Introducing our Book of the Month for October -WUTHERING HEIGHTS by EMILY BRONTE




Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte

The haunting intensity of Catherine Earnshaw's attachment to Heathcliff is the focus of a novel in which relations between men and women are described with an emotional and imaginative power. First published in 1847, Wuthering Heights is set on the bleak Yorkshire moors, where the drama of Catherine and Heathcliff, Heathcliff's cruel revenge against Edgar and Isabella Linton, and the promise of redemption through the next generation is enacted.

Website of the Bronte Parsonage –home of the Brontes

If you find the reference for Top Withens, and follow the link it will take you to the views of the Yorkshire Dales, around the village of Haworth where the Brontes lived. Top Withens is probably the area Emily had in mind when she wrote Wuthering Heights – it’s wild and bleak, and quite beautiful.

Haworth is a small village in West Yorkshire, on the West Pennine Moors and is situated near the industrial city of Bradford. It’s a delightful place to visit, and very much on the tourist trail, for those who love literature. The Parsonage where the sisters lived is open to the public and the pub “The Black Bull” where their brother Branwell did most of his “socialising” is still very much part of the village. I have sat and had a beer or two in that very pub, and have been to the Parsonage a couple of times. Haworth is very quaint with tiny, cobbled streets –hopefully the website will make you feel part of the place…incidentally, Haworth is pronounced as HOWARTH…

Hope you enjoy reading this timeless classic – book opens for discussion on the 27th October

YESSSSS, so excited to participate in this Book club read. Wuthering Heights is my absolute favorite book of all time! Great choice!

For those who may enjoy reading more about the Brontes -this is a fictional look at life in the parsonage : Charlotte and Emily : A Novel of the Brontes by Jude Morgan



Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (April 27, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312642733
ISBN-13: 978-0312642730

This book is published in the UK under the title of The Taste of Sorrow

Thanks for the Haworth website, sassenach! Just fascinating. I plan to come back to really look at it more closely later today.

I absolutely L.O.V.E. Wuthering Heights...I have the BBC movie that they did a couple years ago and they did a great job on it. I love angsty romances that don't always end with a happily ever after for the two mains...some times they seem more real than others.

The BBC always do a great job at adapting literature for television, but the last time Wuthering Heights was on UK TV was in 2009 when it was dramatised by ITV1 which is a commercial channel...

This was the trailer for TV

The actress who played Cathy ( Charlotte Riley ) would make a good Claire !!

You can find the DVD on Amazon.com Here

I thought that I was going to drop off this discussion because when I started this book, I could not get into it at all and hate forcing myself through a book. That first chapter was gloomy, the characters were miserable and I spent about 2 weeks trying to get through it (read 3 other books during the process). I was talking about this to Lady Jayne and Nigheandubh in NY and they encouraged me to continue with it. When Nigh told me that it is sort of the inspiration for Eclipse in the Twilight series, it intrigued me. So I pushed through until he left Heathcliff's home and Ellen starting telling the story and I could not put the book down. I finished the rest of it in a few days and was glad that I did so. Looking forward to the discussion.

I'm so glad you persevered Pauline and finished the story - I agree that it's gloomy and Gothic - I think it maybe helps if you can picture the place and the people behind the story so I'm glad that making the connection with Eclipse helped....

Looking forward to your comments

**Remember even if you hate the book and gave up on it -do join in when the discussion opens on the 27th October**

Thanks, Sass. I would have participated but really don't like talking negatively, especially about books, and especially if it takes away some enjoyment that another has gained from it (it's why I stay out of the Lord John book discussions). But perhaps I'm just partial to books told from a female perspective or voice (character not author). It was so well written, that the beginning gloominess was seeping into me with each page but we'll dish about that later.

I remember finding it a little slow-going early on too. I plan to listen to it again because it's been more than a decade since I read it, but I'm not sure I'll get to it before discussion starts (I'm listening to The Passage by Justin Cronin right now and it's LONG). But, I have read it, so that won't be a big deal even if I don't recall all the details.

So glad I popped into this thread - am just getting into the book, combined with earlier nightfall, just couldn't see how I'd get through it. Now, with the connection to Eclipse, I know I'll get through it! Looking forward to the discussion.

Audiobooklover-Which audio version do you have? I'm new to audio and didn't know which narrator to go with for drive-time reading. (I'm looking at audiobooks.com, http://audiobooks.com/sql/au_search.php ... ng+heights)
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I will be downloading it through netlibrary, since I can get it there for free. The reader is Flo Gibson. I've listened to her read several other things - all classics, I think. She's definitely not my favorite narrator, but she's not bad.

I skimmed through the things at that link and didn't recognize the names of any narrators. I make it a point to only listen to unabridged versions of books. The first there says it's abidged. And, several others are too short to possibly be unabridged (180 minutes? No way). The one I will be listening to is 11 hours 13 minutes. Other readers may be a bit faster or slower and gaps at the ends of chapters and such vary, but that should give you a ballpark estimate of how long the whole book should be.

BTW, have you checked with your library to see whether you can get one free through there - either as a download or on CD?

Alternatively, you can download either of two versions from librivox.org from here: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.p ... ion=Search. One has multiple readers and is about 11.5 hours. The other seems to have a single reader, but is almost 15 hours long for some reason.

Good luck!

Awesome, Audiobooklover, thanks for the tips! (I did check the library for an audio copy, sadly, they didn't have one available until February-but they did have a hardback book. It's a copy that was donated by someone, and was published in 1942. It just looks, feels and smells so - library-ie, verra cool.)

You can download this book for free at Project Gutenberg

or start reading it Here

Hello dear friends! It's good to be back! I haven't posted here for quite a while because I haven't started the next Outlander book in the series (I finished Drums of Autumn but haven't begun The Fiery Cross). The main reason for my absence? I've fallen in love with another man! So sorry to admit it, but Jamie has been usurped by one Mr. Rochester, a divinely passionate and virile creature created by Emily's sister, Charlotte Bronte. Has anyone else here read Jane Eyre? I cannot believe I hadn't read it before, but apparently I hadn't. I just finished it, and was instantly so obsessed that I had to listen to the Brilliance Audio book and then bought the Masterpiece Theatre DVD starring Toby Stephens. HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY SIGH! Is there by chance a thread where anyone else might wish to discuss Jane Eyre, either the original novel or the movie???