I've read hundreds and hundreds of books. History, classics and distopian books are my favorites, but I can tear through a good gardening book too. I've got a list of books that I've read and re-read, and will read again. But there's one that I've read at least once a year, every year, for the last 15 years. I've read four copies of it right out of their spines. With the loose pages of those copies I've made Christmas ornaments, jewelry and other art because I could not bear the thought of throwing those pages away.
This post probably isn't going to sell you on reading it. I will probably sound pretty terrible. But it is pretty terrible, but in the most wonderful way possible! This my favorite book because it is so desperately and powerfully passionate. Passionate in a way that makes you feel love and hate. Real, true love and honest, pure hate. I think it's worth reading once to experience the quality of emotion that no other book I've read can invoke.
It's a title everyone knows, but few have read. It has influenced paintings, poem, movies, and even a comic book. It was the inspiration for the lyrics in Total Eclipse Of the Heart. Pat Benatar, covered a song called Wuthering Heights.
I've read that Wuthering Heights is a romance novel. It is not. But, it is a love story. And it's a hate story. It's a story of passion.
Although author Emily Bronte never married, and it seems that she was never romantically envolved with anyone, the dialog that she wrote for Cathy and Heathcliff would lead a reader to believe that she must have loved fiercely and hated wildly.
Hate is as much a theme in the book as love. But this article is about my favorite quotes, and my favorites are about love. But not regular love. The love between Cathy and Heathclif, though they never really had the chance to enjoy it, was a furious, savage, severe kind of love that stole their breath and gave them life.
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same...
I'm sorry for anyone who has never felt the enchantment that is knowing that their soul had found it's only absolute equivalent.
If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it.
The intensity of Cathy's love for Heathcliff can be felt and understood through this quote, even if it was the ony line one read.
Be with me always --- take any form --- drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!
This is the single most powerful and anguished line in the book and it is the single most passionate thing I have ever read. Heathcliff is the antagonist of Wuthering Heights. I believe it's his character that is responsible for the 1851 review of the book, "...one of the most repellent books we ever read." Even though he's the bad guy, I'm sorry for him. I can't image the pain and desperation behind those words.
It's quotes like these that made me fall in love with the book. They make me feel what the characters are feeling. It's the only book I've ever read that breaks my heart. And it breaks it over and over again, every time I read it.
Have you ever read a book to pieces?
What's your favorite book quote?
