Wuthering Heights

I finished reading Wuthering Heights for the first time the other night. I knew that the story was about revenge, but my goodness, that book is a downer! Although I did like seeing Hareton Earnshaw's interest in learning and self-improvement near the end of the novel, but I feel like that was the most satisfying thing. None of the close relationships or love stories woven throughout the book were overly compelling to me - they felt a little contrived.

Perhaps Emily Brontë expected the romantic attachments to be somewhat false: the flaws of the characters made their romantic attachments seem less endearing to me, as a reader. I was well over halfway through the book when I realized that there was no extremely likeable character in the book, unless one can count the housekeeper Nelly. And I don't even feel like one can develop too extreme of an attachment to Nelly as a character, since she functions more of a storyteller than as a very nuanced and complex individual.

As I was reading this book, I was struck between some interesting similarities between Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, the other novel I read this summer. In both stories the male protagonist is haunted by the death of a woman - whether it be their spouse (as with Maxim de Winter) or the object of their love and affection (as is the case with Heathcliff). Maxim de Winter is metaphorically haunted by Rebecca, whereas the reader gets the sense that Heathcliff is actually haunted by Catherine's ghost. I suppose if I want to draw even more parallels, I should watch the film version of Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier, since I watched Hitchcock's version of Rebecca (starring Laurence Olivier) after I finished that book. (Can anyone recommend this movie or some other movie version of Wuthering Heights?)

Is anyone out there a huge fan Wuthering Heights? Why do you think this book is so great? I didn't think that the book is awful, by any means, but I was hoping to develop more of an attachment to the characters or feel inspired a bit more. I don't necessarily need to read only "feel good" novels, but I do like a bit more redemption here and there! The story seems to be just as bleak and dark as the moors surrounding Wuthering Heights itself.