Book Of The Month: E. Bronte: Wuthering Hights

I got so into over my head the past month that I forgot to write Book Of The Month Series for December 2013. But not to worry, I'll write it now. Truly, I hadn't decided which book I want to present for the magical time of December. There are just so many great books that capture that Christmas Spirit we're all talking about in December. I'll do my best and pick one (hopefully) till the end of January and wrote what it's about, what other people say about it, what I think about it and of course, why you should read it.

This time I chose a classic, I picked up from my bookshelf and fell in love with the story all over again. I'm talking about Emily Bronte book Wuthering Heights. I remember a new movie adaption came out not long ago (one or maybe two years) and out of curiosity I checked iMdb to see how many movie adaptation this book has. I counted 10 movies (one had a different titles and some were just a TV movies). Am I the only one who thinks that's a bit much? I mean you'd need more than one day to see all the versions. When I'll have too much hands in my hands I'll definitely do that and wrote all about how they were (I'll rank them from on to ten based on different criteria, like accuracy or hotness of the actors...).

Emily Bronte is one of the writing Bronte sisters (her sister Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre). Wuthering Heights is her only published book, which was published after her death when she was 30 years old. If you want to learn more about her I recommend English Wikipedia or Sparks Notes.

I don't want to write a lot about what the book's about, because then people are either mad because I spoiled them all the important parts, or they think those twenty sentences can replace the entire book and they don't read it at all. But the first type of people at least read it. Story follows the life of Catherine and Headcliff, both of whom grew up on Wuthering Heights. The story starts when Heathcliff is a owner of Wuthering Heights and a man named Lockwood comes to the estate. Lockwood then narrates the story about Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights with the help of house keeper Nelly.

Wuthering Heights is considered one of the best stories in the English literature. With its "wildness" and "rawness" Emily Bronte created a one of a kind story. Even though critics were are still are skeptical about into which literary category the story belongs. The author called it a novel with "a story within a story" and occasionally even "a story within a story within a story", which was highly unusual for the 19. century when the book was written and published. These days some authors write books with more parallel stories that effect one another.

Another word to be used when describing Wuthering Heights is, as I wrote before: a classic. This is one of those books that you just have to read or at least know what's about. I don't know about your high school, but in mine we studied this book. Well , we didn't have to read it, but we had to know what's about, who wrote it, when it was written and stuff like that. I think this is a usable knowledge. I know what you think: "I don't care if some lady wrote a book in 19th century. This was two hundred years ago. That's like old and so out of fashion!" But what if (this is a total cliché, but I think it's still the best reason to have a basic knowledge of, well everything) you'll once meet someone you'll like and they'll loved this book. I don't know about you, but I like to hear from a guy (or girl) that they know what I'm talking about  when they ask me what I love. Mostly because I'm kind of a book nerd. I could talk books all day and night. Seven days a week. Basically all the time. And because the people I meet usually don't ever read something that it's not absolutely mandatory for school or work. With some exceptions that also read Cosmo (female friends) or Penthouse (male friends)  type of publications (this is not entirely true I have friends that read a lot, I just want to make things more black and white and easier to understand).

THE VERDICT:

The book is a classic and it's definitely worth of the time it takes to read it. I found the story a bit too sad and depressing for me, but it's beautifully written and the storyline is wonderfully executed. I think it's a perfect book for book clubs (even if you only read vine labels). The story can be interpreted in many different ways and this can create some interesting conversations and insights of your friends (or whoever is in the same book club) way of thinking and perception. Overall I think you should read it.

xxx

Lucy Jane