Without a doubt, today Wuthering Heights is one of the most loved and treasured novels ever written in English – an absolute “must read”. Although Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as one of the most important classics of English literature, contemporary reviews for the novel were deeply divided, as it was considered controversial because its depiction of mental and physical cruelty was unusually stark, and it challenged strict Victorian ideals of the day, including religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality. At times dark and sinister, the novel broke with many contemporary ideas as to how romantic literature should be composed.
Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel, written between October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell; she sadly died the following year, aged just 30.
Though Emily would not live to experience it, Wuthering Heights rose to become a model of a romantic, gothic novel full of passion, jealousy and tragic love. The main characters Heathcliff and Catherine have been firmly established as the most tragic couple in literature since Romeo and Juliet but with far more dire consequences for everybody involved.
