Wuthering Heights: Love, Revenge, & Property Rights in Victorian England
In honor of Valentine's Day, I'll blog about my favorite piece of romantic literature: Wuthering Heights which is in many ways more of a gothic horror story than a romance because it dispels high-minded notions of idealism. Since I was thirteen, I've been fascinated by this story about a fiery, ill-tempered aristocrat, Catherine Earnshaw, who marries a man of superior social rank, Edgar Linton, while not so secretly desiring her childhood companion, a man of inferior class and education: Heathcliff, a gypsy orphan found in Liverpool, but raised by the Earnshaws as a servant. Aware of Cathy's scorn, Heathcliff runs off, but years later returns as a wealthy gentleman. Then in an act of revenge, he marries Cathy's sister-in-law, Isabel Linton. I've always wondered how Heathcliff made his money. Did he run off to America and engage in the slave-trade? Did he work for the East India Company? Was he involved in blockade running or arms dealing? In Wuthering Heig