Book Review: Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights is my best friend’s favorite book; she’s read it (in her words) “1mx.” I’d read it once in high school but realized, on this re-reading, I had been merging parts of it with Jane Eyre, and the story took me by vigorous surprise. WH is unhinged! It is violent and dark (a dog is hanged in it?) and its characters behave in vengeful, petty, and unkind ways. I kept looking for a slip of porcelain and finding instead blade and corrugated edges. Bronte does not give us any soft landings. She writes bravely, unflinchingly to the wick of things. I am imagining her temptation to warm the characters, to sand down the rough edges, to stamp out the vantablack, but she gives us instead a determinedly bleak story about an orphaned boy subjected to abuse and social ostracization who falls in love with a woman he is forbidden to marry, and who spends the rest of his life in self-immolating agony and vitriol.

But was it love, after all, I wonder? Is Heathcliff destroyed by a broken heart or consumed by bitterness toward his circumstances? Certainly he seems obsessed with Catherine (and her ghost) for his adult years, but most of his actions in his later life seem motivated by revenge towards Earnshaw, perpetrator of deep unkindnesses toward Heathcliff as a child. Meanwhile, Catherine is highly self-involved and her feelings for Heathcliff often seem either underdeveloped (a childlike, convenient attachment), possessive, or self-serving, i.e., she was drawn to Heathcliff because she met her match in him, not because she had any real empathy or softness toward him. It is a claggy business all around.

This meme just about captures it:

Heathcliff is beautifully complex. He is a true Byronic hero: a brooding, discontented outcast who, in spite of his dark moods and haunted past, possesses an undeniable charisma. (This tracks, by the way, with Bronte’s reading history: she immersed herself in second-wave Romanticism via her father’s collection of Shelley, Scott, and Byron and participates in that literary tradition. Interestingly, when she published WH, contemporary critics considered her work odd and out of keeping with the times — released in 1847, the novel is set in 1801 and flirts with early-stage Gothic conventions that might have felt old-fashioned or “retro.” Have you ever read the Castle of Otranto? It’s considered the “ur text” of the Gothic movement, and was published almost a century before WH. Otranto centers upon a decaying castle and a thwarted family legacy/lineage — certainly themes Bronte was manipulating. I love this tidbit of Bronte context: her juicy a rebours flair.) I kept waiting for glimmers of inner warmth to thaw my view of Heathcliff, and occasionally it is as though we see the weather change behind the window, but we never find any resolution for him. There is no turning point, no recovery, no change of heart, no redemption. This is not a moral story; is there any character development at all? Heathcliff remains staunchly himself, a stony facade around a decaying interior — much like Wuthering Heights itself. Was Bronte cautioning against the depth and irreparability of the psychological trauma that he had endured? After all, much of his callous mistreatment as a child centers upon his social status; Bronte seems to be flagging that class structure is a damning site of significant violence of various kinds. Interestingly, there are unkind folk of all walks of life in this novel, though, from Joseph the groundskeeper to Earnshaw the master; this is not a novel in which paradigms simplify into the “good” everyman versus an evil upper crust. The entire society of characters in WH seem rotted through. Even those who are less flagrantly unkind can be petty, haughty, churlish, and — mainly — self-involved! The level of self-absorption in this novel is astounding! (Lockwood, too!)

To wit — two fantastic memes:

WH has a dauntingly wide body of critical literature around it — and a cult following (and meme-density) to boot; rather than provide a typical review that might barely scratch the surface of what other more dedicated scholars and fans have contributed, I am instead below pawing at some of the themes, questions, and motifs that leapt out at me, and wondering what yours might be?

+Anxiety around familial relations and origins — A strong motif in the novel suggesting unease around social mobility and status. For example: Heathcliff as a fatherless orphan with ambiguous racial/cultural background; Lockwood’s initial befuddlement as to the relations between the “family” he encounters at WH in the novel’s open; the doubling of names across generations (two Catherines, two Heathcliffs — this made for occasionally difficult reading, which must have been intentional; I also noticed Bronte occasionally using ambiguous terms like “his ward” or “his companion” in ways that obfuscated the antecedent); the dissolution of families and family claims to property

+Layered narratives — WH is a patchwork of multiple fallible voices that work together to construct the story. We have the frame narrator of Lockwood, we have diaries and letters, we have Ellen’s recounting, and we often have Ellen reading letters within her recounting or quoting from characters who told her what happened when she was not present. Narrative instability x 10! Can we trust Ellen? Can we trust her memory? (Keep in mind, we are hearing Ellen’s recounting through Lockwood, who is deeply unwell and bed-ridden while listening — is he a reliable narrator to begin with?) We know she keeps close tabs and a good read on the moods and preferences of the people in the story; do we occasionally wonder if she is telling things in a certain way to appease or intrigue Lockwood? (There is a hint that he might be romantically interested in Catherine — is she trying to fan the flames?) She might also have her own agenda when it comes to class dynamics; she is an employee telling the landlord’s story to his wealthy tenant! Mainly, I wondered — what was the narrative purpose of Lockwood? What did he add to the story? Certainly another layer of destabilization — perhaps Bronte’s way of kicking up a little extra dust and gravel: there is never one clear story, one correct view.

+Insides and outsides of things — We have the two major edifices in the novel (WH and the Grange) and who belongs to each (largely defined by inheritance, although Heathcliff is able to trick his hated Earnshaw out of house and home); we have characters who are permitted inside certain rooms and not in others; we have arrangements and dissolutions of different friendships/relationships; we have Catherine and Linton in a marriage and the interloping Heathcliff, and then we have Heathcliff and Isabella in a marriage and the interloping Catherine; we have Lockwood as a visitor muddling his way into the family drama; we have the open window at the end, when Heathcliff has mysteriously died

+Connection between the physical and the intellectual — Bronte often describes a relationship between the mind and the body — i.e., brightness of eye suggests a keen intellect; I think more generally she was ahead of her time in seeing how physical wounds manifest on the inside.

+Construction of physical space in the novel — The visual of these two enormous houses separated by a fog-laden heath imprints itself on the mind in a fabulous, evocative way: much of the novel is, after all, about separation, isolation, “crossing between” (as in marriage), “crossing over” (as in transfer of property and death – there is a lot of death in this novel!). The use of physical space is a brilliant mirror for all of these negotiations. I loved the vignettes in which young Cathy is venturing further and further towards WH, towards learning about her family connections there, etc — and the “danger” of being apprehended by Heathcliff! I also thought WH’s gradual degradation and the Grange’s gradual closing up / de-tenanting were interesting metaphors for decay and closure in the novel.

+The supernatural — The ending struck me as supernatural-lite! Was Heathcliff being visited by Cathy’s ghosts, or was this all in his mind? What was the meaning of the open window? I also found some of the language (“he is more myself than I”) evocative of witchy possession.

+Seasonality — I have to say, this book was delightfully well-suited to gray, misty November mornings. The novel wears fog so well! Strongly rec reading this during the late fall season.

Wuthering Heights Reading Questions.

+What do you think Bronte was communicating in her depiction of Wuthering Heights? How does its description advance or animate the plot?

+The two Catherines are similar in important ways — and different in others. What do you make of their similarities? What do you think of her pairing off with Hareton?

+What was Lockwood’s role in the novel? Why did Bronte include him as a frame?

+Do you trust Ellen’s telling of the story? Why or why not? Why might Bronte have chosen to have diegetic narratives? (I.e., the characters are hearing what’s happening in the story just as we, the audience are; there is no omniscient narration — why?)

+Do you think Heathcliff and Catherine were in love? More generally, what genre does this book belong to and/or how would you characterize the book in 1-2 words? Gothic, romance, anti-bildungsroman, class conflict, etc?

+What is the significance of the open window in Heathcliff’s death scene?

Wuthering Heights Mood Board.

Wuthering Heights Playlist.

Of course had to include the Charli xcx song from the trailer to the Emerald Fennell film adaption of Wuthering Heights in this! (They just released a second trailer this week; watch here! And I just discovered that Charli xcx has an entire Wuthering Heights album coming out! You can preview a few tracks here.) I had a complete blast compiling this moody-broody-witchy-heathy playlist, with a mix of strong, howl-y female ballads and slightly alt, cinematic symphonics. A kiss of the occult. I consulted with this fantastic Reddit thread, titled “Music that makes me feel like I’m the heroine in a gothic novel like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights?” and included several recommended tracks. Landon and I are also fascinated / obsessed with Wet Leg and her song CPR is absolutely pitch-perfect for the Fennell film version of this book.

I included a Kate Bush song (I know she has a true cult following) because it felt just right but she also has a track (not on my playlist) titled “Wuthering Heights.” I find it a little difficult to listen to in a playlist context but could be worth a tune in if you’re intrigued or into her.

You can get the playlist on Spotify here and Apple here.

Wuthering Heights Movie Adaptations.

I am curious to watch as many of the film adaptations of this book as possible! The book is intriguingly ambiguous on so many points (including plot — I read and re-read the section in which Catherine dies multiple times to make sure she had in fact died), and I’m itching to witness the confidence of a director pinning certain things one direction or another. I’m also very intrigued by the Emerald Fennell adaptation. There are a few controversies surrounding it — first, the fact that Heathcliff was not cast as a person of color (in the novel, Bronte describes him as “a dark-skinned gypsy” [sic] with “black eyes”); second, the inaccurate costuming; and third, the eroticization of the novel. (Someone described the film’s adaptation as “the Colleen-Hooverification of Bronte” — !!) In spite of this context, and perhaps slightly because of it, I’m eager to tune in. I’m generally pretty lenient on creative adaptations (why can’t we spin things further out? why can’t we reimagine, chase things to further endings, reapply to new contexts? — there are so many popular adaptations of Shakespeare that would probably offend true scholars but I love them still), and I think it’s interesting that Fennell placed the title of the movie in quotations (it’s “Wuthering Heights” in the title, not Wuthering Heights), which to me signals some acknowledgment that there will be slippage and manipulation. (…Are we meant to understand it as satire? Or at least as an adaptation, air-quotes-style, with all the laxity and loophole that implies?) I’ve read somewhere that the film may actually contain a frame story of a woman imagining herself in the position of Catherine in the novel after reading it? Whether this is a cute/clever way to give Fennell a longer leash to play with the source material or more philosophical — TBD. But certainly the Bronte source text is messing with multi-layered narrative, mise en abime, story in story, and so there is a thematic synchrony there. (Perhaps Fennell adding multiple additional layers of narrative inconsistency is Bronte-core?!)

Wuthering Heights-Inspired.

SEA’s latest collection — full of lace trim, capes and hoods, and a slight vampiness — is Wuthering Heights coded in the best way. I am completely obsessed with their lace-embellished jacket (seen below). You can also rent it at Rent the Runway! Fab statement for the season. Check out this puffer jacket! Those poet cuffs!

More great WH-coded find below —

VIOLETTE FR LIP // CINQ A SEPT LACE TRIM SWEATER // INCENSE // DOEN RED DRESS // ZIMMERMANN LACE DRESS // DIOR BOOTS // VELVET HAIR CLIP // SEA EMBROIDERED VELVET FLATS // SEA NAVY VELVET DRESS // SEA NARA JACKET // SEA MITTENS // WUTHERING HEIGHTS BOOK

Magpie December Book Club Pick.

For December, we will be reading Lily King’s Heart the Lover. So many of you are already reading this book, or just finished it — I was bowled over by the volume of you who replied to an Instagram prompt asking “what are we reading? what’s good?” with this book! I’ve never read King but know many of you are enormous fans.

If you want something more seasonal, I’m currently reading Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. Keegan is another Magpie favorite writer! Several of you re-read this particular book of hers every year in December.

What else are you reading? Anything we need to know about?

P.S. All about our bad book girl culture.

P.P.S. Updated Shopbop hearts! I’m also working on some updated Amazon guides: just curated a list of great white elephant / stocking stuffer gifts (all or almost all under $25) and some children’s gifts here.

P.P.P.S. The softest kinds of love and the best book-based movies.

My book, Small Wonders, is now available for pre-order! This is a collection of essays, musings, and list poetry on the art of paying attention, noticing love in its smallest denominations, and finding the miraculous in the mundane.  It is an extension of the writing here on the blog, and is organized around the themes we often discuss here: the dance of motherhood, inheritances and intimacies, the natural world, and the wide world of language. I am so proud of it and hope you will find it a worthy companion for your legato-style mornings.

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