Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

This is an all-time classic that probably comes up on your school’s summer reading list. The story is essentially about an orphan Heathcliff being adopted by a rich family but is bullied by other children. He falls in love with a girl named Cathy. When he couldn’t stand the taunting and bullying anymore, he leaves for years and came back a bitter and evil soul. His spite and anguish destroys both Cathy and her husband’s families.

As a classic, I have to admit Wuthering Heights shocked me with its brutality and cruelty. This is unseen in most Victorian novels. Books like Jane Eyre also portray tragedy, but time-outs in a dark room can hardly compare with what Heathcliff does to Edgar Linton, an almost murder-like cruelty. The eccentric evil in Heathcliff seeps through the pages, when he declares his hate to Isabella but still seducing her, when he forces Cathy’s daughter to marry his own son. These events send chills down my spine even in imagination. Emily Bronte’s own sister Charlotte Bronte comments on this work harshly:

"Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is."

Of course, this makes it more of a Halloween read as it gets more scary, but it also indicates a brave innovation of novel writing, exploring into the treacherous depth of human nature.

Adding up to its idiosyncratic content is its narrative style. The interchangeable narrater identities switches between multiple perspectives of the same story. This makes the reading experience much like peeling an onion, slowly getting to its center of the tragical love story. (Yolanda Liu)

“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontĕ

Fans of passionate romances, supernatural elements and books that follow multiple generations are in for a treat with this novel. The first time I read it, I remember gaping at how utterly tragic the plot was. This novel is not generally high on cheer, but the ending is not entirely bleak. This novel is great if you enjoy drama, doom and suspense. (Catherine Gonzalez)

“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. This novel is perfect for fans of Beauty & the Beast who are craving a similar story with a gothic twist. The protagonist Jane Eyre is book smart just like Belle and through the duration of the novel she falls for Mr. Rochester who undergoes his own transformation. (Carli Martinez)

As a teacher I also introduced my students to the classics. Some students may say that I tortured them with the classics, but I always assured them that the book titles, the characters and even the quoted texts would remain with them throughout their lives. Like it or not.

In my own everyday life, I am constantly reminded of classic book characters and their quotes. Whenever I see a man rubbing his hands together, I am reminded of Uriah Heep, the antagonist in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. [...]

Can we forget the characters and lessons learned from Silas in Silas Marner, Huck in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, Jo March and her sisters in Little Women, or Jane Eyre and Cathy and Heathcliff from the two Bronte sisters? I think not. (Norma Best Boucher)