Susan, do you know what? I have that map in my shopping cart right now & I've been on the fence about buying it. I think I may *instead* ask for it for my birthday!! SO...I'll have to put it on my Wish List! ✨
Since you've finished...overall impression? Love it. Hate it?
Yeah, overall I liked it. But not for the reasons I thought I would. I went in thinking it'd be more gothic. I can see how it would improve with each reading though. Somehow I was left a little frustrated that I didn't know Heathcliff as well as I'd have liked. He's such a central part of the story that I wanted more time on the page with him.
In either my next summary, or maybe it's the final summary, I mention this...I'm so often thinking, "Where is Heathcliff?" My attention is monopolized--I'm wondering what he's doing while all the other characters (esp. in the second half of the novel) are bickering or moralizing or reading (or, learning to read)...
So, yeah, I agree. I would like more time with him, too. Yet, I also respect the fact that Brontë didn't over-saturate the novel with him--or else, I suppose he would not be such an interesting character.
Also...I only recently began to wonder, what *is* the attraction to Catherine?
I wish Brontë had provided us with more intimate scenes of young Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, scenes which would clarify to us (the readers) why this girl manipulates both Edgar and Heathcliff. How could Edgar watch her assault Nelly and then, he proposed marriage the same evening? It isn't as if there are no other females within 'marrying distance'--if Hindley went off to college and met Frances, certainly Edgar had options?!
I think this is actually why I feel as if Heathcliff is the victim. He was swiped off the streets of Liverpool, dropped into an unfamiliar setting, with an unwelcoming mother-figure and two unstable kids and raised by Nelly--who was a child, herself.
I think it's why (before I label Heathcliff the villain), I, too, would like to spend more time on the page with him. Maybe it's why I read it over-and-over-and-over again!
Hey 👋🏻 I've finished the book! Also, saw this and thought of you https://www.instagram.com/p/DJV4hIZsRNQ
Susan, do you know what? I have that map in my shopping cart right now & I've been on the fence about buying it. I think I may *instead* ask for it for my birthday!! SO...I'll have to put it on my Wish List! ✨
Since you've finished...overall impression? Love it. Hate it?
It's a sign!
Yeah, overall I liked it. But not for the reasons I thought I would. I went in thinking it'd be more gothic. I can see how it would improve with each reading though. Somehow I was left a little frustrated that I didn't know Heathcliff as well as I'd have liked. He's such a central part of the story that I wanted more time on the page with him.
In either my next summary, or maybe it's the final summary, I mention this...I'm so often thinking, "Where is Heathcliff?" My attention is monopolized--I'm wondering what he's doing while all the other characters (esp. in the second half of the novel) are bickering or moralizing or reading (or, learning to read)...
So, yeah, I agree. I would like more time with him, too. Yet, I also respect the fact that Brontë didn't over-saturate the novel with him--or else, I suppose he would not be such an interesting character.
Also...I only recently began to wonder, what *is* the attraction to Catherine?
I wish Brontë had provided us with more intimate scenes of young Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, scenes which would clarify to us (the readers) why this girl manipulates both Edgar and Heathcliff. How could Edgar watch her assault Nelly and then, he proposed marriage the same evening? It isn't as if there are no other females within 'marrying distance'--if Hindley went off to college and met Frances, certainly Edgar had options?!
I think this is actually why I feel as if Heathcliff is the victim. He was swiped off the streets of Liverpool, dropped into an unfamiliar setting, with an unwelcoming mother-figure and two unstable kids and raised by Nelly--who was a child, herself.
I think it's why (before I label Heathcliff the villain), I, too, would like to spend more time on the page with him. Maybe it's why I read it over-and-over-and-over again!
💯 this!