Wuthering Heights

There must definitely be something bout the classics so fondly mentioned by all the ardent readers I have encountered till date.So i thought why not give it a try.Anyways the  books in my house outnumber the furniture items at any given point.Classics would i suppose just add to the beauty.

So i picked the one i thought would be a love story written in english simple enough for me to understand before i go drowning into serious classics.Wuthering Heights - the name itself creates suspense about the contents. As queer the name so is the story. I am an ardent fan of dashing  heroes who have a dark emotional side and looked at Heathclif (the hero of this book) with exactly the same viewpoint when he was 1st introduced. But i was so completely wrong. This book goes far far away from the usual love filled romance stories .Instead it binds a tale of characters with destructive self pride and revenge. It has a love story hidden somewhere in its midst that just raises all the passion when the lovers part. And even though the ending is happy its comes out of mere adjustments than of anyone braving the world to conquer all .. .conquer love..

The haughty and saucy Catherine Earnshaw described like someone with more guts than most guys .. I doubt if she would give up her love cause he doesnt match her standings in the society .. That just doesn't go downwell  with me. Or possibly the fact that i dont come from a society where i believe in such deeply rooted class distinction. That reason just make any sense to me.

Some scenes though are heart wrenching.
like when : catherine is about to die and Heathclif for the 1st time lets his feelings show rather heard.
The scene could bring tears to your eyes.
’May she wake in torment!’ he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. ‘Why, she’s a liar to the end! Where is she? Not THERE - not in heaven - not perished - where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!’



Dont ask me why but i love this scene.. Its when Catherine who is catherines daughter(earlier catherine's) decides to be friends with her cousin Haereton.
"She returned to the hearth, and frankly extended her hand. He blackened and scowled like a thunder-cloud, and kept his fists resolutely clenched, and his gaze fixed on the ground. Catherine, by instinct, must have divined it was obdurate perversity, and not dislike, that prompted this dogged conduct; for, after remaining an instant undecided, she stooped and impressed on his cheek a gentle kiss. The little rogue thought I had not seen her, and, drawing back, she took her former station by the window, quite demurely. I shook my head reprovingly, and then she blushed and whispered - ‘Well! what should I have done, Ellen? He wouldn’t shake hands, and he wouldn’t look: I must show him some way that I like him - that I want to be friends.’
Whether the kiss convinced Hareton, I cannot tell: he was very careful, for some minutes, that his face should not be seen, and when he did raise it, he was sadly puzzled where to turn his eyes."



this book is selfish cruel smeared with ego and pride woven with characters who do not have impeccable caracters ..but alas this book is HUMAN.

FootNote: Thats the pic of my copy of my very 1st classic read.