E-Paper
Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Read it at your own risk. For all notions of innocent love that you entertain will get blown away in the gale of raw emotion that this book is about.The book is all about mood and atmostphere and that dark, brooding lover called Heathcliff.
Dark books seem to hold a strange fascination for a lot of people. While sunny tales set in bright fields corner most of the attention, it is books about the darkness of the human soul that seem the most memorable. A case in point is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
What sets it apart from previous books, and to an extent later books in the series is that the author isn’t trying to protect the reader any longer.
But long before Potter, Emily Bronte, an otherwise shy 19th century woman, wrote a book that remains one of my favourite reads, besides being one of the darkest books I have ever read. The best bit is that Wuthering Heights is a love story. Without giving anything away about the story, one can mention that the main character in the novel is Heathcliffe.
When I first picked up the book, I thought about the cartoon cat who goes by the same name. One page later, I had been disabused of this notion and Heathcliffe, for now and ever, will always be the dark brooding character consumed by love so passionate that even the Gods seem to turn away.
Atmosphere and mood are dangerous words. They can get you into a lot of trouble, especially when taken out of context. But, this book is all about atmosphere and mood.
In fact, while some may complain that bad weather is too clichéd a method of creating the correct atmosphere, this story would fall apart without the storms that rip through the pages. And that’s discounting the storm of emotions that rip asunder the lives of the people in this book.
Read it at your own risk. For all notions of innocent love that you entertain will get blown away in the gale of raw emotion that this book is about.
