I admit it. I picked up this book when I was 19 because my mother said, "I can't relate to Catherine because she's too willful!" and she always called me willful, too. ;)

Emily's sisters were both Victorian social novelists, but Emily was a Romantic--as in Romantic poet, not as in Romance novel. I make that distinction because I don't think we're supposed to sigh over Heathcliff and Catherine, I think we're supposed to see something that would be natural and positive if it hadn't been blasted and twisted into something dark by the social pressures that kept them apart.

One of the things I like about this novel is the way Emily wasn't afraid of ambiguity, the way she would build up something as being possibly supernatural and then carefully pull that possibility apart, unravel it so that it's all up to the reader. She's also not afraid of being ugly and dark and sick, and devoid of socially redeeming value.

It's also an interesting book structurally--sort of a first person narrative inside a first person narrative, and neither narrator is reliable.