Welcome to the Moonlight Library’s 30 Day Book Challenge!
This meme intends to generate discussion, so please feel free to add a comment.
This particular challenge is taken from the 30 Day Challenge Archive on Tumblr.
Day 10 – My Favourite Classic Book
My favourite classic book is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
And not for the reason you think: not because it’s romantic.
It’s not.
It’s a wonderful tale of spoiled selfish people and destruction and ruin they bring to two different families.
It’s called schadenfreude. That’s why I enjoy it so much.
Nothing about Heathcliff’s brooding Byronic character is sexy: he’s emotionally and physically abusive, manipulative and all around nasty. Cathy is simultaneously almost brain dead from stupidity and one of the most narcissistic characters I’ve ever read about.
Also, the fact they they are brought up like siblings just makes the whole thing icky.
It’s over the top and beautifully written and I empathise with the second generation of characters far more than the first.
But combined together, they make one hell of a beautifully written story.
“I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
– Cathy, Chapter 9“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on 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!”
– Heathcliff, Chapter 16
What is your favourite classic book?
How do you feel about love stories that are really not romantic?
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About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
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Miranda @ Tempest Books
I love this book so much! The unromantic love story is something that I really like…I guess maybe that’s a reason why I also love Lolita as well. Those are probably my two most favorite classics.
Nemo
Ooooh I’ve heard such scandalous things about Lolita! It’s not my kind of thing, but I just love Wuthering heights so much!
A Book I Hated (11) | The Moonlight Library
[…] is just as bad as Heathcliff and Ana is just as bad as Cathy (‘romantic’ leads from Wuthering Heights, my favourite classic), but they don’t have seventeenth century expectations and rules fostered on […]