“I’ll not retract my word,” said Catherine. “I’ll marry him within this hour, if I may go to Thrushcross Grange afterwards. Mr. Heathcliff, you’re a cruel man, but you’re not a fiend; and you won’t, from mere malice, destroy irrevocably all my happiness. If papa thought I had left him on purpose, and if he died before I returned, could I bear to live? I’ve given over crying: but I’m going to kneel here, at your knee; and I’ll not get up, and I’ll not take my eyes from your face till you look back at me! No, don’t turn away! do look! you’ll see nothing to provoke you. I don’t hate you. I’m not angry that you struck me. Have you never loved anybody in all your life, uncle? never? Ah! you must look once. I’m so wretched, you can’t help being sorry and pitying me.”
Wuthering Heights
By Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with Earnshaw's adopted son, Heathcliff. The novel was influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction.
Edition record
Why this edition is available
Bite reviewed this specific edition as public domain using the source, jurisdiction records, and dated evidence below. Public domain is a legal status rather than a licence, and it may differ by country or edition.
- Edition
- Project Gutenberg eBook #768 — plain-text edition
- Source text
- Open the source edition
- Review coverage
- 44 jurisdictions · latest check 31 Aug 2026
Review all jurisdiction evidenceauthor Brontë, Emily died 1848. All identified copyright-relevant edition contributors are beyond the conservative expiry cutoff applied from the cited jurisdictional duration rule as of 2026-08-31.
Review basis for AU
A look inside
1116 / 1383Explore public samples
Read passages from Wuthering Heights. Each sample opens without an account.
- A father's contempt
- Sister in name
- The Dream That Stayed
- Held until she consents
- An infernal house
- Was She Wrong?
- A Heart-Breaking Discovery
- A Fall at the Banister
- Greedy jealousy
- A Threat and a Dying Love
- Triumph in Degradation
- A Dawn Escape
- A Love That Demanded Memory
- An Unyielding Demand
- Wuthering Heights, built for wind
- Man, Madman, or Devil?
- Torments of Memory
- Books thrown on the fire
- A Protective Secret
- The World as Reminders
- A Secret, Signed Isabella
- A Deadly Temptation
- The ultimatum
- Civility Worn as Cruelty
- A Wish That Consumes Him
- Grave-Minded Revenge
- Locked In with Heathcliff
- A Love That Claims Everything
- From Hell's Threshold to Heaven
- Into the fire
- Should She Marry?
- A Glimpse That Changed a Death
- The Key Between Them
- A sudden collapse
- A Plea at His Knee
- Love That Chooses Suffering
- Comfort beside the Dead
- A Stranger at the Fireside
- A blow and a vow
- A Changed Heathcliff
- A Goblin in Candlelight
- Beauty with Scornful Eyes
- Eyes That Burn, Not Weep
- Heathcliff's Audacity
- A Forced Handshake
- Silent Despair at the Bedside
- A desperate plea
- Forgiveness by revenge
- A Breath That Stopped Her
- Love and Despair
- Let Me In
- A Vow of Vengeance
- A Misanthropist’s Heaven
- Rescue on the steps
- Why Return to the Heights?
- Seen at midnight
- The Quiet Passing
- I Cannot Live Without My Soul
- A Window and a Breaking Point
- Moonlight and a question
- The Wild Girl Made a Lady
- Demand for the key
- Honeysuckles and a hidden hurt
- The Wolf Behind the Mask
- Two Faces in a Shadow
- Identity Bound to One Love
- Vow Beyond the Grave
- A violent threat
- Rumour on the Moors
- A Grave Refusal
- The Rain‑Washed Body
- A Night Walk and a Promise
- A Sudden Accusation
- A Fatal Accusation
- A Radiant Passing
- Two Heavens
- The Window into Another World
- He Dug at the Coffin
- A Love Measured Against Time
- A child's defiant dirt
- One Last Presence
- A smile like a taut cord
- When the parlour becomes a bed
- A Forbidden Route
- Burning for the Heights
- You Have Broken My Heart
- A Knock at Midnight
- Betrayal and Vows
- Promises of Violence
- Claiming unseen lights
- A Kind Lie
- When Revenge Runs Out
- Breaking My Own Heart to Hurt Them
- A Missed Hour
- An Impossible Choice
- Souls Made of the Same
- A Wedding at Dawn
- The Face as a Mask
- A kneeling plea for forever
- A Threat and a Gaze