In this new edition of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, re-read the classic love story that has haunted and inspired nearly who’ve come across it. From the burning love between Catherine and Heathcliff, to the estranged family dynamics at Wuthering Heights, Bronte’s novel explores the dangers of a love that remains forever unrequited. Lockwood, a striking young man from the south of England, is only looking for some respite when he decides to rent a mysterious property in Yorkshire. The landlord, a crotchety old man named Heathcliff, tends to Lockwood as he becomes acquainted with the expansive and haunting property. When inclement weather strikes, Lockwood is forced to stay in the manner at Wuthering Heights, the home of Heathcliff himself. When Lockwood suddenly falls ill, Nelly, the housekeeper tends to him, and spills all the dirty secrets that have been concealed there over the years. Learning about the turbulent relationship between Heathcliff and his deceased lover Catherine Earnshaw, Lockwood struggles to piece together what truly happened on the property at Wuthering Heights. The stories concealed within Wuthering Heights have been hailed as completely original in the legacy of Victorian era literature. Emily Bronte created new narrative structures, such as the frame narrative, which had not been seen before. This avant-garde writing style has been celebrated for decades. Wuthering Heights is a love story that will both terrify and enthrall the most daring of readers.Professionally type-set, and including a new section about the author herself, Wuthering Heights is just as riveting today as it was when it was originally published in 1847.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS is Emily Brontë’s only novel. Written between October 1845 and June 1846, Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 under the pseudonym “Ellis Bell”; Brontë died the following year, aged 30. Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel, Jane Eyre. After Emily’s death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights, and arranged for the edited version to be published as a posthumous second edition in 1850. Although Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as a classic of English literature, contemporary reviews for the novel were deeply polarised; it was considered controversial because its depiction of mental and physical cruelty was unusually stark, and it challenged strict Victorian ideals of the day, including religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality. The English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti referred to it as “A fiend of a book – an incredible monster […] The action is laid in hell, – only it seems places and people have English names there.” In the second half of the 19th century, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was considered the best of the Brontë sisters’ works, but following later re-evaluation, critics began to argue that Wuthering Heights was superior. The book has inspired adaptations, including film, radio and television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, a ballet, operas (by Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and Frédéric Chaslin), a role-playing game, and a 1978 song by Kate Bush.