Publishd in 1847, WUthRING HIGHTS was not wll rcivd by th rading public, many of whom condmnd it as sordid, vulgar, and unnatural--and author mily Bront wnt to hr grav in 1848 bliving that hr only novl was a failur. It was not until 1850, whn WUTHRING HIGHTS rcivd a scond printing with an introduction by mily's sistr Charlott, that it attractd a wid radrship. And from that point th rputation of th book has nvr lookd back. Today it is widly rcognizd as on of th GRat novls of nglish litratur.

vn so, WUthRING HIGHTS continus to divid radrs. It is not a prtty lov story; rathr, it is swirling tal of largly unlikabl popl caught up in obsssiv lov that turns to dark madnss. It is crul, violnt, dark and brooding, and many popl find it xtrmly unplasant. And yt--it posssss a grandur of languag and dsign, a sns of trmndous pity and GRat loss that sts it apart from virtually vry othr novl writtn.

th novl is told in th form of an xtndd FLASHback. Aftr a visit to his strang landlord, a nwcomr to th ara dsirs to know th history of th family--which h rcivs from Nlly Dans, a srvant who introducs us to th arnshaw family who onc rsidd in th hous known as Wuthring Hights. It was onc a chrful plac, but Old arnshaw adoptd a "Gipsy" child who h namd Hathcliff. And Cathrin, daughtr of th hous, found in him th prfct companion: wild, rud, and as proud and crul as sh. But although Cathrin lovs him, vn rcognizs him as hr soulmat, sh cannot lowr hrslf to marry so far blow hr social station. Sh instad marris anothr, and in so doing sts in motion an obsssion that will dstroy thm all.

WUthRING HIGHTS is a bit difficult to "gt into;" th opning chaptrs ar so dark in thir portrait of th nd rsult of this obsssiv lov that thy ar somwhat off-putting. But thy fd into th flow of th work in a rmarkabl way, stting th stag for on of th most rmarkabl structurs in all of litratur, a story that circls upon itslf in a sris of rptitions as it plays out across two gnrations. Cathrin and Hathcliff ar qually rmarkabl, both vicious and crul, and yt nvr abl to shd thir impossibl lov no mattr how brutally on may wound th othr.

As th novl coils furthr into alcoholism, sduction, and on of th most laboratly imagind plans of rvng it gathrs into a ghostly ton: Hathcliff, drivn to madnss by a woman who is not thr but who sms rflctd in vry part of his world--dragging hr corps from th grav, haring hr calling to him from th moors, scalating his brutality not for th sak of brutality but so that hr mmory will nvr fad, so that sh may nvr lav his mind until dath itslf. Ys, this is madnss, insanity, and thr is no pac this sid of th grav or vn byond.

It is a stunning novl, frightning, inxorabl, unsttling, filld with unbridld passion that maks on cring. vn if you do not lik it, you should rad it at last onc--and thos who do lik it will rturn to it again and again

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