I know, I know, not romantic but Romantic. Except that the view of the book imparted by cultural osmosis is that Catherine and Heathcliff are among the great lovers in literature.
I read it for the first time this summer: 35, happily single. I spent the whole book wanting to smack every last one of 'em upside the head. Worst two hours of my life.
_Jane Eyre_, on the other hand, now there's a heroine! I hadn't read it either until this summer. I don't know what people see in Mr. Rochester, but Jane is somebody I'd like to spend time with. (Imagine that--you, me, Jane Eyre, Anne Shirley, Laura Ingalls...who else?)
Siiiiiiigh. OK, so there's another book that I'm supposed to have read when I was 12 and didn't. Or, rather, I did and hated it...back then, if it didn't have rocketships and BEMs I didn't want to hear about it. I'll try _Little Women_ again next time I'm at the library.
That was my favorite too. I didn't care much for the sequel, Jo's Boys, in which all the boys are grown up. The other Alcott book I really liked was Eight Cousins.
I wish to heck they'd release Irresistible Forces, an anthology in which Lois will have a novella-length romance/SF crossover which takes place at Miles' wedding.
I heard her read half of it at Minicon in 2002, and have been dying to know how it ends ever since.
If I may be so bold as to suggest a female character created by a male writer, how about Irene Adler, from Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia"? Any woman who can outwit Sherlock Holmes is bound to be worth knowing.
And, although she's 20th century, what about D.L. Sayers Harriet Vane? Smart, tough, and she writes well.
Okay, I'll stop now. Well, I'll try to stop now...
Even when I was twelve and reading the book for the first time, the appeal for me was that I was reasonably certain I would never be that screwed up :).
I took a whole class on the Brontes as an undergrad, so I did get the literary schitck, but mostly British literature of the era makes me want to grab the characters, shake them hard, and shout, "Have a normal friggin' honest conversation already!!!!"
I've been on a 19th century British literature kick, lately. On the one hand, I know what you mean. On the other hand, I find their problems restful because they're so divorced from mine.
In your Bronte class, did you read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall? I liked that one. And I liked Jane Eyre, but I haven't read it since I was a teenager. I'm a bit afraid to re-read it, in case it doesn't age well.
It took me (Me, queen of the finish a book in a day crowd) three weeks to finish. I attribute this to my being reluctant to throw a library book at the wall, and consequently spending a lot of time rolling my eyes and walking away in disgust.
Like Nicole Hollander's Love Cop, the superhero who flies around keeping unsuitable couples apart, what I really wanted to do was walk into the book, give them both *such* a smack and shout 'That's IT! I've had it. You two get away from each other before I get really cross!'.
I find the book and all that's in it to be infuriating. But I've found Kate Bush's song to be romantic. And the older I get, the more I like Jane Austen.
Y'know, even in high school, it didn't do much for me. _The Fountainhead_ did, until I had my feminist awakening, and then, well... rape is just NOT romantic. So much for Howard Roarke. _The Mill on the Floss_ suffered similarly: no more masochistic women! Sheesh.
Jane Eyre, as another commenter pointed out, has weathered quite well.
I think it was Jean Kerr (humorist, playwright, wife of Walter Kerr, drama critic, and herself author of Please Don't Eat The Daisies) who wrote about herself as a romance-struck teenager, hanging out her bedroom window during rainstorms, waiting to hear "O, my wild sweet Cathy!" -- and the resultant sodden colds she caught. Now *there's* a practical lady.
Y'know, even in high school, it didn't do much for me. _The Fountainhead_ did, until I had my feminist awakening, and then, well... rape is just NOT romantic.
I was assigned Abelard and Heloise about... oh, twelve weeks into my Feminist Awakening. Talk about a bitter feeling of betrayal. "Wait, these are supposed to be one of the most famous pairs of lovers for all time, and he actually takes a job as her tutor so he can use his authority to force her into bed?! What the hell is this?"
I hope that I would always have found it skeevy, but in that context it produced a world-class rant to my professor.
Was it Daisies that had the wonderful stuff about reading poetry with the kids? And how one of them later breaks a window with a baseball or something, and says (no doubt trying to put a better spin on it before the parents react) "Come to the window, sweet is the night air!" If so, I shall go find a copy soon. The ending bit in there is an amazing moment of tenderness from a child to a parent. (I remember it still, and I read it when I was about the age of the kid in the book, or younger.)
I did read it in high school and did not think it romantic with a small r. My friends and I used to moo, "Heeeeeeeathcliiiiiiiiiiif" at one another when we thought we were going over the top with our own romantic dramas. I think this must come from a movie version, but I never actually saw one.
I read Wuthering Heights when I was in my late 20's, and had pretty much the same reaction you are having. I really loathed the book and found pretty much no redeeming features. But then I'd been reading Andre Norton's Darkover books for fifteen years by then, and though Mz Norton cannot proofread, and is abomnably sloppy with plot lines, at least she has great female protagonists! One of the things I reacted to so strongly was having to read about people (in Wuthering Heights) who were so co-dependant and abusive. Goodness knows I saw enough of the negative aspects in life in my own family and in my best friend's family. Ick!!!
It's not so much romantic as deeply passionate in a very Gothic way. You can't write a Gothic novel about sane people. I found it highly enjoyable when I was a profoundly screwed up 10 year old; we have a hardback copy from the 1920s or so with beautiful paper and gorgeous print, and I read it in an attic at a sitting. Fell desperately in lust with Heathcliff, felt madly sorry for Cathy, didn't actually like either of them.
The main problem I had with Jane Eyre is that she was a total doormat. At least Cathy wasn't.
I stopped being able to read Wuthering Heights after reading Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, after which no-one can encounter a novel of dark rural passions with a straight face ever again. The passage in WH that finally did for me was:
As I was stowing Hareton in the kitchen cupboard, Hindley entered brandishing the carving knife and vociferating tremendous oaths.
I read Wuthering Heights in high school, and wondered the entier time when we were going to get to a sympathetic character. I hated Catherine, Heathcliff, the narrator, and probably Catherine's parents and brother as well (that much I don't remember). I seem to recall being very relieved when the next generation came onscreen.
Mr too. I've always thought there was something wrong with me that I didn't like this great work of classic literature, and suspected that the proper book had been swapped for a bunch of melodramatic howling.
Ugh.
OTOH, I'm presently reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and it's brilliant.
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Oh, boy, you too??
_Jane Eyre_, on the other hand, now there's a heroine! I hadn't read it either until this summer. I don't know what people see in Mr. Rochester, but Jane is somebody I'd like to spend time with. (Imagine that--you, me, Jane Eyre, Anne Shirley, Laura Ingalls...who else?)
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
Re: Oh, boy, you too??
I heard her read half of it at Minicon in 2002, and have been dying to know how it ends ever since.
A Literary Tea Party...
And, although she's 20th century, what about D.L. Sayers Harriet Vane? Smart, tough, and she writes well.
Okay, I'll stop now. Well, I'll try to stop now...
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I took a whole class on the Brontes as an undergrad, so I did get the literary schitck, but mostly British literature of the era makes me want to grab the characters, shake them hard, and shout, "Have a normal friggin' honest conversation already!!!!"
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In your Bronte class, did you read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall? I liked that one. And I liked Jane Eyre, but I haven't read it since I was a teenager. I'm a bit afraid to re-read it, in case it doesn't age well.
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It took me (Me, queen of the finish a book in a day crowd) three weeks to finish. I attribute this to my being reluctant to throw a library book at the wall, and consequently spending a lot of time rolling my eyes and walking away in disgust.
Like Nicole Hollander's Love Cop, the superhero who flies around keeping unsuitable couples apart, what I really wanted to do was walk into the book, give them both *such* a smack and shout 'That's IT! I've had it. You two get away from each other before I get really cross!'.
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Jane Eyre, as another commenter pointed out, has weathered quite well.
I think it was Jean Kerr (humorist, playwright, wife of Walter Kerr, drama critic, and herself author of Please Don't Eat The Daisies) who wrote about herself as a romance-struck teenager, hanging out her bedroom window during rainstorms, waiting to hear "O, my wild sweet Cathy!" -- and the resultant sodden colds she caught. Now *there's* a practical lady.
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I was assigned Abelard and Heloise about... oh, twelve weeks into my Feminist Awakening. Talk about a bitter feeling of betrayal. "Wait, these are supposed to be one of the most famous pairs of lovers for all time, and he actually takes a job as her tutor so he can use his authority to force her into bed?! What the hell is this?"
I hope that I would always have found it skeevy, but in that context it produced a world-class rant to my professor.
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Pamela
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One of the things I reacted to so strongly was having to read about people (in Wuthering Heights) who were so co-dependant and abusive. Goodness knows I saw enough of the negative aspects in life in my own family and in my best friend's family. Ick!!!
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There was a really amusing play here a while back called "In Flagrante Gothicto", though, that was everything Wuthering Heights should have been. :)
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The main problem I had with Jane Eyre is that she was a total doormat. At least Cathy wasn't.
I really like Lynn Reid Banks' Dark Quartet.
A.
Antidote
The passage in WH that finally did for me was:
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No...
One should not read any book written by either of the Bronte sisters...ever.
Go clear your mind with a good, brisk Jane Austen novel.
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Ugh.
OTOH, I'm presently reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and it's brilliant.
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North and South is one I'll have to look for. I read Gaskell's Wives and Daughters and enjoyed it a great deal. Cranford I liked somewhat less.
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But I agree. I have yet to meet a Jane Austen I didn't like. And Georgette Heyer.