Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë that was first published in 1847 under the pen name Ellis Bell. It was her only novel and mixes Gothic fiction, romance, and tragedy. Set in the English countryside, it tells the story of Heathcliff, an orphan taken in by the Earnshaw family, and his relationship with Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine eventually marries Edgar Linton, whose family lives on a neighboring estate, but her attachment to Heathcliff continues to affect both families. The story follows their conflicts and the effects those conflicts have on the next generation. Much of it is told through a housekeeper, Nelly Dean, who recounts the families' history to a new tenant named Lockwood.
The version I have is the leather-bound Easton Press edition, which is included in their 100 Greatest Books Ever Written series and comes in at 331 pages. I thought the novel was okay, but the story was hard to follow, and it was sometimes difficult to figure out what was going on. It starts in the story's present, flashes back to events from years earlier, and then returns to the present, but those transitions are not always clear. None of the characters are written to be all that likable, so there is really no protagonist to rally around. Even though there is a bit of a love story mixed in, it mostly feels like a book about a bunch of upper-class English people who cannot stand each other, feuding over land and years-old grudges. Ultimately, while it is a well-known classic, it is not the easiest novel to read. I had a hard time getting into the story or caring about the characters, and I would not say it is a must-read.
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