Wuthering Heights

This classic novel was written by Emily Bronte from the Bronte sisters. It has been quite long in my wish list. I have read many reviews about it and most of them said that it is not an easy novel to read. Even when it was first published in 1847 there were many mixed reviews about it. The pros and cons are still on up till now.

Wuthering Heights is a farmhouse name in Yorkshare, England. Wuthering is also a Yorkshare word for 'turbulents weather'. The story itself tells about love story between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.

This is not a common love story. There are no 'bed and roses' here. On the other hand almost all characters appear here are a strange group of people. Therefore certain readers feel shocked, disgusted and almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity and the most diabolical hate and vengeance that spread almost on every page of the novel.

After reading the author's background I found out why she could tell a very dark story vividly. It seems that some of the stories were based on her true life story. She faced hard time since she was just a little girl. Her mom was passed away when she was only 3 years old. Her 2 sisters were sent to school and got abused there while the author never got a formal education and enough attention. Perhaps that one of the reason why she was very sensitive, shy and introvert. She expressed her secret thoughts of her tortured soul in this Wuthering Heights, her only novel. Just like her other sisters, the author also died young at the age of 30 due to health condition.

Although it received mixed reviews but this novel has brought Emily Bronte as one of the respected authors in the England literature. The novel also had been adapted into films, radio, ballet, opera and a song by Kate Bush.

This novel has been translated by PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama on April 2011 with very good translation by Lulu Wijaya , but just now I also found that Penerbit Qanita also has translated this novel with a more eye- catching cover (they used the Wuthering Heights movie cover).

I have finished the novel since couple weeks a go but I am still very much haunted by it. Imagining how the author wrote this very dark story really made me scary but I also felt sympathy for her and her life. Moreover I consider the author as a genius since not every author can write a dark novel with gloomy atmosphere like this one. And I am always sure every book will give us something to learn. One thing I note from this novel is how to raise your child. Love, affection and surrounding are the ultimate aspects in bringing up the children. Definitely a worth to read novel.