"there are hundreds of really good books in this world, and this just isn't one of them."
"I began reading--'though you mayn't believe it,' to quote Lewis Carroll's Mock Turtle--at the age of 1 and 9 months. Since then I have read literally thousands of books. And of them all, 'Wuthering Heights' is my least favorite ... I would never have continued reading this book beyond the first few chapters had it not been a school assignment, and I felt a greater sense of relief when I finished it than on any other occasion in my life. To quote what C. S. Lewis once wrote on the last page of a book he had read (I forget which one), 'Never again.'"
"I am repelled by the absurd peregrinations of Bronte's spiteful, petty-spirited, self-absorbed characters. The character of Heathcliff is that of a nightmarish beast, and Catherine isn't much better. And yet Emily Bronte wants us to LIKE these people."
"Should be illegal.
I was put through this 'book' when studying Higher English. It is undoubtedly the single worst piece of literature I have ever had to read. What is worse that I had to read it twice, take notes, answer questions, memorize quotes, and in 9 days am sitting an exam in which it will feature rather heavily. You cannot truly hate a book until you have studied it in detail. The problem with it is the fact that about half the words in the book are adjectives ... If this is a classic story, then so is an eight-page picture book that's only strength is very detailed - but not well-drawn - pictures. Please feel free to send me mail to argue about my review."
"I'm not ashamed to admit that a good half of my personal library is comprised of classical novels and plays and that I read them because I genuinely LIKE them.
You heard me right. I LIKE them. I read them for ENTERTAINMENT, not because they were assigned reading in classes (although I've made 'friends' with a great title or two via that route as well).
The Bronte sisters' novels enjoy love and hate from readers. I don't think there's a soul who just feels lukewarm about their works. I've read a couple and liked and kept most of them.
'Wuthering Heights' stands out to me as one of the WORST novels I've ever read in my ENTIRE LIFE. Given the number of novels I've read in my entire life that's saying a lot.
...
A lot of women get swooney over Heathcliff as a sort of alpha-male anti-hero. I'm female and I CAN'T STAND this guy! He isn't alpha, he's WEAK as skimmed milk."
"Finally, it can be told...
Of all the things committed to paper, why on Earth was it this? Having been forced to read this tripe under penalty of death in high school, and then once again in college, I must say that death is welcome. Oh poor poo-poo Heathcliff the Brooding and Catherine the ill fated strumpet. Yawn. Emily Bronte lived one of those lives like that of the other Emily, you know, Dickenson, who is another pile of rubbish altogether. Lonely days and cold nights with her father, and no hot little encounters with a horny gardener from Spain. All Emily Bronte needed was a good tango, but I fear that she was too chaste. And so the world must bear the weight of this tragedy, of its endless reprints which will mark the end of Time. Of course you can love this book and curl up with it at night as if it were your secret lover, or teddy bear, (Even if your teddy bear is your secret lover.) and listen to that song by Michael Penn, or whoever wrote that piece of yack. I don't care. I believe that this book sucks, and it is not worthy of being in the Canon. It should be banished to the realm of Cheesy Teeny-Bopperazzi Romance Goo in the back of a used book store somewhere in Northern Alberta."
"It is very obvious in her writing that Emily Bronte has never left her home, as her characters are all pallid one-dimensional reflections of her own disgusting parasitic victorian life."
"This story is extremely confusing, as well as slightly boring at times. It is hard to understand because of the time frame it is supposed to be in."
"I believe Wuthering Heights to be just an average book hardly capable of any noteriety ... Bronte used the same names and the same situations over and over and I could never understand who she was talking about. The theme of Man vs Man was overly developed with the continuing acts of hatred from Heathcliff. I reccomend you read this book if you want to avenge something or you withold a deep hatred for someone. EMILY SMITH"
"Several years ago, tired of reading the latest novels, I decided after a few forays into classic literature that maybe I should devote more time to them. After all, anything hailed as a 'great literary work' by millions of people has to be good, right?"
"Well as if the Nineteenth Century weren't bad enough we now have Penguin shoving it down our maws every other day with another re-issue of some tepid 'classic.' Miss Bronte has done it again and wielded her magic pen as a wand and cast her net of sleep on the unsuspecting reading public of America. The only consolation the non-preteen girl reader can get form this sack of slumber is the final realisation that 'wuthering' is British slang for 'your eyelids are getting heavy, why don't you just nod off?' I really have to say to Miss Bronte that I did not find Garfield's antics convincing in the least."
"At that time Bronte was writing, in the 1840's, mystical notions of other worldly love and passions and existence were fairly common. But they are irrational nonetheless."
"A classic? Why?
I have no memory of Northern England late 1700's. I don't no if characters such as Heathcliff or the younger Linton actually could exist."
"Such a low score relates to the long, drawn out wordiness on insignificant parts to the story. Over exaggeration of minor details really confused me in this book. The book made me think that a long, drawn out explanation of a minor detail such as Mr. Lockwood's description of Catherine's library as '... select book choices,..' delapidated ' (16) was important but as I completed the book, I realized it was just another attempt to go on and on. I feel if this book became a play people would say it is melodramatic and boring. The plot did grab my attention ( I must admit), and for that reason I gave the book a 3 instead of a 1. However, I think Bronte really "messed up" a developed, intringuing story line with insignificant details that gave readers the idea that the point contained a hidden point that one might find later in the book or one people needed to know. I mean, Who cares how Catherine kept her book collection. The story contains a completely different plot!"
"Brilliantly written; I'll give the novel that much. The plot masterfully contrived, characters well developed, settings enigmatically constructed, the novel as a whole was from a literary standpoint a success. However, the language is consistently dark throughout."
ONE STAR
"I just can't past the boring words to understand the plot."
"If you had a feeling that this book was written a long time ago, well, you're right! The novel, Wuthering Heights by Emile Bronte, is along the lines of most romance/drama novels out there. It has a very familiar story and plot twits that will not keep the reader occupied. When I tried to invision the settings and characters all that I could invision is a grey bloob with generic settings and overly used characters. The same generic plots may suit some people fine but it seems to me that the average reader may want to move onto something alittle bit more innovative and interesting.
...
Although this book has its 'up's', it also has a large share of 'down's'. And the lacklust enviorments dont help one bit. The lack of plausable discription takes its toll on this could be great story. At one point in the book while discribing a trellus of flowers it was depicted as follows: 'I noticed that there were flowers surrounding the barn.'. Not to be rude... but... What kind of barn was it? was it old, or new, or red, or green? Flowers? What kind? What color? This very bland discription of what MAY be a older barn that MAY have help horses, and that MAY have had flowers the MAY have been yellow creats no mental image of the area that MAY exist. Wuthering Heights was once descibed as a gloomy building. I mean, excuse me? A gloomy building? Is it 2 stories high, or maby 3? What color is it? Surroundings?"
"Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: none."
"Many people relate the theme and character interaciton in this book to the modern day soap opera, daytime talkshows or MTV reality shows and thus deaming the book to have some sort of everlasting social message. The problem is that for the most part all those things stink and always have so what are these comparisons saying about this book. Maybe there is a reason why everyone read's this in high school....becuase it is the only age that can appreciate it."
"I read this book because my friend said it was good. I wish I'd never read it. I wanted an intelligent book that was interesting and I could enjoy. Wuthering Heights is, simply put, a bad book. Thank god for Isaac Asimov!"
"This book is nothing special. I personally don't see why everyone considers this to be a masterpiece. First off I can't see how Bronte can turn such a stupid story into a 300 page novel. Another thing that bothered me was the narrative. The story was almost completely told in flashback and that flashback often broke into another flashback and a couple of time broke off into a third flashback. Another thing that was bad was the referce to the characters. One sentence she wold call Isabella Mrs. Linton then she would call Catherine Mrs. Linton also. Same situation with Mr. Heathcliff and Linton Heathcliff. Not to mention the fact that there were two Catherines which just added to the unproffesionalism of this book. What the heck was Joespeph saying!!!! Overall I believe reading this book was a complete waste of time and I would defenantly not recommend this book to anyone else."
IN THE "READ THREE OTHER BOOKS EVER" FILE:
"Wuthering Heights is a very slow book. Not much happens and you shouldn't read it if you want an interesting story. After reading it, I feel that the book could have been shortened greatly. Even though there are some excellent themes in it, I don't see WH as an example of fine literature. Authors such as Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls), Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo--Unabridged), and Frank (Alas Babylon) spin much better tales with much stronger themes and meaning. My advice: skip this book and read the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo."
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