feels like being back in school

I am currently reading Wuthering Heights. I am not sure what I expected, but it isn't quite what the reality is turning out to be.

Although I was an English Lit major (honestly, at the end of the day I value my Humanities degree way more than my English degree), I found some of the classics a trial to read. Which is ironic, because I love to read. Whether or not they are classics, some books are a slog to get through.

I have had WH on my shelf for years. Hell, probably close to a decade. For some reason that escapes me (more in the sense that I have had the chance to read, usually before bed) I have been reading voraciously the last few months. So, I have gotten through many of the unread books that have been waiting for such a time on my shelf.

I really struggled through the first 100 pages, and I am surprised at how bleak this novel is. I guess I had one set of perceptions of what I had an inkling WH would be like (more Jane Austen'ish I suppose) but it isn't really panning out to be what I expected. The story is moving along, and I am interested, but I am also a little perplexed. It is a strange read, and it certainly isn't a fast read, where I can't wait to read what action is going to unfold on the next page. I don't know how I will feel about it once I have turned the last page, but even the characters don't seem to have a lot going for them - the narrators seem to the most kind, where many of the protagonists are just antagonistic and not really nice people to know. I guess my sympathies for the lead characters has not really been aroused to this point.

The jury is out.