Fiction Review: Wuthering Heights

It is the year 1801, and Mr. Lockwood decides to rent a remote estate on the Yorkshire moors known as Thrushcross Grange. Being a gentleman, he decides to pay a visit to his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, but the reception is far from warm.

Due to a violent tempest, Mr. Lockwood is forced to remain overnight at Wuthering Heights. There, he meets a young, charming woman with a heart of ice. As evening approaches, Mr. Lockwood is hosted in a room full of cobwebs. He notices several intimate diaries belonging to Catherine Earnshaw and begins reading them. What he reads about Catherine's childhood is deeply disturbing.

A sudden gust of wind interrupts Mr. Lockwood's reading, and he hears a voice outside the window—the lament of a woman begging to return home. Shaken and feverish, Mr. Lockwood is tended to by the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, who brings him a hot drink and begins telling him the long story of the family she has served for so many years.

Years earlier, the elderly Mr. Earnshaw brings an orphan boy with dark skin back from Liverpool. While Catherine is happy to welcome a new brother, her older brother, Hindley, is far from enthusiastic. Mr. Earnshaw favors Heathcliff over Hindley, and after the old man's death, Hindley makes Heathcliff's life a living hell. Catherine is the only one who truly cares for her foster brother.

Devastated by the death of his wife, Frances, Hindley takes refuge in alcoholism and nearly causes his infant son, Hareton, to fall down the stairs. Meanwhile, Catherine loves Heathcliff, yet she becomes infatuated with the wealthy and gentlemanly Edgar Linton.

Feeling betrayed, Heathcliff runs away. Years later, he reappears before Catherine and her new husband, Edgar. Catherine's foster brother is completely transformed—now wealthy and refined. Edgar's sister, Isabella Linton, falls in love with Heathcliff and eventually becomes his wife.

Later, as Catherine lies dying, Edgar cares for her devotedly. Just minutes before her death, Heathcliff declares his eternal love for her. Catherine dies giving birth to a daughter, Cathy, while Isabella later gives birth to Heathcliff's son, Linton.

Years pass, and Heathcliff kidnaps young Cathy and her housekeeper, Nelly. His goal is to force a marriage between his sickly son, Linton, and Cathy, securing the estates for himself. However, fate has other plans.

After spending several months in London, Lockwood returns to Thrushcross Grange and meets Nelly once more. She shares the latest news: Cathy and Hareton have fallen in love, while Mr. Heathcliff, haunted by the ghost of his lost love Catherine, has died of madness and been buried by her side.