Up next / Wuthering Heights

Mirjam Donath -

Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights (1847)

The question of 'Why This Book':

I'm finally back to a book that's on the list of Ernest Hemingway's favourite books that I vowed to read. Papa was so fond of Emily Brontë’s only book that when he gathered on the spot the most important books an aspiring writer must read, he listed it among the first 16 titles that came to his mind. Wuthering Heights, however, is the most special among the chosen ones, being the only novel Hemingway ever called a must read written by a SHE author.

I said it a million times but now I say it again:

Ernest Hemingway was one of the best scientists of literature ever lived, the one who had the most to do with the craft, “not simply for his books”, as Gabriel Garcia Marquez put it, “but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing.” In more simple terms, he was the only critic who actually knew how to do the thing he criticized, what was horseshit (his word) what treasure. His picks for the best literature ever written (before 1960) might have been personal but NEVER random.

Why was Hemingway fond of Wuthering Heights? It’s a mystery I want to solve badly.

  • Was he secretly a romantic?

  • Did he love the witty and groundbreaking narrative structure? Flashbacks like Tarantino at his best, narrators so unreliable that you have to make up your mind about every little emotional details you're made to feel?

  • Is it the style? Is it the choice of words as beautiful as the Yorkshire moors were once seen by Emily?

"...at a distance broken into cool dusky dells; but close by great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze."

  • Is it the the revenge drama of Shakespearean quality that moved him?

I had these questions in mind when I reread Wuthering Heights (so many years after graduating as an English major). Now with my newly made memories, I’ll share my review here soon, this time with one simple goal: understanding Ernest Hemingway.

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