Passion. Intensity. Harm

Every now and then, a reader may be lucky enough to find a book that changes his or her life. I read Wuthering Heights when I was 15, and my perception of the world has never been the same again. If I had to chose only one classic to read for the rest if my life it would be, without a doubt, Wuthering Heights, a novel that can be read again and again, with different insights each time.

Wuthering Heights is realistic, but it also deals with ghosts and grave and a love that transcends time. In many ways the book is a mystery. Why do people self-destruct? Make the wrong choices? Marry the wrong man? Betray the people they love the most?

Catherine's  frantic and fevered declaration-I am Heathcliff- is as chilling a moment as it is brilliant. Is that what love is? To lose yourself completely? Does it add to who you are or take away your identity? These are the questions Wuthering Heights asks, and the answers are left for us to mull over.

The heart of the story unfolds slowly, as though it were a take told directly to you as you sit beside the fire on a dark and stormy night. At times it can be difficult going: the distinction between the two Catherines, mother and daughter, the convoluted family ties. Catherine's choices may seem foolish or selfish but these choices makes her more real. Break people after all, make mistakes, are haunted by doubt, take revenge, die before their time, love two people in different ways.

When I first read Wuthering Heights what affected me the most of all was the fact that this incredible masterpiece was written by a young woman with very little life experience. She was 29 when the book was published and died the following year. Surely no one thought that a mere girl can create Wuthering Heights, a universe where the moors are wild and love never dies.

I have come to believe that the real hero of Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë. Her great accomplishment is a timeless story of love and loss. Once you have read it, you will never forget it and that is the real magic of the book.