Wuthering Heights

A continuación unos párrafos de Wuthering Heights, de Emily Brontë, en inglés. Previamente aclaramos algunos puntos sobre la publicación del libro y la opinión de algunos críticos, entre ellos nada menos que Virginia Woolf.

Al final en vocabulario: wince y cullender y para saber Thrushcross Grange.

 

Este es un libro extraño. No deja de tener una considerable imaginación, pero en su totalidad es salvaje, confuso, e…

 

Publicación

El texto original fue publicado por Thomas Cautley Newby en 1847.

En 1850 Charlotte Brontë, hermana de la autora, editó el texto original para la segunda edición de Wuthering Heights. Se refirió a la mala puntuación y ortografía pero también al dialecto de Yorkshire de Joseph. Le dijo a su editor:

“Me parece aconsejable modificar la ortografía del viejo sirviente Joseph, porque aunque muestra el acento exacto del dialecto de Yorkshire, estoy segura que los lectores del sur lo encontrarán inentendible.”

Laurence Olivier en Wuthering Heights

Respuesta de la crítica

Las primeras críticas de Wuthering Heights fueron mixtas en su aprobación. La mayoría de los críticos reconocieron el poder y la imaginación de la novela, pero quedaron asombrados por la historia y objetaron su salvajismo y egoísmo.

The Examiner escribió: “Este es un libro extraño. No deja de tener una considerable imaginación, pero en su totalidad es salvaje, confuso, e improbable; y las personas que componen el drama son salvajes, aún más rudos que aquellos que vivieron los días antes de Homero.”

 Virginia Woolf afirmó la grandeza de Wuthering Heights en 1925:

“Wuthering Heights es más difícil de entender que Jane Eyre, porque Emily fue mejor poeta que Charlotte… ella tomó un gigantesco desorden de palabras y tuvo el poder de unirlas…es esto lo que le da al libro una gran estatura entre otras novelas.

Párrafos

… 1801.—I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.  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 misanthropist’s heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us…

‘Mr. Heathcliff?’ I said.

A nod was the answer.

‘Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir.  I do myself the honour of calling as soon as possible after my arrival, to express the hope that I have not inconvenienced you by my perseverance in soliciting the occupation of Thrushcross Grange: I heard yesterday you had had some thoughts—’

‘Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,’ he interrupted, wincing.  ‘I should not allow anyone to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it—walk in!’

The ‘walk in’ was uttered with closed teeth, and expressed the sentiment, ‘Go to the Deuce:’ even the gate over which he leant manifested no sympathizing movement to the words; and I think that circumstance determined me to accept the invitation: I felt interested in a man who seemed more exaggeratedly reserved than myself.

When he saw my horse’s breast fairly pushing the barrier, he did put out his hand to unchain it, and then darkly preceded me up the causeway, calling, as we entered the court,—‘Joseph, take Mr. Lockwood’s horse; and bring up some wine.’

‘Here we have the whole establishment of domestics, I suppose,’ was the reflection suggested by this compound order.  ‘No wonder the grass grows up between the flags, and cattle are the only hedge-cutters.’

Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man: very old, perhaps, though healthy and muscular. ‘The Lord help us!’ he soliloquized in an undertone of irritable displeasure, while relieving me of my horse: looking, meantime, in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent.

Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff’s dwelling.  ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather…

Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front…

One stop brought us into the family sitting-room, without any introductory lobby or passage: they call it here ‘the house’ pre-eminently.  It includes kitchen and parlour, generally; but I believe at Wuthering Heights the kitchen is forced to retreat altogether into another quarter: at least I distinguished a chatter of tongues, and a clatter of culinary utensils, deep within; and I observed no signs of roasting, boiling, or baking, about the huge fireplace; nor any glitter of copper saucepans and tin cullenders on the walls… (Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, es el link a Project Gutenberg, donde podés bajar este libro completamente gratis)

Vocabulario

Wince: to draw back (as from pain). To have an expression on your face for a very short time which shows that you are embarrassed or in pain.

Wince: hacer un gesto de dolor, estremecerse.

She winced (in pain) when she hit her elbow.

I wince with embarrassment whenever I think of that day.

Cullender: a variant of colander. A metal container with a perforated bottom and sides, for draining and straining foods.

Para saber

Thrushcross Grange: es el edificio más importante en el vecindario. La casa de los Lintons y, después, poseída por Heathcliff. Él la alquiló y la renta por parte de Lockwood comienza la historia.

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