Wuthering Heights (Annotated)

Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë, written between October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847. Many people, generally those who have never read the book, consider Wuthering Heights to be a straightforward, if intense, love story — Romeo and Juliet on the Yorkshire Moors. But this is a mistake. Really the story is one of revenge. It follows the life of Heathcliff, a mysterious gypsy-like person, from childhood (about seven years old) to his death in his late thirties. Heathcliff rises in his adopted family and then is reduced to the status of a servant, running away when the young woman he loves decides to marry another. He returns later, rich and educated, and sets about gaining his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life. Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as a classic of English literature, and has inspired adaptations, including film, radio and television dramatisations, a musical ,a ballet, operas (a role-playing game, and a 1978 song by Kate Bush.