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Wuthering Heights

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Published in 1847, WUTHERING HEIGHTS was not well received by the reading public, many of whom condemned it as sordid, vulgar, and unnatural--and author Emily Bronte went to her grave in 1848 believing that her only novel was a failure. It was not until 1850, when WUTHERING HEIGHTS received a second printing with an introduction by Emily's sister Charlotte, that it attracted a wide readership. And from that point the reputation of the book has never looked back. Today it is widely recognized as one of the great novels of English literature.

Even so, WUTHERING HEIGHTS continues to divide readers. It is not a pretty love story; rather, it is swirling tale of largely unlikeable people caught up in obsessive love that turns to dark madness. It is cruel, violent, dark and brooding, and many people find it extremely unpleasant. And yet--it possesses a grandeur of language and design, a sense of tremendous pity and great loss that sets it apart from virtually every other novel written.

The novel is told in the form of an extended flashback. After a visit to his strange landlord, a newcomer to the area desires to know the history of the family--which he receives from Nelly Deans, a servant who introduces us to the Earnshaw family who once resided in the house known as Wuthering Heights. It was once a cheerful place, but Old Earnshaw adopted a "Gipsy" child who he named Heathcliff. And Catherine, daughter of the house, found in him the perfect companion: wild, rude, and as proud and cruel as she. But although Catherine loves him, even recognizes him as her soulmate, she cannot lower herself to marry so far below her social station. She instead marries another, and in so doing sets in motion an obsession that will destroy them all.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS is a bit difficult to "get into;" the opening chapters are so dark in their portrait of the end result of this obsessive love that they are somewhat off-putting. But they feed into the flow of the work in a remarkable way, setting the stage for one of the most remarkable structures in all of literature, a story that circles upon itself in a series of repetitions as it plays out across two generations. Catherine and Heathcliff are equally remarkable, both vicious and cruel, and yet never able to shed their impossible love no matter how brutally one may wound the other.

As the novel coils further into alcoholism, seduction, and one of the most elaborately imagined plans of revenge it gathers into a ghostly tone: Heathcliff, driven to madness by a woman who is not there but who seems reflected in every part of his world--dragging her corpse from the grave, hearing her calling to him from the moors, escalating his brutality not for the sake of brutality but so that her memory will never fade, so that she may never leave his mind until death itself. Yes, this is madness, insanity, and there is no peace this side of the grave or even beyond.

It is a stunning novel, frightening, inexorable, unsettling, filled with unbridled passion that makes one cringe. Even if you do not like it, you should read it at least once--and those who do like it will return to it again and again.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

There is a thin line between love and hate, and once Heathcliff crosses it, we see a grand, passionate and absorbingly interesting man turn into a fearsome thug. Thwarted in his love for his childhood soulmate, Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff turns his devastation outward, becoming a hateful -- and hated -- person all across the bleak moors that surround his Yorkshire village.

Heathcliff courts and marries the sister of the man whom Catherine chose over Heathcliff, only to torture her emotionally as a way of getting even with her brother. Meanwhile, Catherine slowly wastes away pining for Heathcliff, for although she once rejected him, she eventually realizes that she has made an irredeemable error and can never be happy. Heathcliff sums up the tragedy of their lives in a single question near the end of the novel when he asks, "Why did you betray your heart, Cathy?"

Sound depressing? It's not. Wuthering Heights is a grand and glorious novel that dramatically illustrates the power of love, for good and ill. But more importantly, it teaches us that the only path to happiness is to be true to one's heart, rather than one's head. Had Catherine honored her bond with Heathcliff and refused to bow to the social mores of her day, not only would the two of them been much happier, but all of the many people whose lives they stumbled into would have been much better off.

Another reviewer said that those of us who love this novel probably have a strong identification with one of the characters, and for me that is quite true. That's the reason for reading a classic like Wuthering Heights, because when it speaks to you in the clear and true way that Bronte does, you know that you are not alone, and that some things transcend time and place.

Think about it -- a prim, Victorian preacher's daughter living on the moors of England before there was electricity can reach across 150 years of time and speak to the heart of a wired American in the 21st century. Pretty amazing, and highly recommended.

"Wuthering Heights," Emily Bronte's only published novel, is a saga of two Yorkshire families who live in the remote Pennine Hills of England's North Country. To me the book has always epitomized the best of gothic fiction. The narrative is filled with intensity of feeling, especially Heathcliff's passionate love for his Cathy and hers for him - a love which endures beyond the grave. More than would be lovers, however, the two are soul mates and have been since their childhood. Cathy once told Nelly, her servant and friend: "My greatest thought in living is Heathcliff. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be... Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure... but as my own being."

Yet, the novel is more than a love story. "Wuthering Heights" is about hatred, cruelty, delusion, frustrated yearning, obsession, deep despair and vengeance. At times its very darkness is depressing and painful. Yet love and faithfulness, which endure beyond death, bring hope and much needed light to this tale; as does a second love story, born from the seeds of the first. The author also addresses the issues of social class here. Both Linton and Earnshaw families are considered gentry. However, the Linton's are a more educated, cultured group and appear to be of a higher class than those who reside at Wuthering Heights. Some of Catherine's most crucial decisions involve moving up in society.

The story is told in a series of narratives, none of which are entirely reliable. During the winter of 1801, a gentleman named Mr. Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire. He has a natural curiosity, and in time visits his neighbor and wealthy landlord, Heathcliff, a grim, forbidding man who lives at Wuthering Heights, a few miles from the Grange. Lockwood also makes the acquaintance of Heathcliff's housekeeper Ellen Dean, called Nelly, and asks her to tell him about her employer and the history of those who reside at Wuthering Heights. He documents her narrative in his journal, and his written recollections make up the main portion of the novel. Much of Nellie's tale consists of memories from years before, her observations of life with the Earnshaw family, her recollections of the Lintons, and her own conclusions, which are subjective. Lockwood, gets his information second hand, from Nellie's perspective. He continually interprets, and misinterprets the relationships and actions of the characters who play such major roles here. So, it is up to the reader to make sense of it all - which is what the author intended.

As a young girl Nelly worked as a servant at Wuthering Heights for Mr. Earnshaw, the owner, his wife, and their two children, Hindley, and Catherine. Earnshaw returned from a business trip to Liverpool with a gypsy-like urchin, a dark-haired, handsome orphan boy. He had taken quite a fancy to the lad, a quiet, stoic child, and names him Heathcliff, after a son who died. Earnshaw decides to raise him with his own children. Catherine befriends Heathcliff almost instantly. They share a love of nature, and an emotional intensity unknown to most people. They are able to communicate with each other easily, even as young children, and both possess tremendously creative imaginations. The two roam the moorland wilderness, where they're most at home, like wild creatures of nature, and become inseparable friends. Hindley detests Heathcliff from the first. He is jealous and goads the boy constantly. Eventually, after the death of his wife, Mr. Earnshaw begins to show preference for Heathcliff over his own son, which exacerbates the hostility. Finally, Hindley is sent away to school and Heathcliff is kept at home, at Earnshaw's side.

Hindley comes into his inheritance some years later, at age twenty, when his father dies. Cathy is eleven years-old, and Heathcliff about twelve, when the heir returns to Wuthering Heights, and seeks vicious revenge for having his rights usurped by a wretched boy from the slums with no means of his own. Obviously Heathcliff cannot defend himself and is totally dependent on Hindley. He is forced to work as a laborer in the fields, and is treated harshly, as less worthy than an animal. He and Cathy maintain their closeness. They still wander the wild North country and she shares her studies with him. One night they pay a clandestine visit to Thrushcross Grange, home of the Linton family. Cultured, spoiled and very well behaved, young Edgar and Isabella live there. When a dog savagely bites Cathy, it is discovered that she and Heathcliff have been hiding in the brush spying. The girl is seriously injured and is forced to stay at the Grange for several weeks to recover. During her time with the Linton family, Mrs. Linton becomes intent on turning wild, mischievous Cathy into a young lady. She encourages her to become a young woman with manners and actions appropriate to her social standing in society, rather than the wild, headstrong creature she is while roaming the moors with Heathcliff. By the time Catherine returns home, in elegant new clothes, she has become infatuated with Edgar Linton. Needless to say, her relationship with Heathcliff deteriorates significantly, as he feels he is losing the only person he ever loved.

Edgar pursues Catherine relentlessly, and eventually, the young woman's desire for social advancement, and an inexplicable fey, self destructive quality about her, prompt her to accept his proposal. However, she really does not love her fiance. She may care for him, but her feelings are much less than what her passionate nature requires. On the other hand genteel women of this period were supposed to have neither "passionate" nor intense feelings. "'Here and here!' replied Catherine, striking one hand on her forehead and the other on her breast: 'in which ever place the soul lives. In my soul and in my heart, I'm convinced I'm wrong!'" Thus Catherine acknowledges to Nelly that her marriage to Edgar cannot be one of love. Although she knows that Heathcliff is her true love, however, she cannot marry him because he has been so debased by Hindley. "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire". Her powerful connection to Heathcliff is always present, no matter how annoyed she becomes with him. Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights a bitter man. He knows that if he had come from a better social class, or had wealth, Cathy would have married him. When he finally returns, years later, a self-possessed, successful, wealthy man, he is obsessed with revenge, and is more adept at exacting it than Hindley ever was.

Nelly continues her increasingly complex tale, (which I won't spoil for you), of three generations: of births, marriages, deaths, traumas, complications, a second more hopeful love story and redemption. The most recurring theme is the great love and friendship, the everlasting connection, between Cathy and her Heathcliff, whose difficult nature is almost impossible to understand and to accept - unless, of course, one thinks about his unknown origins and early childhood as a homeless waif in Liverpool. One can only imagine the horrors he experienced wandering the streets of the rough port town, with neither protection nor kindness. What cruelty and meanness of spirit did he learn there? His terrible, inhuman treatment at Hindley's hands certainly played a part in Heathcliff's lust for revenge and lack of mercy, as did Catherine's decision to marry Linton, which must have been devastating for him. Heathcliff remains a dark, brooding, cruel man throughout his adult years and never reforms. He is an anti-hero, at least in my eyes, as he also possesses good qualities, along with a terrible sadness, an emptiness and longing which he shows to Cathy alone.

Emily Bronte's extraordinary prose is filled with powerful imagery. Miss Brontė spent most of her short life at home, in Thornton, Yorkshire, where she was happiest. She loved the surrounding moors - the wide, wild expanses, unsuitable for cultivation, and full of danger. There are bogs and wetlands on the moors, which can go virtually unseen, and where one can drown. It is also a place of great beauty. The author spent much time walking there with her dogs and was terribly unhappy when she was away. The similarities between the author's natural environment and that of the area around Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are obvious. Ms Bronte drew inspiration from the regional Yorkshire architecture also, as well as her own personal experiences and her amazing imagination, a gift Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Bronte shared - with each other and with us. I have read a few Bronte biographies and always felt that the character of Catherine Earnshaw, certainly her intensity and love of nature, was based on Emily Bronte.

Keep a box of tissues handy throughout your reading of "Wuthering Heights." I wonder if this is the first tearjerker?
JANA

I'm 16 and fall into the vast catogory of Wutehring Heights readers who had to finish it for a highschool english assignment. If I hadn't been, er, forced to read it, I never would've encountered this amazing book. The themes that it encompasses, love, hate, revenge, isolation, are so masterfully blended in this book that I found it extremely powerful. True, it is not a romance - it is so much more. I didn't find it confusing, although Joseph's lines had to be read allowed several times before they were actaully understood. The doubling-up of names just increases the sense of isolation within the book, something which I think is rather important to the story. I hardly find this book boring at all, it's passionate and full of action, something which took me completely off guard. Please, give it a chance. And even though he was a complete jerk, my favourite character is still Heathcliff. *G*

As with other Wuthering Heights editions, I will not delve into the depths of this strangest and strongest of novels, with its haunting poetical intensity, its everyday realism, its display of physical and psychical violence, its metaphysical contents and its eerie beautiful otherness. As the noted critic C. A. Swinburne put it in 1883:
"It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts: it is certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in the whole world of poetry or prose".
By the way, whatever the edition you end up with (or none), don't forget to have
a try with Emily Bronté poems, or a sensible selection from them. I realize that this review is by far too long: so, if you are in a hurry, I think that you can skip safely to the last paragraph ("SO WHAT?") for practical recommendations.

The real issue that we face now is: how much does THIS PARTICULAR EDITION of Emily Brontė's novel measure up to its intended goal? How does it compare with other editions currently available?
Beginning with the bottom line, THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST "STUDY" EDITIONS EVER, together with Beth Newman's one for Broadview Press and Dunn's one for Norton Critical (4th edition). By a "study" edition (in roughly the same sense as a "study" Bible), I mean one that is richly annotated, with an interesting Introduction and a variety of context-oriented documents, such as critical reviews or essays, biographical or chronological items, a selection of poems or other writings... Such an edition must be evaluated firstly by his handling (more or less scholarly or careful) of the TEXT(s) involved, then by the choice of supplementary materials (whether interesting or not, balanced or else), in third place by the quality and accuracy of the Introduction and notes, ending with very important issues of design (user-friendly, beautiful) and material production (durability, paper and print quality, binding).

IN SUMMARY, lest I get too long and formal, this is a well cared for, accurate and reliable 1847-type text, springing out of the University of Virginia electronic texts, but tightly controlled by the 1976 Clarendon Edition one (by Hilda Marsden and Ian Jack), and silently adapted as punctuation is concerned (resulting in a friendly version, which the scholarly reconstructed punctuation of Clarendon is not).
THE INTRODUCTION is short (11 pp) and well planned so that it opens ways for understanding, but can be read before the novel without spoiling anything.
It sounds a bit like run-of-the-mill material, but this is a deceiving image
(Alison Booth's command of the material is always there).
THE ANNOTATION IS VERY GOOD and extensive enough, with full and right glosses of the dialect tirades, and accurate, to-the-point information on biblical or literary references, or contextual ways and means.
In that most elusive of references, the one about Milo (of Croton) in Chapter IX, however, Alison Booth edition slips a little, like many other good ones (with Clarendon doing a little better, the ones getting the story right if not in full are Barnes&Noble, Wordsworth Classics, Penguin/Nestor, Broadview/Newman, Oneworld Classics and the excellent but ill-fated Routledge edition by Heather Glen). According to the Geography of Strabo, Book XII, which is the only source for this story, Milo in his old age tried to tear apart in two a tree half split and with a wedge to retain it open. He then exerted all his force with his hands, opening the gap wide enough for the wedge to drop off; the tree closed (it requires an ever increasing force to continue opening the trunk -this is Hooke's Law in physics-) and trapped the hands of Milo, who was then devoured by wolves.
It is regarding this story that we read in the novel:"Who is to separate us, pray? They'll meet the fate of Milo!" (who also tried unwisely and deadly to SEPARATE something). Saying in a note, as Booth does, "In the classical fable, Milo, an athlete, tried to pull a tree up by the roots" is a little misleading (not only do we lose the "separation factor", but also accuracy. Milo is neither a fable nor a myth, but a real human being with a place both in time and on earth, mentioned with consistent witness by two of the best historians of the time, other than Strabo. As to the stories connected to him, nothing is known for sure when we go into the details, and so the label "legend" is most appropriate).

The CONTEXTUAL MATERIALS are well chosen and presented. The only problem, and I think THE GREATEST PROBLEM with this otherwise excellent edition, is that there are 40+ items of this material and only 130 pages to fit them in: it looks hopelessly like a motley medley of maddening fragments, with, say, ONLY FIVE OF EMILY'S POEMS, which is both a pity and a blunder. There are interesting curios as the "Table of the average yearly wages paid to domestics... according to their rank in a household".
More important are the pages devoted to Yorkshire dialect (too scarce) and ballads (very good). There is also a fair amount of space (11 pages) allotted to "cultural dissemination", that is, works of art (songs, theatrical or musical adaptations as well as TV or movie ones, sequels...) deriving from or related with the novel.
The data included are very good and complete except for the chapter on translations in which, just as an example, only two translations into Spanish are listed, and only one in current use although it is barely acceptable: there are by now no less than TEN Spanish translations easily available; some are very good, some are rightly annotated, none is both things together and none is based on the 1847 text (but on the 1850 one).

MATERIAL PRODUCTION is... fair enough, as far as I can tell without ripping apart my copy. A not-too-bad paperback, perhaps even signature-sewn but without flaps (with cover corners and even front-edge vulnerable). Paper quality looks good (time will tell) and printing quality is excellent. Design is clear and user-friendly
(I will not comment on the typeface they use for big headlines, perhaps somebody will love it).

SO WHAT?
If an accurate and reliable text and a rich annotation are a must,
then stick to this Longman Cultural Edition (by Alison Booth).
If you can make do with a generally reliable text with a few errors, some idiosyncratic readings and inconsistencies and, besides, you don't mind a scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you will appreciate the finest choice ever of contextual materials (but with only EIGHT OF EMILY's POEMS) as well as a MOST INTERESTING and thought-provoking INTRODUCTION (29pp), then choose the Broadview Press edition by Beth Newman (be sure not to pick their earlier one by Christopher Heywood!).
If, on the other side, you may accept a generally reliable text and a very scanty annotation (but with full dialectal glosses), and you would appreciate the best presentation ever of early reviews and similar materials (Charlotte's prefaces for 1850, and some letters by Charlotte) and you would enjoy a really good and wide enough selection of EIGHTEEN EMILY's POEMS, then don't miss the elegant and no-nonsense Fourth Edition of Norton Critical (by R.J. Dunn, with almost the same text, for good and worse, of the late and mourned William M. Sale 1963 1st edition).

Have a haunting reading!

Emily Jane Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights not to show what love IS. But what love can DO to those who are encompassed by desire. This novel is simply brilliant and by far the greatest novel of the Brontes and (in my opinion) the greatest novel ever written. I say this because Emily laid aside all the conventional types of victorian writing and imbued her novel with persons and events that are not ordinary, but utterly fascinating. Almost completely unrealistic at times, yet perfectly sound in their meanings. Some say to me that Wuthering Heights is impossible to enjoy. While others say they dislike the characters so much that they had to stop reading. I also hear that they cannot figure out all the plot twist and turns. But I say, is this not what REAL-LIFE is? There is no certainty of happiness in the lives of Catherine and Heathcliff. Certainly there is no certainty of happiness for ANYONE in the novel. (Which goes the same for all of us.) As wretched as this seems, Emily (in my opinion) did not write a full blown epic of true romance, despite what many say they love about this novel. She took humans and turned them into what is surprizingly MORE realistic. Emily filled them with faults and turned Cathy and Heathcliff into selfish and undeserving people who destroy each other, not out of love, but out of greed and their own unharnessable animal-like behaviour of what love was TO THEM. What they do and say isn't romantic, but a sign (or even a warning from Emily) of what self indulgence and obsession can do to people pushed beyond their limits of common sense. Cathy and Heathcliff brought themselves to believe that their love was REAL, when in fact their grasp of love was (as Charlotte said, PERVERTED.) Unrelenting in it's destructivness, thus leading to the various calamities their actions bestowed upon the (somewhat) innocent people surrounding them. As brilliant as this novel is, the greatness lies in the story telling of the many different characters we meet. The many different view points from Nellie to Edgar to Isabella and Hindley, spread across the pages and show you how they interact and react with one another as they expierence the situations which seem so very wild and incredible yet ring so very true. This (to me) is not exactly a novel about unbending love. But more of a study of the weaknesses that is stored in everyman. Emily gave us a written guide to show that following your instincts and passions is not always the best path to take. And Emily accomplished this with the most brilliant and unsurpassed written novel in history. It's pages burn with life and it's characters speak in tongues which, even now, I cannot always fully understand. Wuthering Heights can be looked upon as a fascinating study of a particular human race (at what could be any time frame) covering the ground of but a few persons, admist the many open miles... Thank you for your eyes...

The fact that this novel was written when Emily Bronte was only 28 years old, two years before her death, makes one wonder what she would have been capable of had she lived longer and continued writing. I must admit, this was one of those books that I appreciate for its literary merit more than enjoy for its pure reading pleasure. But if the true test of a novel is how visceral of a reaction the reader has to its characters, then this is certainly a fine novel. Each of Bronte's characters is exquisitely developed in his or her own way. And each evokes powerful emotional responses from the reader - mostly negative reactions of anger, frustration, disgust, etc. - but reactions, nonetheless. A well-written character, remember, does not have to be a character that you admire or love; pathetic, self-centered, cruel characters can be the product of exceptional writing, as long as they evoke genuine feelings of revulsion from the reader.

And this novel is full of characters that will earn little admiration from readers. Indeed, the only character that was really "likeable" was the temporary tenant of the Wuthering Heights estate, to whom the story is recounted by Ellen, the servant. Ellen gives her account of the events that she witnessed as the domestic employee of Catherine, a self-centered, melodramatic eccentric who falls in love with Heathcliff, the gypsy who under somewhat mysterious circumstances is brought by her father to live in their home. Despite her love, Catherine marries Edgar, causing Heathcliff to devote the remainder of his years to exacting revenge for her betrayal. What follows is a dark, brutal, sometimes frightening tale of a pathological love affair and its tragic consequences.

Bronte certainly did not view the world through rose-colored glasses, if Wuthering Heights is any indication of her personal world view. It can be a difficult read at times, only because the few redeemable qualities of the main characters are so powerfully overshadowed by their flaws, their cruel intentions, and the bleak outlook that Bronte portrays. It certainly deserves its place, however, among the classics of English literature, and its characters, despite their shortcomings (or perhaps because of them), will live long in the readers mind after the final page.

There is no need to comment on the contents of this volume, since it coincides page for page with the Penguin Classics current "black" edition of Wuthering Heighs (Pauline Nestor with Lucasta Miller), a really excellent edition (I omit some little misgivings).

What is NEW (and almost unseen on the Anglo-American market) is to have an authoritative and scholarly edition in a really nice hardcover (cloth), WITH ALL ITS INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES, in good and probably lasting white paper, with even a blue ribbon-marker. A delight to the eyes and hands!

Let's face it: Clarendon edition wasn't nice-looking, with a price tag of one third of the US Gross National Product. The Franklin Mint Editions (say the 1979 one) is a very fine item, but it has no introduction and the only notes are the well-done glossings of the dialect tirades. Barnes&Noble hardcover comes near to parfection at a slightly more popular level, but their text is 1900 Haworth Edition, with its uncredible paragraphing and quaint distorted dialect, with some C.K. Shorter idiosyncracies for good measure.

SO, LONG LIVE THE PENGUIN CLASSICS HARDCOVER EDITIONS, AND LET'S SEE IF OXFORD FOLLOWS SUIT (I fear not). By the way, a good signature-sewn paperback with flaps and good, durable paper would do almost as well, but there is almost none in the Anglo-American market.

Wuthering Heights is truly the definitive "epic" novel. The animated, wild mental scenery, the perplex love/hate relationships, and the extended tale of two generations. Its story is so dramatic and wrenching it almost borders a soap opera, but luckily Emily Bronte's writing skills and character dynamics protect it from ever being comparable. I
The plot revolves around a possessive, yet unconsummated relationship between the two main characters, a gypsy boy named Heathcliff and the daughter of a respected family, Catherine Earnshaw, and branches off into the consequences of a love too wild and profound to be controlled. A love triangle ensues involving a wealthy neighbor who wishes for Catherine's love and her hand in marriage as opposed to Heathcliff's instability. Her choice influences all the events to come and lives are ruined in the midst of the storm created by a passion too deep to renounce. With its dark themes and violent characters it is considered by many to be the original Gothic Romance novel.
Upon its first publishing, the story was considered too harsh and the characters vile, and was rejected by many readers in the early 19th Century. Emily Bronte, having been born and raised amongst the moors and the people bred of it knew no other way of life at the age of seventeen when she wrote this novel.
Ultimately, it is the wild and uncontrollable nature that makes the novel so affecting and believable, capturing your heart and your emotions. It drives you into feeling what the characters experience with it's descriptive writing and you then know what is the essence of the story. The book is a work of art made from minimal environmental resources, with the mind and the soul sculpting it into a true representation of love's ability to conquer hate.

This is an absolute masterpiece, and I feel confident in saying that it is the best book I have ever read. I'm stunned that the average rateing is not five stars. This book is an amazing work. It was written by a woman who never married and yet her description of the vivid passion that exists between the hero and heroine in this book is so passionate and moving that you almost feel as though you can't understand the raw, almost jealous need they have for one another. It reverts to basic animal instinct. She creates characters that you love one momment and hate the next. These are real humans, not representations. They are flawed in every way that they should be and yet they are the ones you sympathize with. They truly are three dimensional, with all the motivations of love, greed, lust, jealousy, and anger that every human being must deal with. If the characters are not enough to convince you of this novel's superiority, all you have to do is look at the actual construction of it. It's like an onion, starting with Mr. Lockewood as the narrator, then Nellie, and eventually even Heathcliff and Cathy speaking to one another in the white hot core, the climax of the story. The two love triangles, emulating each other through generations, the first a tragedy, and the second resolving the fault of the parents with true love succeeding. It is absolutly fascinating how intricatly and beautifully the story is constructed to tell every aspect of the characters. This novel is so moving. It faces every aspect of ourselves as human beings, at the best and the worst of our capabilitys. It may have been written long ago, but it still holds true to problems we face every day. What emotions do we allow to motivate our deeds? That is the real question that this book asks. The images, and the lasting feelings continue long after you have finished the final haunting paragraph. That is why this is the best book I have ever read. If you think I'm simply babbling, all I have to say is read the book yourself. It will be like nothing you have ever read before.