Welcome to Wuthering Heights Wednesday! Softdrink is hosting a read-along of this classic novel, and we’re reading (and posting about) 3 chapters a week.
Chapters 4 through 6
My Synopsis:
As you may recall from last week’s post, Lockwood spent a very uncomfortable night amongst Catherine’s things and spent most of the night tossing and turning, so as soon as it was light enough to leave, he did. Upon his return home, he is met by Mrs. Dean, who after making Lockwood as comfortable as he can be, spends the evening gossiping about Mr. Heathcliff and the family that occupies his home.
Turns out that Heathcliff was found by the senior Earnshaw when he was just a young child. Mr. Earnshaw brought him home to his family and was surprised by how they reacted to him. Hindley, Earnshaw’s son by blood, detested Heathcliff from first glance. Young Catherine did not care for him at first, but they grow to be very close in a short amount of time. After the senior Earnshaw passes, Hindley goes away to school only to come back with a wife, which surprises everyone, Heathcliff included.
Mrs. Earnshaw is pretty agreeable and seems to get along well with the rest of the household, but with her moving in, the rest are asked to live in other parts of the house so that Hindley and his new wife can make a home for themselves. In no time at all, she expresses a dislike for Heathcliff which reminds Hindley just how much he despises the young man.
Young Catherine (Cathy) and Heathcliff take off for the moors for the day and end up getting themselves in quite a bit of trouble. They end up at Thrushcross Grange and Cathy is attacked and injured by Mr. Linton’s dog. When they discover who she is, they simply cannot fathom her being with such a gypsy as Heathcliff so they send him on his way, and cater to Cathy and her well-being. Heathcliff doesn’t want to leave Cathy there but has no choice, so he returns home and pays dearly for his lack of judgment.
My Thoughts:
It’s a tad hard keeping track of all the players. Their family names all seem to cross at some point (Linton & Earnshaw) so there are a couple of Mr. Earnshaws, and the use of first names and last but never together, you get the idea. I was surprised to hear Heathcliff’s background. I’m not sure what I expected but I didn’t expect him to be an orphan. Now the animosity within the family makes a bit more sense.
As confused as I am at times by their names and who they are referring to, I am really enjoying the story. Lockwood’s interest in them is sort of comical at times but with them being so mysterious it’s no wonder he has questions about them.
Reading along:
- Literate Housewife
- Vivienne(Serendipity)
- Messy Karen
- Victoria
- Jenny (Take Me Away)
- Ti (Book Chatter)
- Lisa – Lit And Life
- Dar@ Peeking Between the Pages
- J.C. Montgomery (The Biblio Blogazine)
- Whitney
- JoAnn (Lakeside Musing)
- Gentle Reader (Shelf Life)
- Amy at New Century Reading
If this sounds like fun, why don’t you join us?
Book Chatter 
It doesn’t help that some of the first names sound like last names. After a week of not reading, it took me a few minutes to get everyone sorted out again.
Yeah..Mr. Hindley when in fact his first name is Hindley and then other times he’s called Mr. Earnshaw. Cathy is sometimes Catherine. It’s all sort of muddy but I think I have it straigh. I keep thinking I am going to screw up the synopsis majorly by referring to the wrong person.
The names are confusing me too. Though I found by the time I got to Chapter six I seemed to understand them better.
True. Now that I am at chapter 9 I seem to be sorting it out better.
Seems like we’re all getting confused with the names. Someone posted a link to this family tree on another blog… I thought it looked very helpful!
http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/genealogy.htm
Thank you for sharing that link. I just printed it off and will keep it with the book. According to it, I guess it’s about to get even more confusing 😉 Didn’t these people mingle with folks outside of their circle?
Sounds like you are enjoying the book.
I cannot find my book! I really need to find it and catch up. I’m hoping that with everyone else giving their opinions, I won’t dislike Heathcliff so much!
I was wondering where your post was… LOL. I actually like Heathcliff. He’s moody and deep. Well, I like to think that he is deep but that has yet to be proven.
What an interesting idea! Reminds me of the Wilkie Collins read-along that a man has started in the UK. I’ll have to see if I can dig up my copy so I can read along.
That’s why I prefer the movie. Even though they all have the same names, at least they LOOK differenT :–)
So what do you think…is Heathcliff the illegitimate child of Senior? That is always the debate.
I don’t know. I don’t get that feel this early in the story but perhaps later on I will.
going to complain about the names for a few more weeks. great support from the read-along. i might just get to jump over the hump and appreciate this confusion on my first reading of WH.
I printed off a family tree off the web:
http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/genealogy.htm
It helps quite a bit and also points out that it’s about to get a tad more complicated!
I read this in middle school and I remember being confused on the names as well. It has always been one of my favorite books.
I agree the names are hard to keep up with at times. I’m confused with the Catherines right now. lol. I’m surprised I’m enjoying this story so much.
Dar…this is helping me quite a bit. http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/downloads/genealogy-bw-print.pdf
This sounds like a great way to read the classics, I might have to join if there is a ‘next’ selection. I need to finish Anna Karenina first.