Book Harlot

Rating:  

I put off reading this book because my husband said he hated it.  For some reason, I took his opinion into consideration before I thought about the fact that he was a teenage boy when he read this.  I saw the BBC film adaptation of the book before I read it.  The good thing about this is that I could imagine the events unfolding as I read them, the bad thing is that I was expecting the book to be like the movie, and they never are.  I confess that I picked this book as the next book to read because I have the pocket library edition and I needed a book I could easily hold with one hand because I’m holding my baby girl in the other.  I had finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes before this and was in a Victorian era kind of mood.  I love this era of writing even though the authors of this period are so varied and so diverse.  I expected there to be similarities between Austen and Brontë, but there were very little.  This book was very Gothic, which I really enjoyed.  Austen focuses on society and peerage a lot in her stories and this novel had none of that.  It was so interesting to read a book of the same era and see so many differences and very little similarities.

The character if Heathcliff is so complex.  At times I found myself completely disgusted with him and then I’d be sympathizing with him.  He was a terrible human being, he had no respect for other people, he devoted his life to creating grief and pain and yet, he loved so deeply.  Was he a victim of his circumstances?  Would he have turned out differently if he had been treated like family instead of like the hired help or was he just born evil?  Why could his love for Catherine not bring about redemption?  This book totally went against everything you’d expect from a novel.  The lovers did not end up together, they did not have babies and grow old, and they did not live happily ever after.  Catherine decides to marry for position instead of for love and knowing this Heathcliff leaves to make something of himself.  When he comes back he is bent on taking revenge on everyone who wronged him and in his eyes that is everyone.  It doesn’t die with those directly involved.  He takes it to another level and tried to hurt people using their family, using their children.  He marries the sister of Catherine’s husband to try to become the heir of their estate. He forces his feeble weak son to marry Catherine’s daughter to make her miserable.

Ultimately his plan works, everyone hates him and is miserable in their lives.  He dies alone, and strangely enough the days leading up to his death are really the happiest days he has, because he knows that he will soon be with Catherine again.  He is also confronted with what he always knew, you can’t stop love.  He sees his nephew Hareton and Cathy falling in love despite themselves and is reminded of how his love for Catherine started and blossomed.  Knowing he is going back to that love seems to bring him peace.  He is buried with her and her husband, which I laugh about when I picture the three of them squished in spots for two graves.

Overall I liked this book but I didn’t love it.  I’m eager to read another Brontë and see how they compare.  What did you think?

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Saturday, July 24th, 2010, 3:12 PM   |   reviews  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback