Bought at Groundworks books on UCSD campus. Emily Bronte's only novel.

Mailed to mlbish.

Came in the mail yesterday. Will read ASAP and pass along. Thanks, Lileesdad, for fulfilling a wish for me!

WHEW! Finally finished. For such a little book, it took almost two weeks to read! I did have a lot of distractions, however.

Hmm...well it was not really what I expected. When people talk about this book, they usually concentrate on the love affair between Heathcliff and Catherine. But that didn't really stand out so much to me. What I saw most was the dysfunctionality of the whole family. I guess that was just compounded by the fact that they were all sort of isolated out in the countryside and did not have much contact with the outside world. Maybe that would make anyone stir-crazy (emphasis here being on CRAZY. And ANGRY).

I wasn't very happy with the style in which the story was told. I'm not sure why EB chose a storyteller nested within a first person frame (and often an additional storyteller nested inside that). That style made it hard to keep up with the point of view and the action of the story. Probably there was a reason, but I couldn't figure out what it was, and I didn't gain anything from it.

I have a comment about some actions of the characters, and this is something that I have noticed from other novels set in about this same time period. I find it very odd that someone would come down with a cold or something and then remain incapacitated for two or three weeks. I can't figure out whether the people of this time were far too focused on their own fragility, or they just did not enjoy our modern good health and quick recoveries due to better nutrition and medicine. But this happened repeatedly over the course of the book. And I never could decide whether Linton (Jr.) was frail because he was truly ill or was just convinced he was frail and chose to stay that way. I wanted to shove him outside and say, "Go walk around! You'll never feel better sitting inside feeling sorry for yourself, kid!"

There were handwritten notes inside the book on many pages. I'm not sure if you did that, Lileesdad, or if they were already inside, but I really enjoyed those. My favorite one was the note that pointed out that the middle word in the middle page of the book was 'despair.' Interesting. Because that was pretty clearly the overarching theme and tone of the book.

Thanks very much for sharing this one. It wasn't my favorite, but I'm glad I read it. I apologize for keeping it longer than I should have, but I'll get it out to Carolyn81 right away.

I am releasing this one to tomatolady's mbag. This little book is going to visit Virgulina and Elsita in Portugal.

Hope you enjoy it, Elsita!

Will go in mbag to Portugal to Elsita

;-) Arrived today!

Thanks, mlbish, tomatolady and Virgulina!

RELEASE NOTES:

Surpriseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
(from RABCK.com)

Wow, I'm really really surprised... I wasn't expecting anything in the mail today, and I come home to three lovely books. Thanks so much, Elsita, this was really nice of you!
And if being a surprise wasn't enough, I got another copy of the same book in my mailbox today, so I'll keep one and send the other one along.
Hopefully this will make someone else's day, like it did mine!
:)

And Emily Brontë is going to travel again this week.
Next stop: Spain.

Hopefully Sirannon likes this surprise as much as I did! :)

Wow!
You're great syrin, thanks a lot! It's been a nice surprise that made my day, I've been wanting to read this book for ages.