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Thursday, June 3, 2021

Bronte

 In search again for a new book to read (seems like I finished the last one I bought rather quickly), I've ended up with Wuthering Heights, in Indonesian. Occasionally, one will find old classics in the language, and one may at least be confident upon purchasing one of these that it will be engaging, whereas one never knows with new novels by unfamiliar authors. I read one recently, for instance, called Vicious, part of a series, believe it or not, that was nearly unreadable, 400 pages of tripe, and poorly written tripe at that. 

Anyway, I've read Wuthering Heights before, but of course I don't remember it. I think I was either in high school or in college when I read it. What is surprising upon beginning the novel, however, is how completely and totally new it is to me. I have no recollection at all of these pages. As is often the case, I had the impression that I had liked the book when I first read it, but had no fast memory of what the book was about or in what manner the story had been told. It strikes me, therefore, as jarringly though pleasantly odd--these strange characters, Heathcliff, Mr. Lockwood, Catherine, and so on. I remember Mr. Lockwood not at all, not even the name, even though he is the narrator of the story! 

And the book may occupy me for some considerable time as well, given the Indonesian translation from the mid 19th century English.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you got a good translation. I will have to read that book one day. Some time ago I read what I thought was Wuthering Heights, checked out of the library, and it was a total dud. But after finishing it, I suddenly noticed on the back cover that I had inadvertently picked up an "easy reader" version of the story. Horrible! Apparently they took all the magic and mystery of the characters out to make the reading easier. I felt so bad for the person who might actually need an easy reader and would never realize how cheated they were. I want to read the real version some day. I hope the translation you are reading does justice to the novel.

R.W. Boughton said...

Anonymous: Lol. Yes, I can only imagine. Part of the charm in 19th century literature is found in sinking oneself into the narrator's voice and the world he or she is describing, generally in great detail.