Wuthering Heights was a book far beyond its time. Published in 1847, the story’s multiple narrators and uses of flashback were extremely unusual for the time. Therefore, the book received a rather cool reception. Many readers also felt that the subject matter was too dark and considered the work vulgar.
The Bronte Sisters
The Bronte sisters all had pseudonyms and Wuthering Heights was first published under Emily Bronte’s penname, Ellis Bell. It was not until two years after her death, aged just thirty, that her sister Charlotte, edited the book and had it published under Emily’s own name. Wuthering Heights has become Emily Bronte’s most famous work and is perhaps the most renowned work of all the Bronte sisters.
About Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a large mansion, positioned in the dark and wild moors of Yorkshire. It is home to Mr Earnshaw and his two children, Catherine and Hindley. When Earnshaw returns from a trip to Liverpool with an orphaned boy, and states that he is to be accepted into the family, the drama of the story begins.
The boy is named Heathcliff, which serves for both Christian and surname. Catherine and Heathcliff become very close, but Hindley resents the newcomer, and sensing that his father favours the orphan, he becomes insanely jealous, and violent towards Heathcliff.
Upon Mr Earnshaw’s death Hindley inherits the estate and sets about making Heathcliff’s life a misery. Meanwhile, the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine has developed into love. However, Catherine’s head is turned by a wealthy neighbour, Edgar Linton, who offers all the things that Heathcliff cannot: Wealth, social status and security. She therefore acquiesces to become Linton’s wife.
Heathcliff: The Moors reflected in the Man.
Heathcliff is driven mad by jealousy and disappears from Wuthering Heights. When he emerges three years later he is a changed man. Eaten up with bitterness and anger, he is as wild, passionate, and dangerous as the moors that he inhabits. He is determined to make Earnshaw and Linton pay for the misery they have caused him.
The story is narrated retrospectively by a servant of the Wuthering Heights estate. This is spliced with the current view of ghostly goings-on at the house, and Heathcliff, as an older man and owner of Wuthering Heights, who is brutal and cruel to a surly young man and woman that live with him in the mansion.
The themes of passion, love and jealousy, are just as relevant now as they were in the nineteenth century and this is possibly the reason that the novel is as popular now as it has ever been. There have been many modern adaptations, including films, plays, and even a musical.
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