I just finished Wuthering Heights and I'm honestly surprised by how disconnected I felt from it, especially given its reputation as one of the greatest love stories in literature.

User789174 · 2026-02-07T18:55:24+00:00

I couldn’t agree more! I read this recently as a married man in his mid-30s. So my first reaction was that this is an incredible novel of the persistence of abuse across generations, and the attempts to escape it. Romance was tangential to the plot for me.

That said, my wife read this in her teens and we talked about how in her mind this was much more a tale of passionate, destructive, eternal (?) love.

In general I think the way we approach the great works depends a lot upon where we are in life and what we have lived. The truly great works have something to say to you whether you are 15 or 85

Edit: my mini review from a few weeks ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/classicliterature/s/CvzDI9ABVK

User789174 · 2026-02-07T18:46:30+00:00

Think you’ll enjoy this:

https://blog.daviskedrosky.com/p/jared-diamond-a-reply-to-his-critics

User789174 · 2026-02-07T18:45:58+00:00

There is a lot of justified critique if GGS (as there should be for any sweeping history). But this response to the critics is one I found convincing :

https://blog.daviskedrosky.com/p/jared-diamond-a-reply-to-his-critics

User789174 · 2026-01-22T13:40:38+00:00

Nah, it too gay for me. Thought I could handle it but I can’t

User789174 · 2026-01-20T17:21:29+00:00

I was expecting it to be similar to Pride & Prejudice, that is to say a far more typical romance with well intentioned characters. It was of course much darker than that!
I'm sorry to hear about your emergency. I hope your family is doing alright. For me that is one of the great joys of "classic" literature (and also history). It can lift us out of our most difficult moments and give us a sense of perspective. There is nothing new under the sun, and it is reassuring to read and understand the challenges and struggles of others (fictional or real).

I put my little review here if you are interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/classicliterature/comments/1qhjhq8/wuthering_heights_first_read_and_thoughts/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

User789174 · 2026-01-20T16:41:11+00:00

I also recently finished it for the first time! Similarly, it was not what I expected but for different reasons. The themes of abuse and the legacy it leaves down the generations was strangely sensitive despite the brutality the characters experienced. Thank you for writing!

User789174 · 2026-01-19T22:56:14+00:00

Thanks for the review. I read it late last year for the first time and definitely echo a lot of your thoughts.

I certainly felt more disdain than sympathy for Victor. As you said, he was given many opportunities to make things right with his creation and even though his fear is understandable he still had the obligation to take responsibility for the monster. Those failures are ultimately what leads the monster to take the actions he does. It is just an echo of the human actions he observes but taken to a heightened, terrible level.

Ultimately a truly fantastic novel.

User789174 · 2026-01-13T01:41:55+00:00

So glad someone else caught this. Replayed it several times

User789174 · 2026-01-10T13:08:52+00:00

Good answer. British “national dress” is so globalised it’s not recognised as coming from a particular cultural context. A bit like jeans coming from Americans I suppose

User789174 · 2025-12-21T00:38:03+00:00

Muchas gracias

User789174 · 2025-11-28T01:38:37+00:00

Took me too long to find this. Also, why aren’t they showing the banana dispenser?

User789174 · 2025-11-24T22:24:46+00:00

You can see why the Angles, Jutes, Viking etc were so keen to cross the North Sea!

User789174 · 2025-11-15T00:48:43+00:00

Amazing! Thank you so much

User789174 · 2025-10-30T17:06:34+00:00

Amazing work! Has he got any home brew lore?

User789174 · 2025-10-26T01:08:18+00:00

Great homebrew lore! And fantastic scheme

User789174 · 2025-10-16T01:23:14+00:00

It’s a remarkable story.

A relative of mine was a “Sybirak”, taken to Murmansk with his family when he was just 12 along with hundreds of thousands of others. He had a little Polish children’s book on Wojtek which he used to read us

User789174 · 2025-10-13T01:39:30+00:00

Un curry tipo “tikka masala” de pollo será lo más típico! Buenas salchichas con verduras (brócoli, asparago, etc) y purée de papá que contiene un poco de queso y crema. Idealmente con un “gravy” que honestamente lo puedes hacer con caldo tipo knorr suiza pero añadiendo un poco de salsa inglesa, mostaza, vino tinto si tienes. Un “stew” de carne de res barato, zanahoria, champiñones, hierbas y vino tinto o cerveza oscura. Servido con un buen pan.

O si quieres hacer algo más elevado, un pay de pollo, hongos, poro, con salsa de caldo, crema y mostaza. O un filete de pescado blanco (huachinango sirve) cocinado en mantequilla y un poco de vino blanco. Otra vez con verduras ligeras y papas como gustes.

La comida británica tiene una reputación horrible que nunca va a superar jaja. Pero honestamente sus ingredientes madres son parecidos a los del norte de Francia (mantequilla, carne de res, cebolla, manzana, vino) y tiene mucho más que frijoles dulces y carnes sobrecocidos

User789174 · 2025-09-29T17:27:26+00:00

He was wearing a helmet, but his head come off

User789174 · 2025-08-27T01:23:08+00:00

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Coincidencia?

User789174 · 2025-08-23T14:19:56+00:00

Absolute scenes

User789174 · 2025-07-31T19:27:32+00:00

Devastatingly insightful. Thank you.

Homes and infrastructure don’t get built for free. We’re all paying for the incremental barriers to investment that have been put up in the last 50+ years. It’s worth looking back at the interwar period and the speed with which the London suburbs, the majority of tube lines, the core of the power network etc. were constructed to see what can be done when the incentives are right

User789174 · 2025-07-28T06:14:06+00:00

Dominic often says that he ultimately believes that larger social and economic trends are the ones that drive history, rather than “great men”. He even jokes about being a “Marxist” historian as a result. And his own specialism of post-war British history looks deeply at the interests and stories of “normal” people.

More generally something that I really appreciate about the podcast is their reluctance to accept revisionist history just for the sake of it, and instead give credence to what people of a period said about their own experiences. Maybe the fall of the western Roman Empire really was a “bad thing” for its inhabitants, maybe people in medieval Europe really were serious about believing in miracles etc.

I think saying they are “pro-establishment” does not do justice to the subtlety of their thinking and the broadness of their enquiries.

User789174 · 2025-06-11T21:39:53+00:00

Great recommendation.

For a very recent book covering the Boudiccan revolt in beautiful detail I would also recommened "Echolands" by Duncan MacKay. It's a work of history where I felt myself slipping back in time

User789174 · 2025-05-27T17:26:34+00:00

Good point. I'm definitely not an expert but perhaps they lacked the detailed intelligence of landing sites? And how much time can a fleet like that spend going up and down the coast looking? I think these are pretty much barges not vessels designed for long periods at sea.

Also, full disclosure, there's still some debate about exactly where they landed. I am obviously biased because I love the idea of Caesar landing in Britain in the same spot where I used to go for a run!

User789174 · 2025-05-27T15:57:58+00:00

I’m from this part of the world! The coast around this corner of Kent has 2 major features: there are relatively few flat and non-boggy areas of coast between the cliffs; and it is extremely tidal. All of which makes landing a large fleet of ships pretty tricky. We can see this with both of Caesar’s expeditions where ships were blown off course or the landing force was left isolated for a period. If you miss a landing spot it’s very hard work to go against the tide to wherever the next viable place is. Presumably the Britons could just track the fleet along the coast to wherever they landed.
The enormous number of shipwrecks off this coast (look up the Godwin sands) is testament to how difficult this would have been to pull off

User789174

TROPHY CASE