"Read Jane Eyre, But Burn Wuthering Heights" Is Right

“We rise from the perusal of Wuthering Heights as if we had come fresh from a pest-house. Read Jane Eyre is our advice, but burn Wuthering Heights….”–Patterson’s Magazine, March, 1848

Now, this quote from Patterson's Magazine review of Wuthering Heights from March of 1848, only a few months after the book was published, may seem a bit harsh. Especially when you consider that they're comparing Emily Bronte's work to her sisters (although at the time the world would have thought of them as brothers). And, honestly, I really (really) super hated Jane Eyre, so when I heard this quote it frightened me a bit. If this reviewer liked Jane Eyre but didn't like Wuthering Heights... but I didn't even like Jane Eyre so where would that leave me with something potentially worse?

I did have a brief moment of hope, however. A thought, that maybe Jane Eyre didn't age well, maybe it was well liked back then but it made sense that I didn't like it now. And therefore, I would like Wuthering Heights, because it had somehow gotten better with age. But that hope was squashed very quickly.

Wuthering Heights is NOT What I Thought It'd Be

There was only one thing I knew about Wuthering Heights before reading it. It was that the main character was Kathy Earnshaw and her love interest Heathcliff.

But that was wrong...

So I had a lot of expectations going into Wuthering Heights. I thought that Kathy Earnshaw would be the narrator, that she would just be in the story more, and that the ending would be more like a classic romance novel (more like Jane Eyre I guess). I've heard so much about Heathcliff, about him being romantic. I was expecting him to be like Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, a little standoff-ish and cold at first but nicer by the end. But nah- he's just an absolute asshole with literally ZERO redeeming qualities.

Really most of the book is just the reprocutions of Kathy and Heathcliff not getting together. And I wish I could resurrect Emily Bronte to ask her if that was the purpose- or just what WAS the purpose? Why have such a tortured set of characters? Is it supposed to be a love story? Is Heathcliff supposed to be the love interest that I think people have made him out to be?

And most importantly I want to ask her: what the hell was with the narrative voice? If you are unaware, the novel is told in first person by this guy. Is he really important to the story? No, not at all. He also is new to the area and is being told everything that has happened at the Earnshaw's house by a maid (named Nellie), so for most of the book is the narrator recounting what Nellie is recounting to him. Now, Nellie doesn't know everything and sometimes gets her information from other people too. So at one point I think the narration is of a person telling another person about a letter that someone else had written to the first person, and the second person was telling Nellie, and then Nellie was telling the narrator? If that sounds confusing that's because it is.

I do love authors trying out new narrations and ways of telling stories, and I do think it was interesting for Emily Bronte to try this new thing but I really don't think it works well for the story she was telling. Especially because our narrator is so removed from the story originally and doesn't really play into anything until the end where I think he falls in love with Kathy Jr.? (Although I could've gotten that wrong... it was a really complicated narration). I think, at least, Nellie could've just been the narrator, or a character that would just do something?

In conclusion, the Bronte's they could write, they could definately write. And good for them becuase they wrote... But I'm seriously concerned for their well-being (or... you know, their well-being when they were alive? cause now they're not... being) because they write some of the worst love stories, some of the most awful men characters for their heroines to fall in love with. And so I just want to ask... are the Bronte's okay?

(They liked Lord Byron so the answer is probably no, they are not okay).