Wuthering Heights: chapter by chapter

Volume one

  1. 1801 Mr Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, visits his landlord Heathcliff who lives at Wuthering Heights.
  2. Lockwood visits the following day, too, though uninvited. Cannot return across the moor because of a snowstorm so spends the night.
  3. L dreams of young girl trying to get into his room from outside; his screams wake up Heathcliff who guides him part of the way home the next morning. L comes down with a fever.
  4. L's housekeeper, Mrs Dean (aka Nelly) takes over as narrator from L, and tells how Heathcliff was adopted by Mr Earnshaw and brought up with his own two children Cathy and Hindley Earnshaw. The story begins . . .
  5. Mrs Earnshaw dies; Hindley is sent away to college. Mr Earnshaw dies.
  6. Hindley returns for his father's funeral, with his wife Frances in tow. Heathcliff and Cathy spy on Edgar and Isabella Linton one Sunday night at T. Grange, but get caught. C is bitten by dog, then taken in to be nursed. Heathcliff is sent away.
  7. Cathy returns to WH five weeks later transformed into a little princess. On Christmas Day the Lintons visit. Hindley banishes Heathcliff from the party.
  8. Nelly jumps forward three years in narrative. Hareton Earnshaw is born, but his mother Frances dies shortly after. Hindley drowns his sorrows. Heathcliff annoyed at Cathy spending more time with the Lintons than with him.
  9. Heathcliff unwittingly saves Hareton's life. Cathy tells Nelly she has accepted Edgar Linton's proposal of marriage, and says it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff. H hears this, and runs off into the stormy night and doesn't come back. Cathy distraught falls ill. Convalescing at T. Grange the Linton parents catch her fever and die. Three years later Cathy and Edgar marry.
  10. Heathcliff returns from his travels transformed into a gentleman, visits T. Grange. Cathy teases Isabella who is infatuated with Heathcliff.
  11. Heathcliff stays at WH, poisons Hareton against his father. Edgar confronts Heathcliff, but is humiliated when Cathy takes H's side. Edgar tells Cathy she must choose between H and him. Cathy has a temper tantrum and makes herself ill.
  12. Cathy stays in her room without eating, while Edgar reads in his library. She opens the window wanting to feel the wind on her face. Isabella elopes with Heathcliff, who hangs her dog Fanny.
  13. Isabella sends Nelly a letter telling her of the terrible life she leads at WH.
  14. Nelly visits WH. Heathcliff gets her to secure him a meeting with Cathy, and gives her a letter for Cathy.

Volume Two

  1. Nelly gives Cathy Heathcliff's letter, and he visits her while Edgar is at church. They kiss and argue who is to blame for their unhappiness. Edgar returns, Cathy faints. Heathcliff leaves, waits in garden.
  2. Cathy gives birth to Catherine, and dies without regaining consciousness.
  3. Isabella runs away from WH, stops briefly at T. Grange before going south to near London. She tells Nelly of how Hindley attacked Heathcliff but came off worse. Isabella gives birth to Linton, dies when her son is 12. Hindley dies 6 months after Cathy, aged 27 (the same age as Nelly). Heathcliff becomes the legal owner of WH, Hareton is reduced to servant status.
  4. Catherine Linton (henceforth CL) grows up never leaving the grounds of T. Grange till aged 13. Isabella dies. While her father is away, CL visits WH where she is not pleased to discover Hareton is her cousin
  5. Edgar brings home his nephew Linton, but Joseph (Heathcliff's servant) is sent to fetch him.
  6. Nelly takes Linton to WH.
  7. A couple of years later CL meets Heathcliff while on H's land, and sees Linton again. Her father warns CL to avoid Heathcliff and stay away from WH. CL and Linton exchange letters secretly until Nelly finds out and puts an end to it.
  8. Heathcliff sees CL outside T. Grange's fence, bids her to visit Linton who misses her (H says).
  9. Nelly and CL visit WH while H is away. Linton is a spoilt brat with a terrible character, but Cathy likes to nurse him. Nelly catches a chill and is confined to bed, so CL is free to do as she pleases.
  10. CL visits WH almost every day till her father finds out and forbids it.
  11. Linton and CL allowed to correspond. Edgar is persuaded to let them meet on neutral ground.
  12. Linton and CL (with Nelly) meet not far from WH. Linton is very ill, barely able to walk unaided. He seems uninterested in CL, but very afraid of not doing what his father Heathcliff has told him to. Linton gets CL to agree to come back the next day.
  13. They meet again, but CL annoyed at L's indifference, wonders why he asked her to come if he doesn't want to be with her. Heathcliff gets CL to accompany Linton into WH (against her father's strict orders) and once she and Nelly are in the house, Heathcliff locks the door. Linton tells CL of H's plans for them to marry. CL begs to be allowed home to see her father. Heathcliff refuses. CL and Nelly kept prisoners for 5 days.
  14. Nelly able to escape, returns to T. Grange. Edgar thwarted in his attempt to change his will, as Heathcliff has bribed the lawyer to stay away. CL finally able to escape, kisses her father who promptly dies.
  15. After Edgar's funeral, Heathcliff tells CL she must live at WH. Nelly is to stay at T. Grange. He tells Nelly how he opened Cathy's grave, how he feels haunted by her.
  16. Zillah (the housekeeper at WH) tells Nelly how Linton died. Hareton attracted to CL but she rejects his advances. Lockwood takes up the story again, now he's over his cold.
  17. Lockwood visits WH to tell Heathcliff he'll be returning to London. CL pours scorn on Hareton's attempts to educate himself.
  18. After spending the spring and summer away, Lockwood returns to T. Grange for one night, and visits WH where CL and Hareton are all lovey-dovey. Nelly tells him Heathcliff's dead. Nelly's narrator again!
  19. CL and Hareton dig up Joseph's bushes; CL tries to pit Hareton against Heathcliff, who tells Nelly he feels a change coming . . .
  20. Heathcliff doesn't eat, shuns company, sees Cathy's ghost. Nelly finds him dead in the room Lockwood slept in way back in chapter 3. Hareton the only one to grieve at Heathcliff's death. Hareton and CL marry on January 1st 1803.