Really a love story? (Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte)

Member Name: pinklady123

Product:	Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Date:	19/03/04 (247 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: interesting, unconventional love story, very cheap to buy

Disadvantages: family connections can be confusing

Before I read this classic book, I was expecting a 'great love story'. However, this is not an accurate way to describe this novel as it has a more unconventional approach to love. Written in 1847, Emily Bronte originally published 'Wuthering Heights' under a psydenum, Ellis Bell, as she was worried about public reaction to the book. It tells the story of two families who are united in marriage and their hatred for one another. it revolves around a cruel tryrant called Heathcliff who is unable to show any true affection for anyone except his true love, Catherine. I am reluctant to expand on the plot any further than this as it would spoil it for the reader, but sufice to say that it is not a conventional love story. There are tears, heartache and despair.
There are several ongoing themes of the novel such as madness and I would recommend this book for anyone interested in an insight into opinions of women in the mid-nineteenth century.
One thing that I found confusing about the book is the amount of characters and how they are related to each other. The Oxford World Classic edition that I own has a family tree printed in the front and I found that I had to keep referring back to it in the early stages of the book to find out who was married to who and although this subsided after several chapters, it was rather confusing initially and meant that I didn't really understand what was going on and what relevance each character had to the story as you seem to be just dropped in the middle of the action.
I would recommend you read this book, especially if you like other novels by the other bronte sisters, Charlotte and Anne Bronte, and other Victorian fiction.

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