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Saturday, July 23, 2016

On finally appreciating Wuthering Heights

I thought it was going to take ages and I would dislike it as much as ever, but I think I've just confirmed that I've been unfairly prejudiced. With a caveat that I think maybe this is a book you have to grow into. As a side note I do think I've matured as a reader and as someone who writes about books for a hobby.

WH is a strong candidate for the debate about whether you need to like the characters in order to appreciate a book. Heathcliffe and Cathy are both loathsome examples of humanity. You can appreciate their devotion to one another to some extent, but their love is eternally polluted by their own characters and backgrounds. I still can't understand why Stephanie Mayer thinks it's an example to emulate, but then she did write Twilight. 

I think I appreciated it more this time because I realised how ground-breaking it is and surprising that it appeared and was successful at the time. I'm not sure I've really read anything like it in its savagery, and this was certainly the first time I've realised that Heathcliffe poisoned his own son to gain inheritance and probably poisoned himself (he somehow doesn't seem the sort to pine away, even if he did realise that his revenge was empty and Cathy 2 and Hareton were going to marry). I think it's also interesting how it's narrated by Nelly, I'm not sure if she can be classed as an unreliable narrator or not. She certainly doesn't shy away from describing her feelings towards the various characters. Lockwood also works well as the bumbling outsider who doesn't understand the wild Yorkshire ways and has a creepy encounter with the ghost of Cathy. 

I'm glad I've read it and it does make me wonder what other books I've previously disliked might be more to my taste, particularly the two Austen novels on the list and Ivanhoe. I last read that at university and can't remember why I disliked it so much, but I want to put a bit of Walter Scott on the next reading list if I ever finish this one. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with it at the moment but I would like to get a bit further with the ones I'm currently reading, mainly W&P and The Moonstone.

 

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