WUTHERING HEIGHTS

‘Wuthering Heights’ has captured our imaginations this year, especially with the recent Emerald Fennell & Margot Robbie film adaptation in February which has divided opinion amongst Emily Brontë fans. So now must be the perfect opportunity to read, revisit and discuss in your book club.

Written in the mid nineteenth century this Victorian gothic novel is set on the Yorkshire moors, taking place between two estates and families - Wuthering Heights owned by the Earnshaws and Thrushcroft Grange owned by the Lintons.

The story opens with Mr Lockwood, a new tenant at Thrushcroft Grange, who is forced to seek shelter at Wuthering Heights where his landlord Heathcliff lives. Trapped by the weather and ill health Lockwood embarks on the discovery of this twisted story of the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Curious by what Lockwood has witnessed and found at Wuthering Heights including a pile of ‘mildewed books … with writing scratched on the paint (ledge) …. Nothing but a name repeated in all kind of characters, large and small - Catherine Earnshaw… Catherine Heathcliff… and then again to Catherine Linton”. After escaping his nightmare experience, Lockwood persuades Nelly Dean, the housekeeper at the Thrushcroft Grange, to share her account having lived on both estates. A story of love and hate unfolds spiralling into a vengeance that is revealed to us in a series of dark and turbulent events.

The novel is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the tempestuous relationship between the wild and passionate Catherine Earnshaw and the iconic foundling Heathcliff. The second part moves to the next generation - this time with Cathy Linton, Linton Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw as Heathcliff plots his revenge on both families.

The novel surprised many of us readers, both those familiar and those not with this iconic classic. In fact many of us were disturbed by the violence and abuse which was far removed from the romantic connotations associated with the characters and relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. Some of us were even taken aback by our own recollections of the novel, different from our teenage years. And perhaps this also explains why 'Wuthering Heights', with its dark gothic undertones, was not well received by critics when first published in 1847.

Although not burdened by a complex plot, this is definitely a novel that benefits from a family tree - not something you will get with an audiobook! As well as the families's connection by marriage and children, the similarity and repetition of names - Catherine, Cathy, Hindley, Hareton, Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff demands our close attention as well as emphasising the intensity of the story - that is both suffocating and a devise that makes the narrative all the more dramatic.

Definitely a classic worth reading in book club, especially with the recently released film adaptation starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie.