Classics Series Book Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

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Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is widely known as a classic love story. However, if you read it as a love story, you’ll be sorely disappointed. It’s more a story of vengeance and love lost. The characters, including the ever important Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff are written to extremes. Their intense emotions finally lead to death and destruction.

Content & Message

This book is written as an embedded narrative, or a story within a story. It begins with a man, Lockwood, who is renting the house at Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff who owns it and the house of Wuthering Heights. The housekeeper of Thrushcross, Nelly Dean, tells Lockwood the story of Heathcliff and Catherine after Lockwood has an encounter with Catherine’s ghost at Wuthering Heights. 

“And that minx, Catherine Linton, or Earnshaw, or however she was called - she must have been a changeling - wicked little soul! She told me she had been walking the earth these twenty years: a punishment for her mortal transgressions, I’ve no doubt!” - Lockwood, Wuthering Heights

As Nelly delves into the story, we learn that Heathcliff and Catherine were brought up together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, having been brought in as an orphan by Catherine’s father, was treated horribly by Catherine’s older brother, Hindley Earnshaw. This is when Heathcliff’s deep resentment begins to grow. 

Catherine, though treated much better than Heathcliff, is a bit unhinged. She has dramatic fits when she doesn’t get her way, and has almost as bad, if not worse, manners than Heathcliff. They cling to each other throughout the story. Unfortunately for Heathcliff, he’s not “suitable” for her, having not been from an established family. Catherine marries someone else, Edgar Linton, even though she really loves Heathcliff.  

From here, Heathcliff only becomes more obsessed with revenge. Not only does he want vengeance against Hindley, but also Edgar for marrying the love of his life. He uses the children of each of them, and his own child, to exact revenge. Heathcliff becomes a horrific terror in this story. He ropes in innocent people, not caring about the trauma he is inflicting, so he can have his way. 

“Mr. Heathcliff dislikes me; and is a most diabolical man, delighting to wrong and ruin those he hates, if they give him the slightest opportunity.”

- Edgar Linton, Wuthering Heights

Edgar Linton does a great job encapsulating exactly what Heathcliff is: a diabolical man. There seems to be no redeeming qualities in Heathcliff. Every time he has a chance to make a better choice, he chooses to be cruel, vindictive, and abusive.

Biggest Takeaway

Heathcliff shows us the extreme of what can happen when someone is treated cruelly for their whole life.  It also shows us how, when someone is exposed to such treachery and neglect/abuse, they are often more easily manipulated. 

We see this most in Catherine’s daughter Cathy. Heathcliff manipulates her into marrying his own son, Linton, so he gets all of Edgar's property and wealth. The same manipulation Heathcliff uses on Cathy, including physical abuse, is also used on Linton.

Heathcliff shows us how far someone will go for the person they love, and how far someone will go to harm their enemies. He dug up Catherine’s grave because he was driven mad with grief and longing to be with her. And then he ruined the lives of those he hated because he had nothing else to live for. 

“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”

- Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights

Overall Impressions

Emily Bronte does a great job at making the reader hate the main characters. Honestly, everyone in the story is cruel and dysfunctional in some way. The only characters I had any sympathy for were the children, Cathy, Linton, and Hareton, but even they manage to make me dislike them many times. 

I did feel sorry about Heathcliff’s upbringing, but who he ultimately became kind of destroyed that like he did everyone’s lives in the book. There was no reason for him to go all out, hell-bent on destroying lives, even of his enemy’s children. They were innocents and had nothing to do with the choices of their parents. 

As a love story, I was not impressed with how things played out. The “romance” between Catherine and Heathcliff was more of an unhealthy obsession. This is not a book I want to read again, and I’m not totally happy about the hours I spent on reading it the first time. 

If you are someone who likes to read into a book and analyze the deeper meaning, or the “classical” bit, then this is probably an okay read. Otherwise, it’s just frustrating and sad. 

Why Writers Need this Book

As a writer, it’s always interesting to read books that are considered “classics.” To discover what makes them so popular and what the author did right. Utilizing the book in that way, then maybe it’s worth reading for us writers.

I won’t say that writer’s need this book, because I myself didn’t enjoy it; however, there is something to be said about how extremely dislikable everyone is. There aren’t many writers who can make readers hate almost every character in the intense way Bronte does, so for that I have to give it props. 

You can get the book here. (Or here or here). Better yet, check your local library!

My challenge to you is to read the book and think about Heathcliff’s motivations.

Have you read the book? What did you think? What was your favorite part? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great reading & writing. 

Classics Series Book Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

NOTE: This blog contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Trigger warning: sexual assault

Overview 

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is a classic in American literature and when you read it, it’s not hard to figure out why. The tale of Celie, who’s married off to an older man at a very young age in the deep South, and her sister Nettie who goes off to be a missionary in Africa is at once heart wrenching and eye-opening. It’s a true tale of survival and making the best of hardship. It’s also about love, not just between partners and sisters, but love for yourself and how hard that can be.  

Content & Message

Written entirely in the epistolary style - writing in the form of letters - Celie initially writes to God. Her faith is unwavering despite being 14 years old and having been raped by the town doctor and gotten pregnant. By the time she’s 20, she’s had two babies, but she’s not allowed to keep them. 

She’s married at 20 to a man, Mr. _____, who takes months to decide if he wants her because “She ain’t fresh,” “She spoiled. Twice,” and “She ugly” (7-8). The immediate reaction is one of incredible want to free her of the situation she’s in that really doesn’t have an escape. At least not for many years. 

In the end, Celie is happy. I won’t spoil it, but the book ends in a way that feels good for Celie

Meanwhile, her younger sister, Nettie, leaves for a mission trip in Africa with a couple named Samuel & Corrine. The letters are now for Nettie. The couple takes care of her, and she writes to Celie often - except Mr. _____ hides the letters and makes Celie believe Nettie has abandoned her, or worse, died. It isn’t until famous musician Shug Avery comes to town - and falls in love with Celie - that they learn of Mr. _____’s treachery. 

Celie finds years of letters from her sister, and it’s at this point that she decides she’s going to leave to be with Shug. She finally has an escape, and the love she’s always longed for. With Shug, and their life together in Shug’s big house, Celie can finally think about herself and learn to love herself. Shug even helps Celie begin a small sewing business - pants for women. Celie writes letters to God and Nettie. 

In the end, Celie is happy. I won’t spoil it, but the book ends in a way that feels good for Celie: “I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this is the youngest us ever felt” (288). 

Biggest Takeaway

The most powerful thing about this book is Celie’s story of her experience as a young black woman in the South. It’s not set in the present-day, as there are clear mentions about segregation throughout, but hearing about all the terrible things that happened in her life, in her words, makes the book tremendously moving. 

Not only does Celie grapple with her own trauma, but she also has to navigate life experiences and her faith. Walker is a masterful storyteller, and this book tells an important story not just about one woman, but about how being African American, and a woman on top of that, was - and still remains - a complicated business far too often. 

Overall Impressions

I love The Color Purple. I’ve read it at least 3-4 times, and while I won’t say it’s an easy read (because it’s not) I keep going back to it over and over again because Walker so fully captures the voices and experiences of Celie & Nettie. 

From the first page, the reader begins to feel the scope of Celie’s tragedies in her own voice. I love epistolary novels and this remains one of the best examples I can think of to represent how powerful first person voice can be in a novel. 

This book is a hard read, but a necessary one.

The topics and ideas are also important, even if they’re hard to read about. The book isn’t hard in the sense of academic language or long sentences (like many other classic books), but hard in the mental & emotional sense. It’s hard to read about these experiences knowing that real people lived like this - and not just one person, either. For the same reasons it’s hard to read, it’s a book that must be read. 

For many of us in the modern day world, this book is a reminder that reality isn’t the same for everyone, and despite the many ways we’ve moved forward, not that many years ago public places were still segregated & Jim Crow laws were very much a part of everyday life. Not that many years ago it was still legal to discriminate against people based on race and gender. 

This book is a hard read, but a necessary one. It’s beautifully written, and I think you’ll find that when you pick it up, you’ll keep turning page after page because you just have to know: what’s going to happen next? And how in the world can this woman survive, let alone have a happy ending?

Why Writers Need this Book

If you’re a writer, you need to read this book not just because of the way the book handles heavy themes and ideas with grace & clarity, but also because the language is incredible. You’ll be transported into Celie’s world, and that’s the ultimate goal of a book, but especially an epistolary style book. 

The letters aren’t written in “proper English” as we usually think but in Celie’s voice as she would speak to you in a normal conversation - up to and including very direct language about bodies and love and faith. 

Next Steps

There are a few steps to take next: 

1. Get the book here. (Or here or here). Better yet, check your local library! Easy peasy.

2. Read the book & take it in. 

My challenge to you is to read the book and think about the voices being represented.

Have you read the book? What did you think? What was your favorite part? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great reading & writing.