I don't get the hype. Nope, I don't. Reading this book dealing with the very extremes of people's crazy personalities was not fun for me. Super effeminate fops, incredibly evil scoundrels, whiny spoiled women, nosey servants; it was too much. Honestly, I felt like I was reading an 1800's version of The O.C., One Tree Hill, 90210. I don't enjoy nighttime soaps that deal with plotting, conniving, lying ridiculous people who all date each other. This book was like that. Cousins marrying cousins. Yee haw. I guess it was ok back then to marry your first cousin? Eww.
Several times I slammed the book down and would yell "I don't CARE about any of these characters!!" David would laugh and say he knew someone else who said the same thing about the book. I didn't care about Heathcliff. I cared even less about the first Catherine. There was nothing redeeming about them to make me want to like them. Some reviewers say they are two people sharing a soul; he the evil, she the good. But she was a spoiled brat. There was nothing angelic about her. She hurt her husband with her love for Heathcliff. She was selfish.
Heathcliff's son Linton was even worse. An exaggeration of a femme male. He was spineless. All the characters were ridiculous and vapid. The only time I felt I knew an inkling about what made evil Heathcliff tick was when he gave his speech to Nelly right at the end. That's it. The rest was told through the servant Nelly's eyes. She can't have insight into these people, therefore she can't tell me why they act as they do. I want a book to make me care, and in the end, I didn't care.
2 comments:
Man, i hate that book. Whiners.
I read that book in high school. And over 10 years later, I still remember hating it, and wondering what all the hype was about. Like you, I didn't care for any of the characters. I didn't care where they were going, and I didn't care about their character development. WHY is that book a classic again? I share you EXACT same opinion on it.
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