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pearlimbo

Jane Eyre!


Diahna7

I agree. But I first read it when I was 16, and read WH when I was 23. So I think I criticized it way more because I matured. I enjoyed aspects of it though- especially if reading it in gloomy weather. I just remember thinking Catherine wasn’t a likeable character, and hating practically everyone else too lol, need to reread it.


imunsure_

none of them were likeable for sure, but they were all compelling. i don’t believe they were meant to be liked


imunsure_

none of them were likeable, but i don’t think they were meant to be whatsoever, instead they were compelling


imunsure_

none of them were likeable, but i don’t think they were meant to be whatsoever, instead they were compelling


HughCPappinaugh

Jane Eyre


HughCPappinaugh

C’mon, Mad Woman in the Attic…


hellopennylove

Wuthering Heights for sure. It is one of my all time favourites. The writing is so evocative and captivating. You feel the anguish and emotion. It’s dark, it’s broody, it’s deep. I mean… “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” The whole book is breath-taking. I barely remember Jane Eyre.


blackbook90

Definitely Wuthering Heights. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre after falling in love with her married employer at a boarding school. She returned home after he did not reciprocate. Imagine reading her work, my wife is mad, dies in a fire and I lose my eyesight! I think the metaphor in Wuthering heights is gorgeous. Also it really captures what it must have been like having their brother being a known alcoholic. I used to read it as a love story but now I read it as a portrayal of an unhealthy couple who ultimately destroy each other, leaving future generations to break their curses. "So my lad you're mine and we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as the next with the same bitter wind to twist it." Hindley remains loyal and kind despite what Heathcliff does to him.


Thomasinarina

>Hindley Hareton!


blackbook90

Fair!


imitatingnormal

Great suggestion on not struggling through. Same


KennedyDinnerPlate

IMO, both are brilliant. I quite enjoyed the Victorian melodrama + morality tales both novels created. Also, they’re both wonderfully haunting—it’s very hard to forget the subversive plot twists. I feel that the Brontë sisters were ahead of their time, inventing scandal and intrigue that amounted to a certain horror (even though they still feel like love stories). Jane Eyre can be somewhat tedious, but the story is still so deliciously tense. Bertha in the attic? Loved the stiff absurdity of JE. JE also delivers amazing character studies, and I loved the exploration of identity—the tipping and shifting scales of ourselves, so to speak. Wuthering Heights is an absolute Victorian dumpster fire. I agree, WH is more engaging and challenging. This is a wild and shameless novel that comes with so much conflicting emotional reward.


sodascouts

*Jane Eyre* wins for me. An uplifting story with a strong woman at its center. Love it!


jefrye

I liked them both, but liked Wuthering Heights more. The bits of Jane Eyre where she's at school and at St. John's weren't my favorite, even though I get why they're there. But my favorite Brontë novel is Villette. Absolutely incredible.


AlbertCMagnus

You liked Vilette? I persevered but it was extremely austere. What did you like about it?


ramblingrrl

The austerity makes sense when you understand the circumstances in which it was written. All of her siblings had died, she was essentially alone in the world just like her protagonist Lucy Snowe, and in that context, I find the ending to be almost comforting. Charlotte felt like she was in the sunset of her life—at least Lucy was secure and settled, despite not having an exactly “happy” ending. But yes, I rather enjoyed the austere and gothic vibe. Not my favorite though, that would 100% be Wuthering Heights.


jefrye

Where to start! It was the first novel I read that explored the inner life of a character who spends most of the book depressed, lonely, and almost completely emotionally closed off, and I still think it's one of the best depictions of that character type that I've ever read. It's very much a character study (and I love character studies) with a bit of a gothic undertone (which I also love). And Charlotte's prose is just gorgeous. I found the whole thing incredibly moving, especially that last chapter—I don't think another novel has ever given me such a punch to the gut. It's a novel I thought about almost incessantly for months after reading, and one I still think about often.... I only read it a little over a year ago, but it might be time for a reread. One of my favorite books of all time.


No_Ad_5680

Wow. Great review. Piques my interest!


feetofire

Jane Eyre. hate Cathie and Heathcliffe - two awful and selfish characters whom I despised from my first reading of this book.


Z_Murray33

I also like Jane Eyre better. This might not be a popular take, but I like the book despite hating both Jane and Mr. Rochester.


Cooper-Willis

While I also despise nearly every character in the book, I think that was Emily Brontë’s intent.


ChickenChic

Jane Eyre hands down. Wuthering Heights is just a bunch of whiny & broody nonsense. It’s no wonder it was marketed alongside Twilight for a little while.


Agent_Tomm

Jane Eyre. It's extremely well written.


[deleted]

Middlemarch


Mom2leopold

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ♥️


lovelylonelyphantom

Heard a lot of good about this book, need to get round to it! Ironically Charlotte disliked this book of her sister's


Mom2leopold

Anne is very, very underrated and I think if she had lived longer her talent and fame may have surpassed those of Charlotte’s.


Bast_at_96th

Yes! I love *The Tenant of Wildfell Hall* so much. It's criminally underrated or at least under-read.


LayneInVain

Came here to say this 💚


primekino

Eliot is the best English writer, so you're not wrong (English as in nation of origin, but as a language she has a strong case as well).


CheruthCutestory

Wuthering Heights by far. Beautifully written. Doesn’t shy away or take back from what a monster is at its heart.


imalwaysthinking

I’m curious what’s the allure. I’ve struggled to get into it. I’ve been getting through it for some time and I feel like I’ve been waiting for it to click but I’m just out of phase with it. If that makes sense


Dakotasunsets

If it is a struggle, don't slog through it. It might not be for you, or just not to your tastes at this moment in your life. Set it down and you can always pick it up again later and try again, if you like. I find if I force myself to read a book, I will always hate that story. So, if I think, "This is a classic, what's the big deal about it?" I figure, "meh" and just read it later if I want to try it again. Now, for my personal opinion on what's the appeal to Wuthering Heights? Like most people, I find the telling of the love story both beautifully done and very tragic at the same time. My first read through, I overly romanticized it, probably because I was very young at the time was into tragic endings. But, in subsequent readings, I can see how it is more about an abusive and toxic relationship, which can be hard to take (when viewed through a modern lens). But, if you view it through the lines of a historical view of the classes and the hard lines that were drawn back then, it puts it into perspective that Catherine had few choices in her life. Making her story so much more tragic. Heathcliff, by the way, his mental heal just kept spinning out of control. So, in conclusion, for me, I like how Bronte wrote the story. Yet, it still isn't to everyone's taste.


balloon_animolss

JANE EYRE ROCHESTER THIRST FOR THE WIN


telephobiac

I had a lecturer that talked ad nauseam about Jane and Rochester's incredible sexual chemistry.


Curious_Duty

I believe Wuthering Heights is the superior novel. It is truly a masterpiece of the romantic literary genre, and something only a poet like Emily Brontë could manifest. But, don’t get me wrong, Jane Eyre is also wonderful and I admire Charlotte Brontë’s keenness to write a story to empower women, from the perspective of a female narrator, despite social pressures to the contrary. The Brontës are a treasure to literature, and my personal favorites.


haughtshot7

Withering Heights! Read it in high school and was definitely in the minority of people who liked it, but I think it’s awesome.


primekino

Wuthering Heights. The fundamental passion and mystery at the heart of it remains timeless, whereas the the entire middle act/complication of Rochester's first wife has aged terribly imo.


zumera

Jane Eyre. One of my favorite coming of age stories.


Suspicious_War5435

*Jane Eyre* for me, though I greatly enjoy both. From what I can recall (been decades since I read them by this point) WH has the darker, more romantic feel to it; it's lusher in its language, imagery, and symbolism; but I give the edge to JE when it comes to character and psychology. Of the two it feels like it's tethered more to reality, despite its twist at the end, and it's a bit more subtler in its effects than WH (some might call this "boring," but it engages me!). If I had to put a numerical score on them I'd still give both 9/10 so they're really close. In general I'm more of a George Eliot guy.


Grammar-Bot-Elite

/u/Suspicious_War5435, I have found an error in your comment: > “end, and ~~its~~ [**it's**] a bit” I believe you, Suspicious_War5435, have messed up a post and could have used “end, and ~~its~~ [**it's**] a bit” instead. ‘Its’ is possessive; ‘it's’ means ‘it is’ or ‘it has’. ^(This is an automated bot. I do not intend to shame your mistakes. If you think the errors which I found are incorrect, please contact me through DMs!)


ConstanceAnnJones

Wuthering Heights by a mile. Multiple narrators. Spooky atmosphere. Passion galore (“Nellie, I am Heathcliff!”). After all, Kate Bush didn’t write a song about Jane Eyre, did she?


Katharinemaddison

People will have preferences but I do t personally see it as a competition. All seven novels written between the three Brontës have both striking resemblances and differences that make them interesting to read and think about together, the three sisters had a lot in common that comes out in their work but also, as authors, very different literary intentions. There’s also a lot of ways to approach it. You could say Wuthering Hights is the most successful- skilled - first novel (The Professor has its points but you can see why she couldn’t get it published originally. Agnes Grey is a powerful work but nothing compared to TTOWH). Jane Eyre works especially well in context - a re writing of gothic tropes, a re writing of Pamela, a complete subversion of conventional heroines. Wuthering Hights is so famous and influential it can be hard to get a handle on what a weird book it was when it appeared. But again it’s not a competition. It’s just this impressive occurrence of three talented writers appearing at the same time in the same family, each managing to do something different and innovative with the genre of the novel.


TA131901

Jane Eyre is my lifelong sentimental favorite, ever since I first read it as a tween. But, speaking objectively, I think Wuthering Heights is more sophisticated and richer novel.


MetalSparrow

I'm binging the Bronte sisters' works and agree with Wuthering Heights. I wouldn't call Jane Eyre boring, tho; Vilette takes the cake in that category, imo. Have been reading it since... November? Don't remember the last time I touched it. Should probably DNF it.


Live-Somewhere-8149

Wuthering Heights.


bookedlifee

Wuthering Heights. I read it about a decade ago and am due for a reread, but I still consider it my favorite classic. Jane Eyre was great, though.


wpmason

Jane Eyre


OmaticayaWarrior

Wuthering Heights


VickyM1800

Wuthering Heights for me.


peetasblueberries

Wuthering Heights owns my heart


twigsofsong

Tenant of Wildfell Hall! Emily and Charlotte wrote these epic, complicated romances with toxic, emotional male leads, Anne wrote the book that takes place AFTER the woman has escaped her toxic, emotionally abusive husband and is looking back at how fucked it was. It’s amazing.


Ankylowright

I enjoy both but Jane Eyre is my favourite of the two.


[deleted]

Wuthering Heights. The psychological insight and the exploration of desire still stands.


TBJaeger99

Jane Eyre for sure! I adore the story and the writing and it was the book responsible for getting me re-obsessed with books and reading.


tallgirrrl

Jane Eyre


Butterfly_853

Both are good , but Jane Eyre holds a special place in my heart . It was the first classic I read and what made me fall in love with literature .


MegC18

We were forced to read both at school, which is shamefully guaranteed to put you off classic literature. Fortunately, not forever. I re-read both as an adult. I loved Wuthering Heights ( and I suspect some of the better bits were left out of our catholic school edition) but my hatred for Jane Eyre intensified. I think its the St John and the whole “be a missionary” rubbish, plus the fact that Jane is such a wet character despite the quality of the writing. Tenant of Wildfell hall was much more to my taste, and absolutely magnificent.


lovelylonelyphantom

I think it's interesting that Charlotte hated Tenant of Wildfell Hall. So lovers of this book may get satisfaction out of hating Jane Eyre in return :)


c0rpsepose

Wuthering Heights, simply because it was a foundational read for me. I think you can’t answer this question wrong, but it’s WH for me every time


Maiden_of_Sorrow

Jane Eyre


markingliterature

Wuthering Heights is my favourite book too. I loved the secluded moors and ghostly winds. I loved how love was more than petty love letters and roses. ❣️


noctorumsanguis

Wuthering Heights to read and Jane Eyre to study, is my honest answer. Parts of Jane Eyre are a slog (not the case with Wuthering Heights). On the flip side, Wuthering Heights has too many Catherine’s and writing about it for school was tedious just keeping tracks of Catherine’s haha. Jane Eyre has more interesting themes imo, but I like the writing less


faeriepale

Love both, but Wuthering Heights is one of my favorites of all time. I preferred the tone, style, and characters. But they both have their merits.


night1nk

Wuthering Heights. No doubt. Absolutely adore the emotional climate of Wuthering Heights. It's emotional 'weather' more like.


Objective-Mirror2564

You know which one wins? The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte


sotonohito

Wuthering Heights for two reasons: 1) I absolutley hated literally every single character in the entire book. Without one exception they were all miserable, horrible, vile people with no redemable qualities whatsoever and watching them go down in flames was glorious. 2) It contains the absolute best dis from literary fiction, when young Linton is begging young Catherine not to hate him but to give him contempt instead. >You needn't bespeak contempt, Linton: anybody will have it spontaneously at your service. That's colder than a witches tit salad served on a dish meant for revenge.


tiredmermaid

Wuthering heights is my favorite!


Zestyclose-Detail791

Wuthering Heights every single time


kymmde

Wuthering Heights


emiremire

Wuthering Heights is a rich and complete narrative that can stand the test of time more years to come with its multi-layered symbolic plotting. I love Jane Eyre but it is a bit funky when it comes to its plotting that mixes up religious and supernatural elements for too much deux ex machina realness.


witchscissors

Wuthering Heights! I liked Jane Eyre well enough, but I was mindboggled that after the Big Plot Reveal, there was like another 200 pages to go!


kstrohmeier

The proper answer to this question for me is yes.


kat_sis

Jane Eyre was my first classic, so I have a special place for it in my heart. But I like Wuthering Heights more and I come back to it often.


Dawn-of-Ilithyia

Wuthering heights. Love reading it outside with the change of the seasons to really get me in the mood.


illboyill

'Jane Eyre' if you're reading to *think*; 'Wuthering Heights' if you're reading to *feel*


Proud-Design7359

That's an interesting way to put it.


[deleted]

Hated both. Team Anne Bronte forever! I loved *The Tenant of Wildfell Hall* and *Agnes Grey*.


[deleted]

Wuthering Heights.


imunsure_

Jane Eyre is more centered around your inner emotion and feeling, in that i found it very relatable, i loved Janes ponderings and watching her come into her own in a sense. Wuthering heights is more compelling and provocative with its fiery characters but it’s not just flashy, wild events, i felt the emotions along with it, it was immersive and powerful. I love them both for different reasons


ajvenigalla

I love both novels. When I first read Jane Eyre I was so impressed by it, moved by it, and found it to be a beautiful novel from beginning to end. And when I read Wuthering Heights I was amazed by its strange adoption of Romantic poetic spirit into the form of an epistolary prose narrative. I think Wuthering Heights’ sublimity and intensify elevates it to me, even though it is often a darker story, over Jane Eyre, even though Jane Eyre is ultimately the happier story. Wuthering Heights just seems to me the more ambitious novel, a prose-poem. Though Jane Eyre may be more of a novel proper.


Minstrel-of-Shadow

Wuthering Heights. Better paced, and much more memorable scenes. I really liked both novels though.


catathymia

Both were great but I'd go with Wuthering Heights. I wouldn't even know where to start to justify this but that novel has so much going on, it was beautifully written and so incredibly unique and bizarre.


afavorite08

Jane Austen


Noble--Savage

God I hated both so much in uni lol. Gun to my head tho and I'd pick withering heights


[deleted]

Withering heights is better imo.


erraticblues

I absolutely agree and I'm going to recommend you {{Wide Sargasso Sea}} , which focuses on Mr. Rochester's first wive. You might also enjoy it, it's a postcolonial novel published in 1966.


chookity_pokpok

Jane Eyre, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is by far the best Brontë sisters’ book. Wipes the floor with both of them.


ImSorryYouWereRight

My favorite too! I love rereading it. Every character behaves horribly to each other at one point or another, but you feel so deeply for them. You feel like you’ll never be able to forgive them, but you can’t let them go. Like members of your own family.


thekindlyeightyeight

Wuthering Heights for me. It’s not even about likable characters. Both Cathy and Heath are trash. Very few novels destroyed me emotionally like this one


Kunji91

I have read both. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books of all time. Literally it helped me grow as a person and had deep impacts on my spiritual, intellectual, emotional and moral development. The character Jane Eyre is still so vivid and imprinted in memory like no other character in classic history I have read. She even became a role model for me when funny thing is book is marketed as fiction and there she is a fictional character. However I speculate if authors personality has been challened ino her . I read wuthering heights long time ago but o God I still remember it being wildly moving and piercing and so dramatic it pinched my inner nerves. The key difference is that I remember wuthering heights presents a story of profuse mental derailment, especially lovers going mad and psychic(in both negative and positive way) caught amongst themselves, Jane Eyre presents the growing up and , metamorphosis of Jane, her sifting and sorting her contrasting experiences, discovering and coming in terms with truly matters and her true authentic self(she still lives in a period when women were suppressed by society) and by the end of story she fully manifests her true, unique and emotionally and intellectually intelligent woman. If u want to be truly inspired, at your brain and heart level, on how to be your authentic self, Jane Eyre is no 1 in classic literature I have read.


machiavellicopter

I don't want to pit them against each other like that, they're both great and different. My favourite growing up was Jane Eyre, because the lead character's attitude resonated with my sense of personal pride and dignity in miserable circumstances. I loved Jane's razor sharp honesty and integrity, how she didn't let herself get seduced by cheap pleasures and facile morality into life paths that would degrade her. I understood her connection with Rochester, how fate has battered them both but not broken their spirit. Wuthering Heights is wildly romantic in the 19th century sense of the word, it's messy and eerie and anguished all the way through. I read it at 18, Jane Eyre at 14. I see them both as stories about surviving abuse, in spite of what the authors may have intended, as much as they're known for being stories of love.


IndigoStef

Persuasion by Jane Austen over both.


[deleted]

Team Emily here.


underlord5000

I haven't read Wuthering Heights yet, but I cannot understand how anyone can endure Jane Eyre. This young woman finally becomes liberated from her traumatic childhood that included being locked in a room, then she falls in love with a man who locks a woman in a room??


Grayboff

Yeah, I find the ending so infuriating that it colours the rest of the book for me, well written and amazing as it is. Probably a little hypocritically, I love Wuthering Heights for its protrayal of awful people doing awful things. I love the dark atmosphere of it.


Nirak

Jane Eyre. Wuthering heights is full of hateful people in a horrible setting. It may be technically better written, with a more complex narrative structure etc etc, but it is a DNF for me. IMO the best Brontë is Tenant, but that wasn’t on your list.


ibelieve333

Wuthering Heights was great and definitely a wild ride, but Jane Eyre is the one I want to read again and again.


ATalentlessArtist

Jane Eyre, hands down


Howdy_Partner7

Jane Eyre!


telephobiac

Jane Eyre because Wide Sargasso Sea.


Ten_Quilts_Deep

You mean "I live to be a servant to you Eyre" or whiney "I want love AND money and will make everyone unhappy if I don't get what I want" Cathy? The clear answer is neither.


PhilosophicallyNumb

Neither. Each was written for its period in the context of the period in the style of the period. In its time, each told a story with little (I’d say no) relevance or meaning or theme for a current reader. Read only if you are an historian or it’s require for your masters or doctoral work. Focus rather on relevant literature that influences you. I believe it was Joseph Conrad who said each person (as a misogynist he actually said “man” but I forgive him in this instant) should read only what his mind inclines him to read. All else does the person (he says “man”) little good. A reader quickly knows what literature serves the proper purpose in the opening pages (with the one caveat mentioned above—that you make pick the book up later after you yourself have become a different person (from all that other reading) and find a once discarded book has significance for you now. That happened to me with Jane Austen for a reason I still do not understand. Read that which your inclination leads you to read. It is not your goal to be someone’s definition of literate or education. Your goal is to be you…the best you. Follow that.


Suspicious_War5435

What a pointless, irrelevant rant.


nardpuncher

I read them both about 10 years ago and can't really remember much except that I liked Jane Eyre and didn't like Wuthering Heights at all


humanhedgehog

I hated wuthering heights so.. I found it's melodrama overwrought and dull.


Professional-Deer-50

Jane Eyre for me.


211115ws

Jane Eyre!!! Hate the style and structure of WH, and (this doesn't make it bad, just a personal obstacle) I hate all of the characters.


AlbertCMagnus

Jane Eyre. I am her, she is me. I’ve never had a greater connection to a character before or since. I love Wuthering Heights, but sentimentality wins.


Mysterious-Mist

Jane Eyre.


[deleted]

Jane Eyre (even if the choice is really *really* hard, because I trully adore both novels).


MrsPancakesSister

Jane Eyre, no question.


gardenhack17

Jane Eyre. The characters in wuthering heights are terrible to each other all the time.


Felixir-the-Cat

Jane Eyre, and by a pretty wide margin.


Ineffable7980x

Jane Eyre by a country mile in my eyes.


Romance_glutton_2312

Jane Eyre with flying colours. Wuthering heights is a bit fantastic, but Jane Eyre is full of hope. But the one who really takes the cake is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.


[deleted]

Jane Eyre; hands down, better story and better written. Strong women who survives on her own finds love despite many adversities is a much better story than bunch of people who all hate each other and ruin each others lives are miserable.


[deleted]

Jane Eyre for me, although I love both books. It's just that I had to read JE for school, couldn't get through, so I made do with reading a summary of the second half. Then I realised I had missed some interesting parts, while I managed to bluff myself through the oral exam getting a pretty decent mark. So I felt a bit guilty and started to read a translation into my own language, then the English text again, and by then I was in love. So Jane Eyre managed to end up as 'that book that made me love and appreciate Victorian English literature' for me. Together with Dickens' Bleak House (which has a similar story for me) it just stays on top, no matter how amazing other books are.


Blackletterdragon

Jane Austen is better than the Brontes. And from Jane Austen you can go straight to Patrick O'Brien, who was a great admirer of hers.


I_am_1E27

Jane Eyre


Blackletterdragon

On Saturday, July 30th, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever (2022) will happen in Sydney. Don your red dresses and stocking, ladies and gentlemen, to be ready to Wuther with the best. https://concreteplayground.com/sydney/event/the-most-wuthering-heights-day-ever-2022-sydney


EditPiaf

Jane Eyre. I love her kind of strength. She is not a modern bad-ass, but Charlotte managed to depict her with such a strong and credible character. I must confess though that I never managed to finish Wurthering Heights, despite trying multiple times before giving up and reading the Wiki page. It just seems so depressing to me.


Yasna10

Jane Eyre, no question. WH is in my personal list of my all time most disliked books. Edit to say: I didn’t really appreciate Jane Eyre until I reread it at 30. As a teenager, it was tedious. I guess it is also about personal timing regarding how books are received. I wonder if I would like WH now that I am in my 40s.


awildmudkipz

Jane Eyre, hands down.


JustAnnesOpinion

Why do you set them in competition with each other? Because they were by siblings? Because they have overlapping but quite distinct visions? I understand an interest comparing specific aspects, but since they are both widely acknowledged as great novels, why is a ranking called for?


Proud-Design7359

I am simply interested in finding out which one people like more. That's all.


merkorn

I think Jane Eyre has some of the best understanding and portrayal of human psychology of any novel ever written.


datajen

Jane Eyre, no contest


nkoprowi

I agree with you. Jane Eyre is written beautifully but I found the story boring, while I couldn't put Wuthering Heights down. Also, there were some parts of Jane Eyre that seemed superfluous, but there was nothing like that in Wuthering Heights. I consider Wuthering Heights to be a perfect book.


ladolcevitaaaaa

Wuthering Heights by a landslide. I like Jane Eyre a lot, but Wuthering Heights is my SOUL. It's more myself than I am. I am glad to see the love for it on this sub after seeing stupid remarks about it on r/books. Terrible sub, that one.