Wuthering Heights

(image from Amazon.com)

The Summary (no spoilers)

This classic by Emily Bronte is a story of love, loss, pain and vengeance. Heathcliff will destroy the whole world rather than accept a life without Catherine, or forgive the one that took her from him. When I visualize the set in my mind it is all dark, dingy, dirty, gray.

Touchstones

I picked up this book again because the new movie was coming out and I wanted to re-read it before watching. It has been quite a few years since I read it, and I remembered it being a favorite. I think I can see why I probably enjoyed it in high school - I saw only the dramatic proclamations of love.

He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same… If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be, and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it.

And:

If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.

But reading it this time, I saw so much more the darkness, the meanness, the petty stubbornness that leaves only destruction in its wake.

Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.

My review

I regret to say that I did not enjoy it much this time around. Perhaps it is maturity that allows me to recognize that this is not a love story. Or perhaps it is exhaustion from the senseless meanness and petty revenge that ooze out of the White House every day. Either way, I didn’t care for it. I can appreciate that it was a bold work at the time it was published. It is certainly an intense story, with a darkness that was original for the time. It is well written, and a classic for a reason. But this is my review. And in March 2026, I give it 3 stars.