You might be surprised to learn that this now-classic book was not at all well-received when it was first published. When Emily Bronte (1818–1848) published Wuthering Heights in 1847, it was immediately criticized as being “weird,” “disagreeable,” and “confusing.”
In addition to being hailed as a literary classic, Wuthering Heights has been the subject of numerous cinematic adaptations and is a favorite among readers. It’s impressive that most readers consider Wuthering Heights to be the “Greatest Romance Novel in English Literature,” according to a recent poll conducted by The Guardian. Looking at some of the most memorable Wuthering Heights lines will help us comprehend the book’s continuing appeal:
1. “He shall never know I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same.”
2. “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
3. “I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free.”
4. “I have not broken your heart – you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
5. “She burned too bright for this world.”
6. “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”
7. “If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave.”
8. “I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and in it.”
9. “I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have no power to feel for him.”
10. “I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. And this is one: I’m going to tell it – but take care not to smile at any part of it.”
11. “I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”
12. “It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn.”
13. “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you – haunt me then. The murderers do haunt their murderers. I believe – I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
14. “Time brought resignation, and a melancholy sweeter than common joy.”
15. “Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.”
16. “I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”
17. “I was frightened, and Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors: she did fly up, asking how he could fashion to bring that gypsy brat into the house when they had their own bairns to feed and fend for?”
18. “It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,’ he answered. ‘Kiss me again, and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?”
19. “Honest people don’t hide their deeds.”
20. “A wild, wicked slip she was.”
21. “I have to remind myself to breathe – almost to remind my heart to beat!”
22. “A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”
23. “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”
24. “You know that I could as soon forget you as my existence!”
25. “Heaven did not seem to be my home, and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth, and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.”
Despite the negative reception from the critics (which, regrettably, persisted after Emily Bronte’s own passing), readers’ hearts and minds have undoubtedly been won over by the one and only published work of Emily Bronte. Wuthering Heights characters, tales, and quotes may be dark, tragic, and even “weird,” but readers still find meaning in them today.
