I am woman....hear me roar.....
9 years ago
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
unpleasant
George Barnett Smith describes Wuthering Heights as "perhaps one of the most unpleasant books ever written." What do you think may have troubled Smith, as well as other nineteenth centruy readers of the novel? How might the novel have offended contemporary custodians of morality? In what ways is it subversive? In what ways does it remain unsettling today?
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2 comments:
I don't agree with him because I have read many more unpleasant books than this... but I do understand what he means.
It really isn't one of those 'fun' reads and I am sure that when this came out people didn't know what to make of it. I heard that it has never been off of the banned books lists of the world.
I am sure that back then people didn't know how to deal with the unbridled passions, the revenge, the hatred, and the violence. If you compared it to Austens works (which I also love) Heathcliff makes Willoughby seem like a boy scout.
Good desription, Cheryl! One doesn't come away after reading it with satisfaction. It is sadness and cruelty and hate and unkindness nearly all the wey through and ends the same except that Catherine and Hareton end up happy and so good to each other. Ellen and Mr. Lockwood remain the same as good people.
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