Wuthering Heights: Chapters 17-25
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First up, an apology that I missed last week - sometimes life happens and substacking does not. So this week we’ll have chapters 17 to 25, and we’ll finish next week with chapters 26 to 34.
We’ve just left Thrushcross Grange after the birth of Cathy Linton, and the death — three hours later — of Catherine Linton. Spoilers ahead!
Isabella — still disowned — sneaks out to see Nelly, and tells her what’s going on at Wuthering Heights, where things are Not Good. Hindley is drunk, and has decided he’s going to shoot Heathcliff. That doesn’t happen, but there’s a violent fight between them. In the morning, Isabella reminds a hungover Hindley of what’s gone on, and then she runs off to Thrushcross Grange. Nelly breaks the narrative, to talk about what’s happened to Isabella in the years since: she escaped to London, where she gave birth to Heathcliff’s son, Linton. Linton is a (another) sickly child, but Heathcliff doesn’t come after them, and they live in London until Isabella’s death when Linton is twelve.
Up to date on Isabella, Nelly goes back to her story, when six months after Catherine’s death, Hindley dies — owing vast sums to Heathcliff, meaning that Wuthering Heights is now Heathcliff’s own. Heathcliff fulfils his promise of revenge by essentially making Hareton his servant.
Now we’re skipping forward again, and Cathy is now thirteen years old. Edgar is fiercely protective of her, and doesn’t allow her to leave Thrushcross Grange. When Edgar learns that his sister is unwell, he goes to London to see her and to bring Linton back home. While he’s away, Cathy goes off adventuring, and meets her cousin Hareton. Nelly persuades Cathy back home, and she promises to keep her newfound knowledge of Wuthering Heights a secret. When Edgar returns with Linton, he intends to keep the two children together, but Heathcliff has found out this plan, and sends Joseph to demand Linton be sent to Wuthering Heights. Nelly agrees to take him the next morning.
Three years later, Nelly and Cathy are out walking when they see Heathcliff and Hareton. Heathcliff invites them back to Wuthering Heights and tells Nelly his plan to marry Linton and Cathy. This sets off a chain of events which mean that Cathy is sneaking out to see Linton at Wuthering Heights at night. When she’s eventually caught, Edgar tells Cathy that she is not allowed to go to Wuthering Heights, but that Linton can visit her at Thrushcross Grange, if they wish to see each other. He decides that he will let Cathy and Linton get married, if that’s what will make Cathy happy, regardless of it meaning that Heathcliff will potentially end up owning both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
We’re now talking about events of just a year earlier, thanks to Nelly’s skipping around. (Side note: how are we feeling about Nelly at this point? Is anything she’s recounting… potentially not truthful??)
More reading…
Illustrating Wuthering Heights (some spoilers for the end of the novel!)
Some early reviews, including this one:
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See you next week!