Emily Brontë : Wuthering heights - book review

Many people, generally those who have never read the book, consider Wuthering Heights to be a straightforward, if intense, love story — Romeo and Juliet on the Yorkshire Moors. But this is a mistake. Really the story is one of revenge. It follows the life of Heathcliff, a mysterious gypsy-like person, from childhood (about seven years old) to his death in his late thirties. Heathcliff rises in his adopted family and then is reduced to the status of a servant, running away when the young woman he loves decides to marry another. He returns later, rich and educated, and sets about gaining his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life.

This is the second time I've read Wuthering heights in my life, but the first time I've read it in English. I first read it in French, thanks to my sister who absolutely adores the book (I prefer Jane Eyre, sorry sister) and it was the one that introduced me to the famous Brontë family (thanks so very much, sister !). And I don't regret re-reading it, even when I was trying to understand Joseph's speech ! Thanks to Anuja on Goodreads, here's the link to a translation of his each and every word : click !
I deleted all my reading notes unintentionally, but here's the review anyway.

As to the word "wuthering", I found this in The secret garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which takes place in Yorkshire too - but with a more understable way of talking : "Mary did not know what "wutherin" meant until she listened, and then she understood. It must mean that hollow shuddering sort of roar which rushed round and round the house as if the giant no one could see were buffeting it and beating at the wals and windows to try to break in."

I think most of us contemporary readers think about Wuthering heights as a passionate love story, some might love it as I did, some might hate it because it's violent and neither Catherine nor Heathcliff are likeable. After all the wise classic literature I read recently, I found it to be a breath of fresh air, even if the only character I really liked was Hareton. Period. Not even Mrs Dean, she's too stern and judgemental at times. And Hareton becomes what Heathcliff could have become had he been treated differently.

It *is* a violent and passionate love story, but not in the usual traditional sense. The main characters are as wild as the moor, but why would they have to be loveable ? Does it mean they could love less ? I love that they weren't reasonable, especially in these days of ours when everybody is expected to conform to standards and live the same days every day and forget about it while on our telephones. Finally, some life, some fire !! It did me good, like kicking a hornets's nest - from a reasonable distance, though. I loved that they weren't perfect and that Heathcliff lived only for love, then revenge, it ate his whole life and he never repented. Mind me, I wouldn't like him if I met him, but reading about him ? Yes !! The book took me back to the days when I was watching "The wild, wild west" on TV with Robert Conrad and I wanted to climb on the sofa every time there was a fight scene (it happened very often) and shout and punch in the air. It filled me with life and energy.

Maybe the Minister's daughter who read the Bible disapproved of her characters and might (?...) have intended to teach her readers a moral lesson, but she created this world. And her sister Charlotte wrote Jane as being a very proper person on the outside but full of fire on the inside. It ran in the family blood, I guess. That's fine with me, that's why the Brontë sisters are my favourite writers of all times, that I have their picture on my bookshelf and that I want to be buried with Jane Eyre.
Wuthering heights will keep the blood flowing in your veins !

I can't resist adding this video, of course :