For our September pick, the Zeda Book Club decided to take a literary detour and explore Western classics. We wanted to return to the roots of modern literature to see where many of the tropes and character dynamics we know and love today began. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë felt like the perfect place to start. First published in 1847, this gothic masterpiece has been read, debated, and reinterpreted for nearly two centuries, and yet, reading it together, we were amazed by how alive, shocking, and emotionally raw it still feels.
Set against the wild, windswept Yorkshire moors, Wuthering Heights tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; two souls bound by love, pride, and cruelty. Their relationship, obsessive and destructive, reverberates through generations, entangling everyone around them in a web of passion and revenge. Brontë’s novel may be nearly 200 years old, but its exploration of desire, vengeance, and power still feels startlingly modern.
As we read, we couldn’t help but notice how many familiar tropes find their origins here, including the brooding antihero, the “toxic” romance, the haunted house, the revenge driven plot. Yet Brontë handles them with such psychological depth and intensity that they never feel dated. Heathcliff’s transformation from abused orphan to vengeful landowner still provokes discussion. Was he a villain or a victim of his time and circumstances? And Catherine, wild and proud, caught between love and social ambition, feels as complex as any heroine written today.
Our discussions often circled back to the themes of class, race, and revenge. Heathcliff’s ambiguous origins and outsider status, possibly of Romani or African descent, adds layers of social commentary that feel eerily relevant. We talked about how class and prejudice shape love and belonging, and how the novel exposes the rot beneath genteel society. Brontë’s portrayal of power, property, and inheritance echoes through time, reminding us that inequality, whether economic, racial, or gendered, still defines so much of human interaction.
Despite its darkness, we were pleasantly surprised by the humour. Brontë’s wit, especially in the exchanges between characters like Nelly Dean and Joseph, sparkled through the gloom. There’s something almost sly about how she balances absurdity with tragedy, making the novel both gothic and biting. It reminded us that even in the bleakest stories, humanity and humour finds a way to shine through.
Verdict
Wuthering Heights is, without question, a masterpiece, and reading it nearly two centuries later, we were struck by how much it still speaks to us. It’s a story about love, but also about obsession, trauma, and the cyclical nature of pain. It’s about what happens when people choose pride over tenderness, and how love without compassion can destroy more than it redeems.
At Zeda Book Club, this novel sparked conversation about who deserved sympathy, whether Heathcliff was truly in love, and why stories like this endure. We laughed at the melodrama, we gasped at the cruelty, and we marveled at Brontë’s audacity to write such a fierce, unflinching book in her time. For anyone looking to revisit a classic that still feels daring, relatable, and emotionally potent, Wuthering Heights is the perfect choice. Almost 200 years later, it continues to storm through our imaginations with all the force of the moors themselves.
Zeda Book Club is open to women to join. We café hop and read a new book every month. We meet on the first Sunday of each month in Nairobi. Join the group here. Happy reading!
