The Wuthering Heights people remember is not the book Emily Brontë wrote.
I read it just in time for the release of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation. She has said Wuthering Heights left its greatest impression on her at 14. Here’s my interpretation at 41, feeling world weary & no longer susceptible to the charms of beautiful men who behave badly.
It turns out it isn’t really about love at all, but about inheritance, race & power.
@kristiedegaris hi! I studied WH ~30 years ago - it left an impression :)
The cruelty leapt out at me too. And even teen me thought it an unhealthy kind of love. The race issue too - on the one hand a sympathetic treatment, but draped in literary tropes & cliche…
But I revelled in its surreality & fire after gritting my teeth through the moralising of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and (less so) Charlotte’s Jane Eyre. I wonder what the sisters thought of each others books?
@kristiedegaris Yes - beautifully put! I prefer the song to the book. And Bronte-wise, Jane Eyre . 🔥
@kristiedegaris Wuthering heights is the one Bronte book I really struggle with. To the extent that when I've finished /Shirley/ and so read them all, I'm going to go back to it and see what I missed, because everyone says it's the best.
First time around, it left my with an impression of drama-queens and man-children, doing the drama thing. There is no one I have any care for. It's just a lot of annoying people fighting. In real life, I'd just give the whole moor a wide berth and roll my eyes at whatever news I heard from the village gossips.
@chiffchaff I didn't enjoy it but I find how it sits within cultural memory really interesting.
