This agreement was a mistake on my part. I remember reading it in high school, as I'm sure many of you did, and loving the book unconditionally. I should know better than to ruin good memories with adult reality.
I read Gone With the Wind in high school and HATED it. Got to about page 900 and skipped to the last chapter to see how it ended (I never skip to the end. Ever). I hated Scarlett that much. I refuse to read it as an adult.
How on earth could I have had any fond emotions for Heathcliff or Cathy?!? I can't even tell you how tempting it was to skip to the end of the book a little more than half way through. But I had to know if there were any redeeming characters in this novel. At all. Because the first half? Makes today's dysfuntional families look like Family Circus.
The book only got better the last tenth of it. I say tenth because I read it on the Kindle and have no clue about pages. And by better I mean that a lot of people died. Good riddance. And that the two people we're supposed to view as innocents who were never given a chance finally get their chance. Crap. The whole thing is crap.
That's about all the review you're going to get. A friend on FaceCrack said she read a book wherein the entire Wuthering Heights group goes into therapy. Would never happen. They were all too self-centered. None of them were interested in having anything to do with the outside world. None of them, Heathcliff especially, would have agreed to counseling. I guess it reminds me way too much of a life I left. Exponentially magnified. By a gazillion.
Only read this, as an adult, if you are feeling particularly blue and want to feel better, and if reading about people far more miserable than you makes you feel better.
Until I write again ...
Flea
13 comments:
You make me laugh! I love how honest you are with your review. It has long been my contention that many of the "Classics" are just plain boring!
So, I've dodged that bullet my whole life? YAY for me.
Read Jane Eyre once though. And that was more than enough. Talk about moronic and dysfunctional! I didn't like ol' disrag Jane, and blah blah blah...not a book I'd EVER recommend anyone read, unless, of course, they desperately needed to defeat insomnia.
Recently retried The Scarlet Letter (was entranced by it in HS) and discovered that OH MY NO! not going there. Yawn fest (and that was skipping every other paragraph in the first 10 pages.)
Thanks for ensuring that I continue to dodge this bullet.
Yes, most "classic" English lit is BORING. I promise I tried to read WH but couldn't find a reason to continue. Congrats on slogging all the way through.
Funniest review ever. I consider it one of my top books, but I'm basing that on a very outdated read... Hmmm, may have to see what adult me thinks of it.
I couldn't stand Cathy way back when...now that I'm low on estrogen, I'd probably have stronger feelings of dislike. The end.
i have been trying to read the scarlet letter... I SWEAR this is NOT the same book I read in 11th grade... good lord BORING and that 100 page intro... gah... I am so sad that it is NOTHING like i remember. sigh... no wuthering heights for me then... thanks for the review I was thinking it was just me.
Never read it, and I'll assure you that I read everything I was ever assigned in high school (hopeless nerd). I even read literary criticism, to quote for papers. Once or twice I read criticism of the literary critics. (The WII hadn't been invented yet). The worst experience I ever had with a book was definitely "The Bear" by William Faulkner. He was clearly smoking something illegal when he wrote chapter 4. I'm also convinced that it is assigned to poor, unsuspecting students merely for the sake of torture. Tertiary literary critics are better.
If you want to torture yourself, put that on your list.
How Faulkner became a bonafide author, I'll never know. I was forced to read his stuff in college by a professor who ADORED him. Blech.
As for the rest, my little podunk high school wasn't big on literature which I've always felt was a disadvantage. From what y'all are saying, I was probably better off. :)
:-) Tell me how you really feel, Flea!
:-)
I will agree with you on adult reality interfering with childhood memory. I feel that way about quite a few movies...
Pearl
I hated this book too and never understood all the fuss about it. I have however visited the Bronte home in a beautiful part of England and that was wonderful.
Now get yourself over to mine and pick a gown!!
I'm with you! Cathy and Heathcliff annoyed the heck outta me!
I just burst out laughing while reading this. Ha you put it well.
I remember reading this as a freshman in high school and liking it although I thought Heathcliff was quite creepy and the whole setting with the moors and all quite dreary and gray. It would be interesting, though, to revisit it as an adult and see what I think as I can't remember a lot of it now.
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