Critical Response To Wuthering Heights at Bronte Parsonage Museum

Contemporary critical reactions to Wuthering Heights expressed bewilderment, shock and horror. Very few critics were entranced, but all were mesmerised. After the initial flurry of fascination, however, interest appeared to die down, and it seemed that the American critic who claimed the novel would ‘live a short and brilliant life and then die and be forgotten’ would be proved right. Why was the early response to Wuthering Heights so extreme, and what caused opinion to change so much in later years that by the end of the nineteenth century, Emily was seen to be the true genius of the family?

The talk will be delivered twice, at 11:30am and 2.00pm.
Free with admission to the Museum.