Heathcliff – He’s Everywhere!!

Have you ever read, heard or seen something and for the next few weeks whatever it was you read, heard or saw seemed to be everywhere?  It’s been happening to me for the past month.

Back a couple of months ago  Good Friends Book Club chose their reading list for 2009 and one of the books we’ll be reading is Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.  I have to be honest with you, I was not overjoyed when I found out.  I have avoided that book like the plague.  I like happy endings, not torment and obsessive love and hate.  It’s just not my shtick.  I’m a Jane Austen girl and in my mind for years Emily Bronte was her antithesis.

Anyway, just after finding out we were reading WH for book club I came across PBS’s new lineup for their Masterpiece Classics series and what book do you suppose they were adapting and showing in January?  That’s right, Wuthering Heights!

I told myself then that I would go ahead and read the book and then watch the movie afterwards.  I set it to record on my DVR, but I couldn’t bring myself to crack open the book.  Weeks went by and the air date got closer and closer, but still I had not started to read.  I got to the point that I had talked myself out of reading the book or watching the movie, but last Sunday I was looking for something good to watch on TV and decided to give WH a try.  Why not?  I wasn’t going to read the book and by watching the movie I might be able to keep up a bit with the discussion at book club.

I loved it and I’ve been inspired to read the book.  I started Monday and I can hardly put it down.

Ok, so the first place I encountered WH was on PBS (watch online here).  I also have it on my DVR if you want to come over and watch.

The second place has been the blogosphere.  All of my Jane Austen/Regency/costume drama blogs I follow have been awash in reviews.  Some liked it, most tolerated it.  Here’s a few for your enjoyment.

• Laurel Ann – Austenprose
• Lady A. Byron – Factual Imagining, Review  Part 1 and Part 2
• Vic – Jane Austen’s World, Bats in Heathcliff’s Belfry

The third place I found it was again in a blog, but not in the form of a review.  Someone had posted a Youtube video from the original WH and used The Puppini Sisters cover of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights.  Up until that moment I had never heard of The Puppini Sisters or Kate Bush or a song called Wuthering Heights.  Boy was I in for a treat!

Thanks in part to all these WH sightings, I’m halfway through the book and I’m actually enjoying it.  I don’t recommend watching a movie before reading the book, but in this instance it helped move me to pull the book off it’s shelf and crack it open.  This book is meaty and I can’t wait for our discussion!