Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is one of those books I have always struggled with. I think I have read it two or three times but I never seem to get much enjoyment from it. I have no sympathy Catherine. I think she is a spoiled child that toys with people's emotions. She is just not nice. And Heathcliff, well I have a bit more time for him because I know he was treated badly as a child but he is so mean to Cathy and Hareton (the only two characters I think I actually like in the novel). So I know Catherine and Heathcliff has this amazing love for each other, a love that transcends death or something but what the heck? They are horrible people and I don't get why I should celebrate their love for each other.

I've read several commentaries as I try to convince myself that this book is worth my time and my admiration (not that I am some elitist book critic). I've read that their only redeeming qualities are their love for each other because their love is so all-encompassing and beautiful. (And yes this was in Eclipse which I know is not some book about literary criticism but it's what brought up this whole Wuthering Heights thing for me again). But these characters are so selfish and their love is selfish. How does that possibly make them better people? Is it just because they are simply capable of love and willing to do anything for each other? Even Edward Cullen and Bella Swain could not convince me.

Another way I have tried to like Wuthering Heights better is by watching various adaptations of it. Even still I have no sympathy with the characters even when Ralph Fiennes or Laurence Olivier is playing Heathcliff. I still don't get it! I like gothic romances as much as the next person. In fact Victorian gothic literature is slowly becoming one of my favourite areas of literature because of the various layers to the novels.

I'm currently watching a modern adaptation called Sparkhouse and it is totally brilliant. The gender of the Heathcliff and Catherine characters has changed, and because of the various back stories I actually feel something for these characters. (Oh and Richard Armitage is in which is how I found the series but he is not a lead. He still smoulders even as a farmhand). Anyways I believe in Carol and Andrew's (weird, those are my in-laws names!) love and I want them to be reunited eventually, even if it is in death a la Wuthering Heights. I love the idea that their love transcends the hurt of the past.

So why is it that I like this story better than the freakin' book? What the heck am I missing? I know I am a romantic at heart so why do I not feel anything for what is supposedly the most romantic novels in literature?

I'll probably just read it again.