I’m posting a review by one of Goodreads prolific reviewers. It contains much food for thought. I particularly like her ending thoughts (last two paragraphs).
7 Likes
Why did Heathcliff die when he did and why did Catherine (SR) start appearing so much toward the end? Well, maybe she had had it with 20 years of being alone and haunting the earth and wanted some company? I’m not sure she thought about much other than herself and sometimes Healthcliff, so to ascribe to her feelings about “the next generation” and wanting them to have happiness, I think that’s too far for me.I’m thinking she felt 20 years was long enough for her to stew alone. I am curious about the thoughts of others. Since she died right after her daughter was born, I don’t think she had much feeling for the daughter one way or another. She wasn’t all that fond of Edgar, so would expect she wouldn’t have been all that fond of the daughter either. Lockwood said the ghost told her she was tired of wandering for 20 years.
1 Like
I finally got around to watching the video @jerseysouthmomchess posted earlier of the tour of the Brontë home. Fascinating and a little eerie – especially good for history buffs! Here’s the link again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z-rB--E3SA
Ignatius’s link to Emily May’s good review is worth checking out.,
Emily is one of top Goodread reviewers and WH review has 3,000 likes. She’s says WH is her all time favorite book.
The feeling many of us found Heathcliff so unappealing so UNLIKEABLE , we dismissed the book on this basis, and as Emily May points out, she adores this book because it doesn’t have the typical characters, Bronte was not depicting a rosy world.
If we just don’t like the characters, is this reason to criticize this classic ?
Your thoughts ? Especially from those who like Emily May, love/ like this book.
2 Likes
I just followed Emily May on Goodreads. What a prolific reviewer, what a list of books read!
I think she explained to me why I am fascinated by this book (I won’t go so far as to say I like it) – better than I could explain it to myself after reading it multiple times:
“This is a novel for readers who can appreciate unlikeable characters; readers who don’t have to like someone to achieve a certain level of understanding of them and their circumstances.”
1 Like
I’m not completely sure that Catherine haunted him or rather she did in that he saw constant reminders.
“Five minutes ago Hareton seemed a personification of my youth, not a human being; I felt to him in such a variety of ways, that it would have been impossible to have accosted him rationally. In the first place, his startling likeness to Catherine connected him fearfully with her. That, however, which you may suppose the most potent to arrest my imagination, is actually the least: for what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day—I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her! Well, Hareton’s aspect was the ghost of my immortal love; of my wild endeavours to hold my right; my degradation, my pride, my happiness, and my anguish—
Recently my daughter had a particular look on her face that startled me, in response to a nothing-kind-of-comment. Her expression so matched that of my late husband that it took me aback. (Fortunately I don’t have Heathcliff’s issues.) I think young Cathy and Heathcliff’s looks and burgeoning relationship hit too close to home for him to continue on the path he had chosen. It hurt. So no I don’t think Catherine herself intervened. She may have tired of wandering but Heathcliff could no longer summon hatred first and foremost as he watched Hareton and Cathy.
2 Likes
I’ve been there/done that, though many years ago. I remember little about the home but the moor made an impression. It was a cold and dreary day … in June.
1 Like
Browsing the NYTimes, I had to click on this headline to see if Wuthering Heights was in there: “Classic Romance Novels: A Starter Pack.”
Thank goodness it wasn’t, but the article teased my interest in a genre I’ve pretty much ignored. There are a dozen or so vintage novels described, and I haven’t read a single one of them.
Anyone see a favorite in there to recommend? Gift link here if you want to take a look.
1 Like
I don’t have a lot of tolerance for novels centered on unlikable characters, especially when everyone else is equally unpleasant. I despised Vanity Fair which I was forced to read as a high school freshman (which I will say strikes me as a supremely dumb choice) at least the other half of our class read Great Expectations (I think, I still haven’t read it!) which has some redeeming characters. I felt the same way about Catcher in the Rye. Couldn’t stand being around him. I believed utterly in these crazy characters.
I think WH is a bit different because there are redeeming qualities. The personalities and how the generations repeat variations on the original sin is fascinating. The descriptions of the environment are lovely. And I got drawn into figuring out why the novel was so effective.
6 Likes
I’ve read several of the authors/books but I made a friend - a really good friend - because of Agnes and the Hit Man. I was telling her that I had been in a serious reading slump for a year and Agnes and the Hit Man ended it. She replied that it was one of her all-time favorite books and she had yet to hear anyone else know of it. We immediately bonded. She was a librarian and always recommended it to patrons who wanted something fun and weren’t opposed to romance.
I’ve enjoyed many a Julie Garwood book and Amanda Quick. It’s been a while since I’ve gone down the romance road. Maybe it’s time.
2 Likes
See what you made me do: I just put a hold on Agnes and the Hit Man at the library. It’s been years since I read it; I hope I still like it as much.
1 Like
Ha, I also looked for it on Libby! It’s not at any of my libraries, but now that it’s in the NYT, maybe one will buy it, and I will be notified.
I have also read several of the authors and a couple of the books. A lot more of my authors show up in the “if you read it and loved it, try…” footnotes. But I certainly wouldn’t classify them as classic romances! FYI Jayne Ann Krenz writes in that name for present days, as Amanda Quick for historical, and Jayne Castle for futuristic.
Perhaps this might be a good time to bring up my old suggestion of Georgette Heyer books as a choice! They are certainly just about all romances. With likable characters and happy endings.
2 Likes
I’m very surprised Georgette Heyer, a major regency romance writer wasn’t included in the NYT article. She’s one I’ve read nearly all the romances she’s written. She did a lot of research so that she includes a lot of accurate period information.
1 Like
A lot of the reason I enjoy the Bridgerton Netflix series is because they bring Georgette Heyer’s Regency world to life. And a lot more accurately than the Wuthering Heights movies bring that book to life.
I get that the generally horrible characters make it hard to enjoy Wuthering Heights. But I feel that very unlikeability is essential to the work and does not diminish its quality.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t wish that everyone behaved better and that the book had a happy outcome for one and all. I think what Emily Brontë created is perfect the way it is – perfectly awful in some respects, but perfect nonetheless.
5 Likes
I had to read Vanity Fair as a freshman in high school. What a chore it was! Yet, that loathsome Becky Sharp stayed with me for years. She was awful, but memorable.
I love Great Expectations. It’s a fat book, but a page turner that moves pretty quickly. There would be so much to talk about.
This group has never read any Dickens other than A Christmas Carol, so maybe it’s something to consider next time we have a classics month. Somebody make a note of it for February 2026. 
2 Likes
I’ve been following everyone’s posts avidly. This is a fantastic discussion. Thank you all for bringing such depth to the discussion. I learn so much from being part of this group.
Wuthering Heights was a memorable book for me in that I never forgot the characters, who in my mind ranged from the loathsome to the pathetic. I enjoyed reading everyone’s take on the book and the people. As good as reading it again.
The writing, as some of you have pointed out with the quoted excerpts, is beautiful. I had forgotten if I had ever noticed. Too busy hating the book to appreciate the author’s skill!
There were other parts that I had forgotten which the discussion brought back.
I have wondered what Brontë’s life was like for her to produce such excesses in her characters. Some of the links shared here have been very useful to understand the background of these talented siblings.
Fun fact. One of my high school English class assignments was to read one of these three books and write an essay: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights or *Great Expectations *. My mom persuaded me to give Wuthering Heights a chance and I have always held it against her!
Great Expectations is one of my all-time favorite books and I would have much rather written the paper about that. I even thought Jane Eyre was preferable to WH, although I’m not a fan of that book.
While I enjoy different genres, I do love my frivolous fare of regency romances! So if there is a possibility of reading a book by Georgette Heyer as our next, I’m all for it. But Great Expectations is definitely a very strong contender!
6 Likes
There are various film productions of Wuthering Heights (some of which leave out the Catherine-Hareton story and/or turn Heathcliff into a brooding romantic hero – haven’t seen a version that I like yet).
This 1920 review from The Guardian is about the first film adaptation. It’s fun to read – the writing style was different in those days. My favorite paragraph:
Wuthering Heights appeals to the people who will later find it like a hollyhock in a daisy field, among the cheerful trivialities of the ordinary kinema programme. Public taste has been so lowered by hundreds of bad American productions that it will perhaps be a drag to get it up high enough to appreciate Wuthering Heights.
Film review of Wuthering Heights – archive, 1920 | Emily Brontë | The Guardian
Per Wikipedia, there are no surviving copies of the film in any archive. It is considered officially lost.
1 Like
This made me laugh out loud ! 
2 Likes