I know the title probably brings back hideous images of Kate Bush wailing and doing that frankly disturbing ballet dance / demonic possession thing, but I can't get this book out of my head. I read it a few years ago, and compared to the other Victorian novels I'd been forced to read (Dickens, anyone?) it was a breath of fresh air. I loved the wildness of it, the way Heathcliff was such a bastard but never got his cummupance (I hate the moralistic tone that pervaded the whole period, it feels really fake). And the writing was so passionate and so free. Has anyone here been to Haworth? It's a village on the Yorkshire moors, where the Bronte sisters lived in a tiny parsonage back in the 1820's through to the 1850's. The moors are beautiful, and there's this place called Top Withens which they say is the basis for Wuthering Heights. I've dragged my Dad out there and he wasn't too impressed (he's not a romantic soul). Anyway, its a ruined farmhouse, and I found out the other day that the owner back in the 1840's was one of my ancesters. Wow. Needless to say I'm hooked... Iris x
I love that Kate Bush song! and yeah, its an amazing book, I too couldnt not get it out of my heard for weeks after reading it.... beautifull.
Loved it! My favourite part is the final love scene between Heathcliff and Katherine, where she's dying, and they declare love for eachother... *sniff* it always makes me cry. There's something very beautiful in the tragedy of it, isn't there... those who were meant to be but didn't find their way back to one another until it was too late.
Gets me everytime ; and also the scene at the beginning when Cathy compares Linton and Heathcliff as being as different as a moonbeam from lightening....hmm, swoon... I just can't get over what amazing lives these three sisters had. Haworth is such a bleak, beautiful place, and when you walk around the old parsonage it feels so tiny. It's a weird feeling, knowing how many great novels were written there. I suppose the place is a bit morbid...two of them died there, and it's strange walking around the moors and realising that the sight has barely changed at all since their time. Kind of spooky. I might be going their for Halloween ; there's a ghost-walk, and some kind of fancy dress ball or something. I was thinking about creeping up onto the moors but I'm not that brave. They're fictional characters, but hey, you never know...
I saw the movie, the one with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, when I was 13 years old. I absolutely loved it... And after two years, my english teacher gave me the book, the orginal version... But the portuguese translation of the movie's title was so fucking different that I dind't realize the book was about the same story the movie... Then, one day I was really paying atention to Kate Bush's song and realized she was talking about Heathcliff and Catherine and so I finally read the book!!! I love the book, it's great...absolutely beautiful. "(...)he shall never know how I love him: and that not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am."
Hmm. I'm still in two minds about whether I actually liked the characters, which is weird considering it's one of my favourite books. I never liked Cathy, but I felt strangely sympathetic towards her, and the same, a little, with Heathcliff. I think Hareton was my favourite. Especially when Nellie goes to see him when he's about six or seven and he throws rocks and spews a tirade of abuse at her. Reminded me of my little sister.
