What can I say about Wuthering Heights that hasn't already been said?  First published in 1850, this tale of doomed love and tortured souls has endured for over 150 years.  It's the classic tale of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy goes crazy with pain and bitterness and destroys the lives of everyone he touches.

I first read this book as required reading in high school.  For some reason, though, I felt the overwhelming urge to read it again.  I'm glad I did.  I had forgotten how wonderful it really is.  If you like classic literature, this book is for you.  If you've never read the story, let me give you a summary.

The central character of the book is Heathcliff.  He was taken in by a kindly man who saved him from starving to death in the streets of London.  The man had two children, Hindley and Cathy.  Hindley despised Heathcliff and made his life a living hell.  Upon his father's death, Hindley reduced Heathcliff to a household servant.  Cathy, on the other hand, was Heathcliff's friend, confidante, and soulmate.  They spent most of their time together while they were growing up, roaming the moors and causing mischief.  The bond between them was deeper than friendship and deeper than love, and Heathcliff's obsession with Cathy consumed his soul.

You see, Heathcliff overheard Cathy talking with her housekeeper and dear friend Ellen.  Cathy had received a marriage proposal from Edgar Linton, whom Heathcliff despised.  (Then again, Heathcliff despised everyone but Cathy and Ellen.)  Healthcliff heard Cathy tell Ellen that she could not marry Heathcliff because he had been reduced to servitude by the hateful Hindley.  He didn't stay to hear her talk about how he was her very self, and she couldn't live without him.

Sigh.  Heathcliff disappeared for three years, becoming quite rich and quite the gentleman while he was gone.  He returned to Wuthering Heights to exact his revenge on Hindley, who had turned into an alcoholic because of his wife's death, and to try to reclaim the heart of Cathy, now married to Edgar.  Filled with anger and bitterness, Heathcliff ruined just about everybody's lives.  After Hindley's death (under suspicious circumstances, I might add), he continued his plot of revenge upon Hindley's five-year-old son.  Instead of properly educating the bright little boy, Heathcliff turned him into an illiterate oaf.  He then married Edgar's sister Isabella in an attempt to punish Edgar and Cathy and as a means of gaining control of Isabella's inheritance.  An altercation between Edgar and himself led to his beloved Cathy's death, and thereafter he completely lost his mind and any shred of humanity he may have had left.  He roamed the moors at night begging her ghost to haunt him so that he might be with her, and some 17 years later, exhumed her body just so he could see her again.  Still not content with the amount of suffering he had caused, Heathcliff forced the marriage of his son to Cathy's daughter so that he could take control of the younger Catherine's inheritance.  Finally Heathcliff himself died, and those left behind were able to recover and live happy lives.  This happened in perhaps the last ten pages, so there was plenty of angst and anger right up until the very end.  If you haven't read this book since high school, get thee to the library and check it out!

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