FEBRUARY BOOK CLUB: EMILY BRONTË’S ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’

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Image source: Penguin Books Australia

Our February Book Club pick is Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

Reading Wuthering Heights was such a transportive experience. I don’t know why, but I feel like Emily Brontë will be one of my all time favourite authors. The book as a whole was dark in tone, but also dark in events. I felt like it, and therefore we, were steeped in darkness, in that a lot happens in the late or early hours of the day. Which adds to the general emotion of the book. So when there was mention of light and warmth it was so visceral. I loved the Gothic nature of it all, and I’ve come to realise I really want to explore this genre more. 

I also really loved the narration in the story. A lot of the time it can be hit or miss for me, however in Wuthering Heights I loved the way it was depicted primarily through observations. In a way that again really captured the moment and put you in the scene. I loved the way it was so very descriptive, adding to the overall imagery of the scene. Starting in the present and establishing the characters we are first introduced to, and the tone that’s set or rather the manner in which they interact with each other was genius. To then travel back and forwards in time, almost reminiscent of a child being told a bedtime story (however this isn’t a bedtime story), was something that held my attention. I enjoyed how knowledge was acquired. Primarily through lived experiences, but the addition of letters is always a welcome sight.

I feel like the topics explored in this novel weren’t something you really read about, especially within the context of the text and the period in which it was written and published - as well as having been written by a woman. An aspect I absolutely loved. The idea that Emily Brontë was going against the norm of what was expected from her, just made this experience even more scintillating. The suggestion that a lot of their behaviours were due to environmental factors, that being, I couldn’t help but wonder, the fact they were so isolated. I read the Penguin version and in it there are supporting notes that also suggest this, the fact they were rural and how the narrator, or rather outsider, Mr Lockwood, comes in and makes note of the differences too, is a subtle commentary by Brontë. I also find we can sometimes question our narrator, Nelly, and what they are putting forth. She already has preconceived notions on who the other characters are and from that deductions are made. 

I felt like a key theme in the book was heavily focussed on possession. About possessing the other person or a certain belief or trait. How this carried through over the generations, and at the crux of that: it being Heathcliff who wanted to bring that about. The idea that this trauma is repeating itself because they’re not learning from mistakes and not changing for the better. It is also interesting to note that a lot of the characters were somewhat forced to stay that way because no matter what they did, the people around them couldn’t, or wouldn’t, accept change. It’s almost like you couldn’t really re-define yourself. Even Heathcliff who went away and seemingly changed for the better in appearance, it didn’t impact him where it mattered - which was mentally or emotionally - because the factors around him wouldn’t accept it, or rather hadn’t changed for the better.  

Whilst the first half of the book is focused on in media, I loved the second part of the book. Particularly the ending where yes, Heathcliffe was the one that terrorised many of them in life, and that in the end he was the one terrorised by the two that lived on, meaning he didn’t win. I think it was this ending that made me want to explore more of Emily Brontë’s writing. There was mention of some of her poems that could possibly link to this, as well as other texts that relate to this brilliant work.

Yes, I want to do further reading, that is how much I enjoyed this book. Two days ago I was in a book store and started chatting about Wuthering Heights with the bookseller that a) was such a wonderful, thought provoking chat that left me buzzing, and b) had me reflecting on the fact that 179 years after Emily Bronte published her book two people were passionately talking about it in a bookstore in Australia. 

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is available through Penguin Books Australia.