Book review

Wuthering Heights : Emily Bronte

I have a long list of unfinished novels which are waiting long on my shelf to be finished. Hence, it is not very common that I got to read the same book twice or multiple times.

Well, you see, with the text books, the case is completely different. But this particular novel, "Wuthering Heights "is very special. I not only have read it several times, but have enjoyed it at different phases of my life. First time, I remember, when I read it, I was in std 8 and had borrowed a copy of this from the school library. Now my collection has two paperback edition of this book!

This novel which was written in Gothic style and whose genre is tragedy is the only novel written by Emily Bronte, who was the second among the Bronte sisters. This might be because she died soon after, at a young age of 28- 29 of Tuberculosis

Quite unusually, Emily wrote this under the pseudoname of Ellis Bell ( all the three Bronte sisters have written under pseudonames) and it was never published under Emily's name when she was alive.

Much later after her death, her elder sister Charlotte Bronte revealed to the world that this book was actually penned by her sister Emily.

By this work, Emily also proved that to become a famous author one does not need to write a dozen of books, but only one good work can give you world- wide popularity.

Wuthering Heights is purely a classic novel depicting the values of Romantic and Victorian period. It has all the elements of those periods like platonic love triangles, gush of passion, marriages, deaths, spirits etc. In short the story in this novel is very "Wuthering" ( Wuthering is a significant provincial adjective which describes atmospheric tumult.).

This novel tells the story of the people living in Wuthering Heights and Thruscross Grange. The novel was first published in 1847. The story dates from 1801 when the house name Wuthering Heights was constructed.

The plaque on the front gate reveals that it was built by someone called Hareton Earnshaw.

I get plenty of goosebumps everytime I read this novel!