing to let hitting Hareton be sufficient. I think where the young Catherine was raised also played a role. She was so unlike the Cathy that Heathcliff knew, he could only associate her (Catherine) with Edgar. Not only that, but Cathy died giving birth to Catherine.

I find myself very sympathetic to Heathcliff. With how much he loved Cathy and then to lose her to Edgar and then her death... Heathcliff was doomed from the beginning

I hate doomed loves, the ones where you can relate to/understand one of the characters...the one who really means it.
And yeah, everything Heathcliff did was understandable, except when he started taking his anger on the older Catherine out on her daughter.

I got really confused because of all the names. I had a hard time putting the right names to the right person and I spent half the book trying to sort that out, that being the case I can't tell you who did what or who was weak or strong. I should read it again and try to get it straight.

Did anyone else have a hard time putting the names to the right people?

YES!!!! Especially where Catherine's daughter has the same name. That was SO confusing!

I didn't like Wuthering Heights. I really wanted to slap several of the characters to actually get some common sense. I did get drawn into Jane Eyre and really enjoyed it.

I loved Wuthering Heights but I think it easily makes you feel too sympathetic towards Cathy (the daughter). I don't mean I don't feel sorry for her arranged/forced marriage with Linton (I agree, he is a wimp who, unlike his father, never loved anyone) but she is a snob (clearly shown in her initial behaviour towards Hareton) and as unruly as her mother.

Emi - I agree with you, I think Cathy was spared by Heathcliff, physically and, especially after Linton's death, emotionally. He makes no effort to separate her from Hareton - a decision which enters in conflict with his previous sadistic behaviour towards Isabella Linton.

Perhaps, he had a soft spot for Hareton (or Cathy, not sure).
In truth, Heathcliff's revenge, which was all consuming to that point, was complete: he had grown to the status of a gentleman and on his way to be the owner of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, had destroyed the Earnshaw and Linton families.
What was left was a tormented man haunted by Catherine and his memories of their youth.

I never saw Heathcliff as an absolutely wicked man.
Heathcliff loved, obsessed and sought revenge. He was never a romantic hero.
He was someone who loved a woman who was conflicted about who to be and that ultimately chose differently from him.


Jane Eyre is an almost tragic story and the early chapters of Jane’s time in the school are really touching (probably coming from life experience of the author, I suspect) but it never felt unhappy to me. Reading Jane Eyre is a very safe experience. The feeling that everything turns out right in the end is always present in the book and it wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

Wuthering Heights is disorganized, telling us of passionate love often verging on the destructive and much sinister.

If Jane Eyre is a finished, well-constructed novel; Wuthering Heights is raw sentiment, wildness and obsession.

I guess which I prefer depends on the mood but, to be honest, I have only read each of the books once and if I had to read them again, I would start with Wuthering Heights this time.

Wow, I wrote a lot. My apologies. x)

It's ok...very well put. :)

Wowee! I wish I could put my thoughts together like that. I agree, it was knowing through out the book that Jane Eyre was going to turn out Okay, I was sure in Wuthering Heights there would be a sad ending and thus the happy ending was even better.

Both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are good novels, but each leaves you feeling a different mood. Wuthering Heights always leaves me feeling rather melancholic, I think is more relentlessly dark then Jane Eyre which, although it contains its fair share of dark episodes, especially in Jane's time at the school, always seems to point towards the possibility of hope because of Jane's character, whereas you feel the characters in Wuthering Heights are somehow fated to experience what they do. I hope this makes sense.

Bárbara wrote: "Wow, I wrote a lot. My apologies. x)"

That's ok, Barbara!
I haven't read this before, but it's obviously curious me by reading your review.

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "I got really confused because of all the names. I had a hard time putting the right names to the right person and I spent half the book trying to sort that out, that being the case I can't tell you..."

The book I had had this family tree thing so you could see who was who. :-) it came in handy.

Bárbara wrote: "I loved Wuthering Heights but I think it easily makes you feel too sympathetic towards Cathy (the daughter). I don't mean I don't feel sorry for her arranged/forced marriage with Linton (I agree, h..."

Wuthering Heights wasn't at all passionate to me. The only time there really was any sentiments of love was when when Cathy said that their souls were the same.
Also the first Catherine was more of a brat than her daughter. She was srlfish a felt the world revolved around her. Even on her dearhbed she was cruwl and mean to heathcliff and blamed him for it.
The second Cathy was simply sheltered all her life and ignorant of the evils of the world.

Jada wrote: "Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "I got really confused because of all the names. I had a hard time putting the right names to the right person and I spent half the book trying to sort that out, that..."

Oh I am so jealous, I am going to have to look up a family tree online or something.

Nissa Tanura wrote: "Bárbara wrote: "Wow, I wrote a lot. My apologies. x)"

That's ok, Barbara!
I haven't read this before, but it's obviously curious me by reading your review."

I would be very, very happy if after you read, you loved the book as much as I do. Everywhere opinions vary concerning Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre is definitely the better novel written by someone with more experience (it was Charlotte Brontë's second novel) but reading Wuthering Heights is always an eerie experience. ^^

I just took the AP English test today. I wrote about wuthering heights on one of my essays.

Jada wrote: "I just took the AP English test today. I wrote about wuthering heights on one of my essays."

I took it too, I was thinking about wuthering heights, but I thought a lot of the people from my school would go with it because it was the only suggested text that we've read in school...I used the poisonwood bible, which I read in January, even though I didn't really like the book, but it was perfect for the prompt :P

Damn I guess everyone wrote on wuthering heights. You may get a better score just for being different. Imagine reading hundreds of essays on wuthering heights.

I know...and my teacher said that if for example it involves revenge everybody and their uncle-dad would try to write about Hamlet...I also didn't think I could write as well about Wuthering Heights...I thought that was the easiest of the essays, and the only one that I actually knew what I was writing before I wrote it :P My brain was severely fried from the calc exam yesterday...

Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Wowee! I wish I could put my thoughts together like that. I agree, it was knowing through out the book that Jane Eyre was going to turn out Okay, I was sure in Wuthering Heights there would be a sa..."

I know. If I try to write down what I'm think about a book...it just ends up all scrambled. ;)

Thomas wrote: "I know...and my teacher said that if for example it involves revenge everybody and their uncle-dad would try to write about Hamlet...I also didn't think I could write as well about Wuthering Height..."
If the topic had been on revenge I would have done it on the Count of Monte Cristo. :-)

I thought that Wuthering Heights was alright. Not that the writing wasn't any good. It was fantastic. But the characters annoyed me, and, quite honestly, I was happy when the annoying ones who were causing all the trouble died. But I guess that was maybe what Emily Bronte was going for?
Despite all of this, I plan on reading it again sometime, just to give it another chance to redeem itself. But I think I will always like Jane Eyre better, though I think they're equally well-written.

Elissa wrote: "I thought that Wuthering Heights was alright. Not that the writing wasn't any good. It was fantastic. But the characters annoyed me, and, quite honestly, I was happy when the annoying ones who w..."
They are both well written with much literary merit. Jane Eyre is just a more pleasing story. It has hope. Its a true love story. :-)

I have Jane Eyre to read,but I read Wuthering Heights. I though it to be a good book. Captivating writing, entrancing story and a not so classic love story. I say it's not classic, because unlike other books, the main characters are mean, twisted, resentful, somewhat spoilt ( Cathy, mostly). They don't have that good nature which seems to be presented in most books for great love stories.

In W. Somerset Maugham's book Great novelists and their novels;: Essays on the ten greatest novels of the world, and the men and women who wrote them he writes of each author's life and how their life influenced their novel. He chose Wuthering Heights as one of the 10 greatest novels. But this book differs from all the others as Maugham states that it was Branwell who originated this book, not Emily. As children they had developed their stories through collaborative writing. Branwell, Charlotte and Anne were very social but Emily was very different. "She was aloof, a harsh, uncomfortable creature. Emily rarely spoke to anyone." Mrs.Gaskell (Charlotte's biographer) stated that "Emily never showed regard to any human creature - all her love was reserved for animals." Yet when her bulldog went to nap upstairs, "Emily would beat him so severely that he would never offend again."

According to Maugham -- "Some have thought it impossible that a clergyman's daughter who led a retired, isolated life and knew few people and nothing of the world could have written it. This seems to me absurd." . . . "Given Emily's character, of which I have tried to give some indication, and fierce, repressed passions, which what we know of her suggests, Wuthering Heights is just the sort of book one would have expected her to write. But on the face of it, it is much more the sort of book that her scapegoat brother Branwell might have written, and a number of people have been able to persuade themselves that he had weather in whole or in part in fact done so." Francis Grundy wrote: "Patrick Bronte declared to me, and what his sister said bore out the assertion, that he wrote a great part of Wuthering Heights himself . . . the weird fancies of diseased genius with which he used to entertain me in our long talks at Luddenfoot, reappear in the pages of the novel, and I am inclined to believe that the very plot was his invention rather than his sister's."

Emily had never written a book before especially a complicated story to tell dealing with 2 generations. Emily had no communication with people around her who could have suggested characters. Maugham states "I think she found Healthcliff and Catherine Earnshaw in the hidden depths of her own soul -- I think she was herself Catherine - wild, tempestuous, passionate; and I think she was Heathcliff. She gave him her violent rage, her jealously, her hatred and contempt of human beings, her cruelty, her sadism."

"It is evident that Charlotte did not quite know what to make of Wuthering Heights; she had no notion that her sister had produced a book of astonishing originality." She published Wuthering Heights in 1847 as 2 volumes of a 3 volume set (last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne.) Branwell died from tuberculosis on September 24, 1848. Emily died 3 months later on December 19, 1848.

Just wanted to share images of the 1943 Random House edition featuring Frtiz Eichenberg woodblock prints.

Wuthering Heights -- Large image -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/76982768...

more including Jane Eyre (it was a set)
http://www.victoriangothic.org/wp-con...

http://www.victoriangothic.org/the-wo...
woodcuts by Fritz Eichenberg