Ok yes, I read Wuthering Heights for the first time ahead of the 2026 movie adaptation release. I want to say it’s because I told myself I would read more classics this year. But it’s mainly because I wanted to join in the conversation and know what everyone was talking about. 

This one took me a while, over two months, to get through (my average time to finish a book is 17 days, according to StoryGraph). A huge part of that is because the characters are just so unlikeable. They’re all so horrible to each other, for seemingly no reason. I’ve always had a hard time reading books when I find the characters unlikeable. I knew there were going to be some gems within this book though, so I pushed through.  

There’s a lot already being said about the book that I agree with, so I won’t repeat what’s out there. Generally:

• I don’t think this is a romance. This is a very dark story, with lots of layers (of which romance is one).
• There’s some stunningly beautiful writing. 
• Movie Heathcliff should definitely have been a person of color because it changes the whole story. (I still haven’t seen the movie but I’m working on it…)

I agreed with most of what Brittany Broski had to say about it in her podcast and I’d say it’s worth a listen. Brittany articulates a lot of my feelings about how Emily Brontë fits so much into this story.

One thing that I keep reflecting on which I haven’t seen a lot about is how Heathcliff and Nellie have so many parallels. They’re both born in the lower class but raised along with the upper class, well educated and with sharp minds. They both seek to manipulate those around them to get their ideal outcome. And they both are harsh judges of those around them. Heathcliff seems to recognize this, and considers Nellie one of the closest people to him. But Nellie is determined to distance herself as much as possible from Heathcliff. 

Nellie wants to believe she is a good person, but she’s also gotten twisted by external circumstances. She says some really cruel things about the people around her. She’s just as intent on making people do things the way she wants, it’s just that her tactics aren’t as direct as Heathcliff’s. 

Instead of empathy and reflection on the external circumstances, Nellie believes that Heathcliff is acting wholly from the evil in his heart. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely is not a good person. But he didn’t become this way for no reason. It makes me very sad. The story would have been very different if anyone in this book had shown a little bit of empathy early on. For me, Wuthering Heights is a good reminder that the way we treat those around us can have a bigger impact than we think.