Wuthering Heights Reading Group

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I'm way behind too. Only a few chapters into Vol 2! I'll have some time coming up soon.

.... just a normal bloke ....

Great Pictures! I feel inspired to draw Heathcliff but I struggle putting expression into the faces I draw.

I've finished WH but I'm still here; feel free to post any new thoughts or reflections as they arise!

I'm going to have to read the whole thing again. That'll be the nth time for Part I and second time for Part II. I'm afraid of losing the WH that I thought I knew. But now that you mention it, I did always think that it was terribly odd for her to put the guest to bed in the haunted room, in the haunted bed. And when Nell did not stop young Heathcliff from leaving as young Catherine spoke of him - to this moment I want to crawl into the book and haul him back.

And then Part II - I've fairly made up my mind that Charlotte wrote it. Which is why I have to read it again <cringe>. But after reading what you've said, obviously I have to go back.

Even then - my doc is helping withdraw from Xanax - so slowly! carefully! - that I've gone totally bat-brained and maybe I should give WH a rest. (I found my diabetes glucose meter in the freezer!)

I've only just finished this very moment, but am eager for discussion!

I am still miles behind!!

I hope Red comes back soon. I bet he has ideas which will stoke the discussion......like Claradoon does.

And like quite a few others here, too.

I see the potential for a great amount of dynamism here!

I'm stumbling over the impossibility of comparing Part I and Part II on Kindle! No no no - I need 2 real books to flip pages, to find passages by communing with another world, to develop relationships between my all-knowing thumbs and the secretive books.

Could somebody please refresh my memory exact where Part II starts? My logic insists it must be where guest/tenant (names! ) finds himself better. That would a place to look for a pattern, especially if I was Charlotte.

I would say that Parts I and II don't match for perception of evil. They seem like different worlds. And Heathcliff's face doesn't match, at all, at all. Surely there's a vestige of the younger face as one ages?

Here's something that bothers me a lot: the effect of love on Heathcliff. In part I it makes him at least tolerable. When he knows he is dying and will be reunited with Catherine, this effect of love is hideous. Are we to accept that as evidence that the devil has taken his soul? I don't think so. Heathcliff has difficulty with love but it shouldn't make him even more hideous.

I'll respond asap Claradoon.
I bought yet another copy of WH today (slap me now), and it's a second edition in one volume (Harper Collins, London).

Volume II begins at Chapter 15 "Another week over", as Catherine and Heathcliff meet on her deathbed.

I am not finished yet but have read quite a few chapters of the 2nd volume. I don't think they are a different writer. I think Emily is extending the theme of nature vs nurture and the characters of the younger Catherine and younger Linton reflect both their upbringing or surroundings and their parentage. I think the writer is analytical of people to a extreme degree. She sees great complexity and paradox in the human condition, but does not soften that with redemption as did Charlotte. Just my humble observations.

Love the discussion as it gets me thinking more as I read.

Don't forget that Charlotte made several revisions to the second edition (the story as published in one volume), following Emily's death. She combined Emily's short paragraphs into longer passages, removed many exclamations, softened Joseph's dialect and made typographical changes that change the tone of entire passages. I'll forward the examples that I've noticed.

Charlotte's editorial 'flair' is indeed apparent in the one volume edition.

Fnished tis afternoon. Will follow up soon with my thoughts, just digesting the last few chapters. I cannot, in my wildest imaginings, comprehend why anyone would see this as a love story. Obsession is not love. I guess Hollywood and popular songs tell us differently. I want to do some drawings of Heathcliff, and inspired to do other artwork too. What a gripping and absorbing story!