Friday, August 07, 2020

Books read in 2020: No. 19 -- Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte

Started: July 22
Finished: August 8

Notes: This is another classic of literature I've been meaning to get to my whole life, but for one reason or another, it's never happened until now. Way, way back in high school, I had a class in which we watched a movie of this novel, but that was so long ago I remember next to none of it. A lot of people are bored by reading the classics, but I usually enjoy them, though not always. From what little I know of this one, I'm expecting to enjoy it.

Mini review: Imagine an Alexandre Dumas villain dropped into a Jane Austen novel to spread his evil over a few decades and you'll have something of an idea of this novel. Dark, almost gothic, but not strictly horror, the real threat here being the all-too-real villain of Heathcliff, himself sometimes mistreated at an early age. Eventually Heathcliff earns his ultimate reward, in a manner of speaking, but whether that is good or bad is somewhat up to the reader to decide. A few of the characters here talk a little about ghosts, but the story itself does not provide any supernatural elements, though this has the feel of a gothic tale about it. Worth reading.