Wuthering Heights Wednesday is all about the Wuthering Heights Read-along hosted by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts with each week we will read three chapters from the classic novel and then post our thoughts on, you guessed it –Wednesday!
Chapters 1-3 Synopsis:
In the first three chapters we are introduced to Heathcliff, master of Wuthering Heights with three very strange, unhappy occupants, his daughter-in-law Mrs. Heathcliff, Hareton Earnshaw, and several servants. Heathcliff has a “I hate the world, it is out to get me” attitude which spreads like the plague around the household. But the narrator of this novel is Mr. Lockwood,the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange who pays an unwanted call to his new landlord Mr. Heathcliff with a return visit to supper the following evening. After traveling through a horrid storm he is forced to stay the night and is accommodated in a spare bedroom that looks as if it has not been occupied in years. In this room, he finds several books that have been converted into diaries written by a girl named Cathrine and along the sill is scratched variations of Cathrine Earnshaw/Linton/Heathcliff. Mr. Lockwood falls asleep while reading these diaries to be awoken by horrid nightmares and an agitated Heathcliff questioning what he is doing in this particular room.
My Thoughts:
The first three chapters of this book are very eerie and full of questioning, with only slight mentions of others in the household {or so we think}with the real focus being on tenant and landlord. I’ve always had difficulty starting this book until we get to Heathcliff’s strange ghost story of a past, I’m not really sure why especially when these first few chapters playing crucial to the ending of this forbidden love story of sorts. I had totally forgotten that Mr. Lockwood is the narrator of this Gothic novel (for some reason I thought it was Zillah, the housekeeper) Anyway, it will be interesting to see how my memory serves me correctly while rereading Wuthering Heights as I haven’t read it in several years.
I can see why you thought it was Zillah…she picks up the story in the next few chapters.
Cool, I thought maybe I was losing it! I'm really enjoying this read-along.
Wuthering Heights is a wonderful book but not one that I can stomach to repeat on a regular basis. Have fun, it must be wonderful to read it as a group, that's how I read it the first time!
It's interesting to see so many opinions on this book. I have read it years ago and loved it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
yet another one on my to read list for this year. i want to watch the recent masterpiece theatre version too. i like kate bush's song version.
Oh the beginning is SO good. With the ghost! Love it!