Saturday, September 27, 2008

Wuthering Heights First Paragraph

Oooooohkay, so that post was Monday, and it's now Saturday, and I haven't even gotten the darned book off the shelf! Bah! Phooey on me!

Pause for a moment while I go get it and blog the first sentence.
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Ready? Ok!
1801--I have just returned from a visit to my landlord--the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
Woo hoo! Good job, "Currer Bell"! Onward:
This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthopist's Heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name.
Doesn't that just make you want to read on? What's the narrator's name? Why does he/she like the barrenness? Why is the desolation of the landscape so great? Is the desolation of the landscape only cosmetic, or does it reflect a deeper truth about the people who live there? (I admit, these questions are influenced by others' reactions to this book, but only slightly!) Why would Mr. Heathcliff's suspicious eyes make the speaker's heart warm toward him? (That was a clumsy sentence. Oh well. You've just got to deal.) Why were Mr. Heathcliff's eyes made suspicious toward the speaker...is he naturally suspicious of others, or is the speaker someone to be wary of?

Ok. I'm hooked. Toodles.

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