book stuff

[amelia_petkova]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through reading Wuthering Heights for the first time. My main reactions:

--Ellen Dean fits the trope of Only Sane Man (in this case, Woman). I have no clue how she managed to put up with the other main characters for so long.

--I would never admire Cathy and Heathcliff as a romantic couple. They're horrible people and I want to punch them (along with most of the main cast).


--Cathy dies halfway through the book? Seriously? I'll admit, I got to that point and said, "So what the hell is supposed to happen for another couple hundred pages? It's like when Anna Karenina dies and there are several more chapters on the rest of the cast. Except that, you know, WH goes on for much longer.

Comments

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* Heathcliff is a complete git. Although, have you read the Eyre Affair and followups by Jasper Fforde? Because he does wonderful and amusing things with Heathcliff and Cathy :D

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I read the first three or four books in the series and I remember a scene where Thursday interacted with Wuthering Heights's characters, but I couldn't really appreciate it at the time. I'll have to re-read!

Yes, so at this point I'm saying to Heathcliff, "Your 'One True Love' is dead and you still have nothing better to do than destroy the lives of everyone around you? Really?"

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I don't understand who think Heathcliff is more romantic than Rochester. I adore Rochester, because above all things, he is a good man, whereas Heathcliff doesn't have a single redeeming feature.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

Do you know the fantasy author Robin McKinley? By lovely coincidence, she wrote about Jane Eyre (http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2010/12/19/jane-eyre/) with a side mention of Wuthering Heights today in her blog. I have some issues with Rochester telling Jane after the interrupted wedding, "My wife's insane so it's like she's dead or divorced and you can marry me! I swear, it's totally legit!" but aside from that he beats Heathcliff, hands-down.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I think that's definitely his one big failing, yis, but it is very much trumped by the fact he raises a child who probably isn't his, and protects, shelters and looks after a woman who he has no reason to. As he said himself, he could have set up home in a place where the climate would have killed her, but he didn't. Poor old Ed.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I do love the fact that much of his and Jane's relationship is affectionately snarking at one another.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* It's definitely far from the most unconventional relationship in any of the other classic 'romances' of the period ;) I especially love the snark over her trip to visit her aunt and the subject of payment :)

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I have held similar feelings about other works by the Brontes. I'm told it's just cultural, but I cannot muster respect for most of the people. Even the ones who aren't actively hurting others are utterly failing to be decent people.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I mostly like Jane Eyre. I'm glad that I read Wuthering Heights but it's not a book that I'd read over and over again. I think that one of my problems is I have trouble finding the characters sympathetic--I don't have to want to be best friends with all the characters in the novels I read but I do need to find something about them that I can empathize with, and I don't have that in this book.