Reviews of Wuthering Heights

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Technical University of Braunschweig, course: The British Landscape in Fact, Fiction and English Language Teaching, 12 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Wuthering Heights is the solitary prose work of Emily Bronte and was first published in 1847. Although the novel is now generally considered a masterpiece, there were lots of negative reviews after the publication. Critics called it for example shocking, grotesque or mishappen and were horrified by it. In my work I will concentrate on the reviews of Wuthering Heights that appeared shortly after the publication of Wuthering Heights until the end of the 19th century. Firstly, I will give a short biography of Emily Bronte to illustrate her way of living. After that I will summarize her novel. Following the summary of Wuthering Heights I will concentrate on the reviews of Wuthering Heights. At first I will present the way this novel was criticized by the reviewers in English as well as in American newspapers and magazines shortly after the publication in 1847. Then I will refer to Charlotte Bronte as a critic of Wuthering Heights and show how she judged her sister’s work. Furthermore her review influenced later criticism. In the end I will illustrate the later critical response to Wuthering Heights and I will show if there has been a change in judging the novel and how Charlotte Bronte’s preface influenced the reviewers.