Wuthering Heights...

This book is a slow read, and it's taking me a while to get into. These first chapters are tedious and confusing, which I think Emily Brontë must have done on purpose. There are three major Catherines in the book, and the relationships between the characters are complex, coincidental, and just plain confusing. So far, it seems that a man named Lockwood is writing this whole story in a diary. The first two chapters are mostly his experiences in visiting his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, at his residence, Wuthering Heights. The events that ensue next, however, are mostly those that he has heard from others. He includes a passage from one of the Catherines' diary, as well as stories from Mrs. Dean, Lockwood's housekeeper. It turns out, that after he read Catherine's diary at Wuthering Heights, he returned home to Mrs. Dean's stories and found that the two lives are connected; Nellie Dean used to work for Catherine's father (or something like that). This collision of stories causes even deeper confusion for me, but it at least makes me want to keep reading it.

Because this novel is mostly written through 2nd or even 3rd-hand information, it seems to become biased and maybe even a little twisted. There is obviously a great deal that I don't know about all of these people's interwoven lives, and it will be interesting to find out, and to see how I find out. Thus far, Brontë has succeeded in obfuscating all information on background stories, character relations, and anything else important in Wuthering Heights. What I do end up finding out, however, will most likely be somewhat inaccurate, as Lockwood has already made blunders in inferring and communicating information to others (so just imagine what chimerical things he may begin to write in his diary!) 

At least Nellie Dean is the one telling Lockwood many of the things he writes. She seems intelligent and well-intentioned, though maybe a little biased. Nellie appears to be driven by her emotions, which could also lend some complication to the story. I guess we will just have to see how it all plays out.