Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847. The plot refers to two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws’ foster son, Heathcliff. The novel, influenced both by Romanticism and Gothic fiction, is considered a classic of English literature. After Emily’s death, her sister Charlotte edited a second edition of Wuthering Heights, which was published in 1850. While it is now widely considered to be one of the greatest novels ever written in English, the reviews published at that era were contradictory. The book was controversial for its depictions of mental and physical cruelty, its domestic abuse, and for its references to Victorian morality, religion, and social class system. Since its publication, it has inspired an array of adaptations across several media.