Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Summary:
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte's only novel, is one of the pinnacles of 19th-century English literature. It's the story of Heathcliff, an orphan who falls in love with a girl above his class, loses her, and devotes the rest of his life to wreaking revenge on her family. (from GoodReads)

Review:
Wuthering Heights is an interesting novel. I liked it as much as you can like a book where you hate all the characters and nothing really happy happens. It's kind of the way you felt while reading A Series of Unfortunate Events: everything is depressing but you still like the book.

Wuthering Heights is supposed to center on Heathcliff and Catherine and their love, and I say "supposed" because Catherine dies half-way through the novel. I like how the summary says that Heathcliff focuses his life on making Catherine's family miserable, because that's pretty much his life mission. He is just a nasty, grumpy, mean-spirited person, but you want to keep reading and see if there's anything redeeming about him. And the only redeeming thing I could find was his love for Cathy, even though it was a passionate, angry, and tempestuous love.

Another interesting thing about the novel is that the whole story is told second-hand. The narrator is a character named Mr. Lockwood who decides to rent a house from Heathcliff. Mr. Lockwood hears the story of Heathcliff and Catherine and their families from an old maid Ellen Dean. Ellen, fortunately, is present for most of the events involving the cast of characters and she acts almost as an omniscent presence because she knows everything.

Wuthering Heights reminded me a lot of Jane Eyre, because they are both gothic novels, so that made me like it even more. And hey, the authors were sisters! What a coincidence! Really, though, I did like Wuthering Heights even if it wasn't always pleasant to read. The love between Heathcliff and Catherine was more of an example of what you don't want, however, there is a somewhat happy ending for Catherine's daughter.

Rating: 8 out of 10.
FTC: borrowed from a friend.

1847/Barnes & Noble Classic/290 pages.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. How she takes up the post of governess at Thornfield Hall, meets and loves Mr. Rochester and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage are elements in a story that trascends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than that traditionally accorded to her sex in Victorian society. (Taken from back cover)

I had to read Jane Eyre for school and I, suprisingly, loved it. My class has about fifteen people in it, and I have a feeling that I'm going to be the only one who actually read the book (not counting a girl who already read it). And I think that's a shame because I really enjoyed it. Yes, Jane Eyre is long (502 pages) and the writing is at times thick with unnecessary detail, but the characters and plot make the read worthwhile. I especially liked Jane. She wasn't annoying and didn't really have any big faults that bothered me. By the way Charlotte Bronte wrote her, she could have been a real person. There is a bit of a mystery in the story and that kept me reading to find out what happened next. Even though Jane Eyre is very long and is sometimes slow reading, I thought it was an excellent book. If you have to read this for school, please give it a chance!

8 out of 10.