'Crumbling Griffins and Shameless Little Boys': The social and moral background of Wuthering Heights

Abstract

On reading Wuthering Heights one's attention is drawn immediately by Emily Bronte's regard for external fact, and to the animate and detailed observation which characterises her novel. That this is born out of an intense love for some special point of earth, and, more than that, out of a subtle affinity with it, there can be no doubt. In this book one appreciates to the full the singular absorption of an author with her material to a degree uncommon in the whole range of literature. 1