I’ve often heard people talk about the novel Wuthering Heights, usually when mentioning love stories. Personally, I don’t particularly enjoy the average love story, despite having a bit of a romantic nature, so I was sort-of avoiding the story. Recently, when I was doing a bit of research in terms of Victorian Gothic fiction, I realized that my impression of the story had been entirely wrong! In fact, it seemed to be exactly the sort of thing I’d love to read.
So I loaded up a version of it on Google Books (which I have become rather addicted to), and started reading. It’s been a perfect task to keep me occupied these past few days, since I’ve been working at a temporary job with a lot of down-time. I really enjoy the format of Google Books as opposed to Project Gutenberg, just because personally I find it less straining to read a scan of a book’s page than a text document of the volume. (It’s also easier to hold my place–I just jot down the page number I read last.)
I tend to strongly associate Gothic fiction with lolita fashion because I like to think that the “gothic” in relation to “gothic lolita” draws a lot of impact from Gothic fiction and architecture, as opposed to from the Western goth subculture. Gothic architecture focuses on opulence and ornamentation, which is a mainstay of any branch of lolita fashion. Gothic fiction combines elements of horror with elements of romance–something I also observe in gothic lolita styles. Gothic lolita designs aren’t merely attempting to be ghostly and dark, but also alluring. A stereotypical gothic lolita would probably be right at home in a Gothic novel, enjoying her haunted mansion and family curse. (I’ll keep my bakery and cakes, thank you~ ♥)
I greatly enjoyed Wuthering Heights due to the dark elements and twisted story that descended further and further. It took a few chapters for the actual plot to really come to light, but after that I could barely put it down! It makes me wonder what other detailed tales Emily Brontë might have woven had she written another novel.
And, to me, the best part is that it has a happy (and rather unexpected) ending~ ♥