{"id":160,"date":"2015-01-21T19:46:17","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T18:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=160"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:02:18","slug":"sturmhoehe-emily-bronte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2015\/01\/wuthering-heights-emily-bronte\/","title":{"rendered":"Wuthering Heights \u2022 Emily Bront\u00eb"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

This book immediately caught my attention from its short description and was a spontaneous purchase (which for me means that less than a week passes between discovering a book and buying it). I\u2019ve found the theme of revenge fascinating ever since reading The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>, and mixed with a love story, it seemed very promising.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The central figure of the novel is Heathcliff, a foundling taken in by Mr. Earnshaw in London and raised together with his children. Between Catherine, Mr. Earnshaw\u2019s daughter, and Heathcliff, a deep affection develops. However, Heathcliff ends up being deeply disappointed, and he takes revenge on two families.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What is remarkable about this novel is the close connection between the stormy, harsh nature and weather of the Yorkshire moors and the characters in the story. Heathcliff\u2019s and Cathy\u2019s love for the wind-swept hill of Wuthering Heights<\/em>, as well as the essence of their characters, reflect this wild, primal, untamed force of nature. Bront\u00eb paints a bleak and barren picture of a life marked by long winters and a constant twilight mood that gives the entire story a very dark tone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What lends the story such a melancholy atmosphere is not nature alone but the way the protagonists treat each other. The brother of the Earnshaw family treats Heathcliff with extreme cruelty, and this behavior is mirrored later on in how Heathcliff treats all the other characters. The ruthlessness with which all of them\u2014especially Cathy\u2014pursue their own goals is shocking. The instability of everyone involved is palpable, giving the novel a sense of restlessness and creating, in a peculiar way, a distance from their otherwise partly understandable actions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What I find particularly fascinating is that the story allows for many interpretations. One could speak of absolute evil, of the devil, of the selfishness of love, of egocentrism. There is certainly some truth in that, but it would only be one facet of this story. Equally, one could assume a developmental psychological origin and hold Heathcliff\u2019s past or his social environment responsible for shaping his character. The primal, almost \u201canimalistic\u201d side of human nature also becomes clearly visible here. However one looks at it, the story leaves much room for reflection on the individual characters. At least I caught myself still thinking about the protagonists weeks after finishing the book.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

From a linguistic standpoint, I found the novel very pleasant to read. It doesn\u2019t feel like holding a classic in your hands, and the two narrative levels (the first-person perspectives of Lockwood and Ellen Dean, the housekeeper) create an intimacy that allows a very personal view of the events, yet still maintains a certain distance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion<\/strong>: I won\u2019t forget this story anytime soon, as its dark atmosphere had a strong effect on me. Together with the authentic depiction of the nature surrounding Wuthering Heights<\/em> and the people who are part of that nature, it created a vivid image. At the same time, each reading left me in a rather melancholic mood. Stylistically, I also enjoy long and complex sentences, as masterfully written by Dumas, Tolstoy, or Flaubert. Therefore, I give this book four out of five stars\u2014a personal preference that shouldn\u2019t diminish the value of this outstanding work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> Wuthering Heights<\/em> \u2022 Emily Bront\u00eb \u2022 dtv \u2022 464 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783423123488<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book immediately caught my attention from its short description and was a spontaneous purchase (which for me means that less than a week passes between discovering a book and buying it). I\u2019ve found the theme of revenge fascinating ever since reading The Count of Monte Cristo, and mixed with a love story, it seemed … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Wuthering Heights \u2022 Emily Bront\u00eb”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Sturmh\u00f6he \u2022 Emily Bront\u00eb - lesestunden","description":"Dieses Buch hat mich von seiner kurzen Inhaltsbeschreibung sofort angesprochen und war ein Spontankauf (das hei\u00dft bei mir zwischen Entdecken eines Buches u"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,20],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-reviews","tag-emily-bronte"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/bronte_sturmhoehe.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}