(Reading Vlog) 📚 I read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 🌿 And I Can't Stop Thinking About It 😱
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ค. 2024
- (Reading Vlog) 📚 I read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 🌿 And I Can't Stop Thinking About It 😱
This novel is often called one of the best classic novels of all times. However, it is also very polarizing. Some people seem to absolutely love it and others seem to hate it. What about you? What do you think of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte?
00:00 Intro
05:30 Reading at a park
10:50 Pigeons living on my balcony
16:25 Thoughts on the book
33:15 SPOILERS and emotions galore
50:54 Finished the book
51:51 Final thoughts and book review
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#wutheringheights #heathcliff #englishclassics #victorianclassics #readingvibes - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
How do you like Wuthering Heights if you read it? 😊📚 What are you reading currently? 💐
All I can say is that I am really glad that you are back looking safe and well and not reading at the moment
I really love the book, because I think its one of the best books about toxic relationships
and also I Love the Atmosphere. When I read it years ago, there had been stormy weather outside and that was beautyfull aswell^^
I think I loved hating all those characters 😂 Now I think I finally re-read that book. It will be so interesting, reading it now. Because the first read was, when I*ve been a Teen. So now, with a lot of more life experience^^ I think I will see many things very differently.
When I first read it, I read it as a love story which didn't made sense to me the more I went through the pages. Mind you, I read it when I was a teenager so now as an adult it would be a different experience and perspective. Currently I am reading The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
I enjoyed Wuthering Heights, even though they're all basically haters. What a dysfunctional family! I also liked the gothic element. I'm currently reading Shirley by Charlotte Bronte. I will have read all of the Bronte's books by year's end.
Just finished reading this book for the first time. I’m so happy to find someone who feels so sorry for Hareton when he gets ridiculed about his illiteracy. The scene made my heart wrench. I cried later in the story when they forgive each other and started reading books together. How wonderful to see a hint of love and hope in education and books after all those mistreatment of everything and everybody. The characters in the story are horrible people, but I can’t but love this book. It is so different from what I usually like in stories but it has unforgettable colors (don’t know how because like you mentioned, there are not so much of nature writing) and sentiment to it.
My favourite book of all time. I would call it a “novel about love” but NOT a “love story”. It is primitive, obsessive and destructive; the dark side of human nature, devoid of morality and the civility of society.
Emily is a genius for writing something this “wrong” over one hundred and fifty years ago. If this was written now, it would STILL receive backlash. Imagine what the response was then.
Welcome home! Spoilers ahead!! Wuthering Heights is a very deep and haunting novel. Everything is twisted from the start. The husband coming home with a child of unknown origins, the hatred towards him, Heathcliff's own cold and menacing personality. Abuse is everywhere. The way they treat each other. Hindley towards Heathcliff, and later Hareton. (Why so many names with the letter H? Maybe to hint of incest). Heathcliff abusing Isabella, Edgar and Linton. Later Catherine. I always felt Cathy was a wild child and Heathcliff fed that wildness. She liked it and that is why they became attached. She saw a mirrored self in him. She wanted to be a grand lady and marry Edgar, but for all the wrong reasons. She knew her true self was wandering wildly on the moors. Maybe she still does! I don't think there is a single happy character in this book! But to be fair, the Brontes had little experience with relationships and love interests, so I think they all had overly twisted romantic views of how passionate attachment can be! Also, the characters lived in remote areas where very few people visited, so they didn't have many experiences themselves, like the Brontes, and fell in love with the few they did, which actually was not unusual for those time!
The names all starting with H makes sense since they are all Earnshaw family names. The name of the ancestor who built Wuthering Heights was Hareton Earnshaw and Heathcliff is named after a dead Earnshaw son.
I think Hindley's abuse and jealousy of Heathcliff is instrumental in Heathcliff himself becoming an abuser. The way in which he's treated by Catherine just adds fuel to that already existing fire.
My feelings are that the book is written about revenge. And obsession is how I would describe Catherine #1 and Heathcliff’s relationship, although they mistakenly thought it was a love relationship. I do see your point about the first half of the book being the foundation built for the second half. And because of the story being told to us by Nelly (mostly), we also have her “slant” to every part of the story. So, we are left with a limited view and perhaps if we had more intimate details I could see it as a real love story rather than a story of people who were completely self serving. I think we are also handicapped by not completely being able to trust Nelly’s narrative as being truthful and reliable. I read this last month for the first time in my life (I’m 61) and I enjoyed it very much, but felt all of the same frustrations you did! And it’s a story that compels me to think about still, a month later, when I’m halfway through another book. It was gripping. I disliked every character, with the exception of Isabella, who at least I feel I could in the end respect somewhat, since she got away from Healthcliff and didn’t go back. There are few books that hold my attention like this one did, though. And for that alone, I think it’s a five star! Thanks for your fantastic review. It gives me even more to think about!
I’m glad I saw your video about Wuthering Heights so I won’t make the mistake of reading it-not my kind of book. Mostly I am happy to have seen your lovely park once again and also the pigeon family who has taken up residence on your balcony. Loved that segment most of all.
The Chiltern classics editions are just wonderful!
I love this book!!! I need to go reread it now after your review. Yes, it’s not a healthy view of human nature at all and the obsession is extreme, but I can’t lie, I love it’s gothic theme so much! I loved your video. And the pigeons 😉
I love your emotional investment in this book review. It really drew me in and made me question this book again, which I have loved since I was 15. You make excellent observations on grounds of practicalities and characterisation.
Emily Bronte lost her mother and two eldest sisters at a very young age. She lived in a Parsonage with her father Patrick who was an autodidact from very poor upbringing in Ireland. As a church minister he delivered fiery sermons, but Emily developed into an atheist. I do not feel like the revenge aspect of the Bible and a retributive God is lost on her. The Parsonage was on a hill in Haworth, Yorkshire, backed onto the moors surrounded by high death rates due to TB and cholera re poor sanitation.
Emily famously rejected social interaction outside of the family and preferred her dog, Keeper. She rejected schools and work as a governess and teacher. She was close with her brother Branwell who died very young as an alcoholic and opium addict.
She was also a strong poet, with one of her last poems 'No Coward Soul Is Mine.' I feel like this highlights her world view 'vain are the thousand creeds that fill men's hearts, unutterably vain, worthless as withered weeds.' I think she highlights the folly, fickleness and stupidity of human fallibility in the face of brute nature, which is reflected in the effects of the moors.
Also, I don't feel Heathcliff's name is an accident. He is pure force, constant and withering. But I also feel like her writing was an attempt at finding secular transcendence and escape from the mortal reminders of death all around her. Wuthering Heights is a ghost story, the ghost of love lives on, and shows perhaps love is always a work of fiction projected from our fantasies.
Perhaps love is the best of us, which is left behind, but of course, the reverse is true, that hate marks us too, and love and hate are our projections, in vicious and virtuous cycles. If hate is a lack of love, then perhaps love is a lack of hate? Her male characters were informed mainly by her father and brother, but also the moors were her escape and her main love affair.
She died at the age of 30, never having seen a doctor, but finally she laid down to rest and her last words before she died were, 'I'll see a doctor now.' The reason I mention all this, is that I feel like these facts demonstrate what fed into this young life. She finished the novel I think at 28 (might be wrong), with little or no romantic experience. But I think she did live with the ghosts of love in her lost relationships in her mother, sisters and brother, so this must have bred resentment, resilience and defiance.
In some ways, it feels like an epic poem, and her characters reflect the brutality of nature on the moors - the fight between the wild animal and the tamed civilised human - we all have this choice, and Wuthering Heights enables us to see the hypocrisy of Linton and civility, and we sympathise with the hurt child, but how then can we sympathise with what a hurt child turns into?
I feel like Emily Bronte was holding up a mirror to the human world in context of the immutable laws of nature, perhaps by poetry, caricature and hyperbole, but nonetheless, she shows us how one act of kindness, of a father bringing home an orphan to feed and clothe, could lead to the worst aspects of humanity in the selfish, cruel and vengeful reactive motives that result.
It's hardly an advert for adoption, but I think you're right. The way to read it, is to enjoy the ride, and don't look back for too long.
Thank you very much for all the fascinating insight you've shared. A lot of it was new to me. You make me want to re-read and re-think the novel :)
@@bookishtopics This was one of her last poems written around the time she began to write Wuthering Heights. I feel it informs the novel, but then I'm biased. She has been labelled a mystic, but I feel like she had almost a quantum physicist poet and her other poems point to the seamless fight of molecules dancing at vibrational frequency, as much in us, as in the world around us. I've typed too much on this thread : ) thanks again for reigniting the light of EB and WH for me. It's a book I can't seem to get over. This poem is close to my favourite, and I hear Emily's voice so clearly. Please keep up the good work : )
th-cam.com/video/qM-5B62fqvQ/w-d-xo.html
Hi! I'm glad you're back in Japan! I missed your bookish videos but I understand why you didn't read or upload. Loving your vlog so far. I read Wuthering Heights many years ago and I remember not really liking it. Not because it's not a romance, just the story didn't click with me. I would like to come back to it because of the late autumnal atmosphere and I tried to do that but it bored me? Still waiting for it's time. I believe every book has its time. Just a few days ago I've finished There There by Tommy Orange. I started it two years ago and for some reason couldn't read it and now I felt it's the time and I read it in two days. It wasn't the best book in terms of writing but it was good. And incredibly sad. Reading about lives of modern Native Americans always breaks my heart. The horrible things that were done to them and pain and grief they still live with is unimaginable. It's pain that is engraved in their dna now. That's what I read and now I don't know what to read next, no book seems to catch my intrest. Oh, I guess I can recommend you a read. I think you might like The Break by Katherena Vermette. It's also a very sad book but it's very psychological, about a family and it ends on a warm tone. But emotionaly it's a very hard read. Some things happen there and then there is an aftermath and trauma. But it's a really good book. If I hadn't read War and Peace , The Break would be the best read of 2021 for me :).
Ahhh I saw your books and I knew you were back in Japan 😀
I love Wuthering Heights which boggles my mind because I hate everyone in the book yet still liked the story.
I'm so glad you are postng videos aainn. This was an amazing one. I read Wuthering Heights when I was bery young. I didn't like it theem, but perhaps it's time for a reread
I didn't read wuthering heights but want to one day. I hear it's very dramatic and i like drama in books. I have a feeling in my gut I'll like it.
Pigeon family with eggs is exciting.
It's so nice to see you back! I hope you're well. I was wondering about you a few days ago :)
I'm happy to see you back home! Hope the pigeons are doing well. How exciting to be able to observe them at such close range! I also found myself crying when Hareton was made fun of because he could not read. What a horrible monster her character is. All of them were haters, yet somehow I found myself liking the book. I should HATE it! I almost always annotate the classics using sticky note flags. Red is the color I use to represent violence, cruelty, anger, etc. You can imagine how predominate the color red is throughout the pages of this book! At some point I will reread it. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. Great video, Tanya!
I really enjoyed your reading Vlog! 🥰
I think his obsession is strongly influenced by the treatment he’s received from others versus the way Cathy cared for and understood him. You asked who Heathcliff would be without Cathy. Frankly he would likely be dead or lost on the streets because Hindley would have killed him. Cathy represents not just his Savior but also his only fully understanding relationship. I see this book as less of a book about revenge and more of a cycle of abuse story. There is some vengeance but his other abuses come from a cycle. Anyway, loved hearing your thoughts on this! It’s always fascinating to hear various thoughts on this book in particular 😊
Thanks for that in-depth review (I needed the spoiler part) ❤ I've heard/read so many people who are LOVING this story, and I was never sure if I would enjoy it. But now I know: Holy shit, I would be SO angry and I would not like it! 😅
I am at the 28:00 minute mark of this video and I must say, as a huge fan of the book, I am really enjoying and even agreeing with your criticisms. You are a very observant reader.
I am at 54:46 minute mark and though Heathcliff is one of my favorite fictional characters, I do agree that the second half is written in a more long-winded, descriptive, novelistic style whereas the first half is more like scenes in a play tied together with little pieces of commentary by Nelly. I know what Younger Cathy does on a normal day of her life whereas I didn’t know that about her mother.
I am at the 1:03:32 minute mark. You are right that Heathcliff’s motivation is (almost) entirely his love for Catherine. And we also know nothing about his origins or how he got rich etc. But I disagree that this means that he is lacking a character, because I think that he has a very strong presence on the page with his forceful personality, powerful speeches and sardonic sense of humor. Even in the first chapter where we know nothing about him, his past or Catherine, he makes an impression. He is well-characterized but not in the way a main character in a novel usually is, we don’t know much about his daily life or inner thoughts. He is more like a well-written character in a play. I love his character, but I do get your criticisms.
1:14:46 On Heathcliff’s sanity: Heathcliff is described as having “monomania” by Nelly which was believed to be a mental illness where the subject is sane in every regard except the object of their obsession.
Loved this vlog. Thanks for sharing your experience with this book. I read it a long time ago but it's one of those stories that stays with you for a very long time. I think I can call it one of my absolute favorite classics even though I do agree with some of the things you mentioned. I still love it
It is too bad you did not choose the hard cover with the original illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg. Eichenberg illustrated some of the most well-known classics in the world. Eichenberg was an arts educator who worked primarily in wood engravings. His best-known works were concerned with religion, social justice and non violence. He specialized in material with elements of extreme spiritual and emotional conflict like Withering Heights.
Hiii! I found your channel this morning from your classics comparison video. And you are so relatable and I feel so happy watching your video this morning! And I got excited seeing this video because I LOVED wuthering heights and I have just read it recently. About to watch this one now, can’t wait to see if you’d like/hate it 🤣🤣
I love your thoughts in this. You had some different perspectives than me. It is an infuriating book. I enjoyed it and hated it at the same time as well. I am in the position of not knowing what I think about it.
I have a vague memory about this novel, but I remember that many scenes was so strong and some I love.
Hey glad you are back home 😀. Your cover of Wuthering Heights is gorgeous. I feel it's a toxic love story but I also feel everyone in this story is a little toxic.
Your critique of the novel could also
be a critique of "The Idiot" - idealized
characters and melodramatic situations.
That being said,I think Bronte really does
have something profound to say love
and it is compelling because it's idealized & larger than life.
I read it about a year ago and I rather
liked it.Maybe it's not at the level of
War& Peace or A.K. but it's pretty good
maybe a little too much melodrama
Btw you had mentioned you plan to make a best Hardcover edition (Similar to your best paperback editions) Any plans for that in the near future? 😃
I hate her 》》 should I forgive her》》ok I forgive her 🙃😅👍🏻
You have to read this in the spirit of the author if you cant it won't be worth the time. You cannot analyze this rare snd one of a kind novel. You are overthinking it. You can only enter into it AS IT IS! Anything more than that only confuses and spoils it! It is an experience not just a story. Get your mind out of the picture😊 yes catherine was more wicked than heathcliff and it was Catherine's spirit driving Heathcliff's sense if revenge. You have a problem with the first half of the book because it isnt what you want it to be. You wanted more than what was given.....tsk tsk tsk we cannot do that as readers. Think about it Emily could not connect with others and her pain and the unnatural way she lived as a tortured soul. Her charactors were totured souls and by writing the story in the 3rd person was a slight detachment from the unholy part of everyones behavior . Its like she was showing that it wasnt in her control even though it was. The minute Heathcliff was brought home he was perceived as dark and sinister. Everyones dark side was projected onto Heathcliff. I could go on and on but i must stop. Remember....its just a made up story in someones head....its a pity she isnt here to clear up everyones questions. But she isnt....let it go! Thats my advice
Your conclusions about WH are as sound as the wind whistling through the heather.
What is the book REALLY about? It is not a love story, it is not a revenge story; rather, it is reflection of EB's tenuous grasp on reality and her railing against God and his creation. EB (and her sisters) grew up under the roof of a COE curate, yet none of the children can be considered meek and mild accepting, wallflower Christians.
Emily accepted the world as a cruel, wicked place. In her mind, the Devil is fully in charge.
WH was NOT made up. It is EB's sizing up of the world, as presented on the stage in her head and acted by all the demons and their camp followers living there rent free.
Not for me and definitely not after that caterwauling song by Kate Bush.