I am currently reading Wuthering Heights and I have to say I am finding it very difficult to read. It is slightly boring and all of the characters (with perhaps the exception of Nelly Dean) are instantly hate-able. I was expecting more of a romance novel from the way people describe it, but instead is a very dark and intense story about two families with terrible, horrible lives. Perhaps if I was expecting to hate all of the characters and not care if they were happy or not I would like it better. So far I am only halfway through, but have not liked an instant of it. Heathcliff is vile and abusive. Catherine is mean and psychotic. I just donât get it. Maybe you have to be in a very bad mood to like the book.
I also really hate the character of Joseph whose words are borderline indecipherable. The Oxford Edition I am reading is littered with little endnotes which are also VERY annoying to read, but I canât give up the urge to read what it is going to say in the back. Sometimes it turns out Bronte has lots of references to other books in her writing and quotes them almost verbatim. Whee. What fun. And sometimes words donât meant what you think they mean. Great. But most of all you need the stupid endnotes to decipher what that annoying Joseph is saying!!! How irritating!
I do however see how the novel The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is very similar in some ways to this book and I am beginning to see parallels with other books I have enjoyed. I just donât get why this novel is a classic though. I hope I will eat my words when I am done reading it, but I sincerely doubt it.