Classic Literature English-Chinese Parallel Translation - Wuthering Heights

Author: Zhi Gong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-09
Features: In the rolling northern mountains of England, there stands a nearly isolated house called Wuthering Heights. The master, Earnshaw, one day brings home an orphan from the street and adopts him, naming him Heathcliff, allowing him to live with his son Hindley and daughter Catherine. Heathcliff and Catherine grow up together, developing a deep love, but Hindley despises him intensely. After the elder Earnshaw's death, Hindley becomes the master, not only forbidding Heathcliff from seeing Catherine but also subjecting him to constant abuse and humiliation. This persecution deepens Heathcliff's hatred for Hindley while also strengthening his love for Catherine. One day, Heathcliff and Catherine secretly leave the house and meet Edgar Linton, the young master of Thrushcross Grange, a neighboring estate. The seemingly gentle and wealthy Edgar falls in love with Catherine's beauty and proposes to her. The naive and immature Catherine agrees to marry Edgar, hoping to use his family's wealth to help Heathcliff escape Hindley's oppression. Upon learning of Catherine's marriage, Heathcliff is heartbroken and leaves in anger. Several years later, a handsome and dignified visitor arrives at Thrushcross Grange. It is Heathcliff, who has mysteriously returned after amassing wealth. His sole purpose for returning is to seek revenge on those who once tormented him and took away his beloved. Hindley is a dissolute and wasteful heir, indulging in drink and gambling, squandering the estate left by his father. When he sees Heathcliff return and become wealthy, he invites him to stay at Wuthering Heights, mortgaging the remaining property to him and becoming his servant. Heathcliff becomes a frequent visitor to Thrushcross Grange, and Isabella, Edgar's sister, sees him as a legendary hero and runs away with him. He imprisons and tortures her, venting his bitterness. After marrying Edgar, Catherine realizes her husband's hypocrisy and feels deep regret. Heathcliff's triumphant return pushes her into a despairing abyss. In her despair, she falls ill and soon passes away, leaving behind a daughter, Cathy, who is born after only seven months of pregnancy. Isabella escapes Wuthering Heights after Catherine's death and settles in the suburbs of London, where she gives birth to a son named Linton Heathcliff. Less than six months after Catherine's death, Hindley dies in a drunken stupor, and his young son, Hareton, falls under Heathcliff's control. Heathcliff plans to further exact revenge on the child, "raising" him to be a brute and subjecting him to the same hardships he endured in childhood. Twelve years later, Isabella dies in a distant land, and Heathcliff returns to take his son. The boy resembles his uncle and is elegant and refined but selfish and self-centered, which Heathcliff despises deeply. Time passes, and Cathy grows into a graceful young woman. On her 16th birthday, she accidentally meets her uncle Heathcliff, whom she does not recognize. When Heathcliff realizes that the girl before him is the daughter of his beloved Catherine and his enemy Edgar, love and hatred churn within him, forming a new pattern of revenge: forcing her to marry his son so he can legally claim the Linton estate. When Edgar is on his deathbed, Heathcliff forces Cathy to hastily marry his son. A few days later, Edgar dies, and Heathcliff once again becomes the master of Thrushcross Grange. The young Linton also disappears shortly after the marriage, leaving Cathy immersed in grief. By then, Hareton is 23 years old, looking exactly like the young Heathcliff, though deprived of an education and lacking warmth, he is kind, loyal, and graceful. Cathy falls in love with him. Heathcliff had hoped to see them hate each other, but instead, they fall in love. He resolves to break them apart. However, when he observes them more closely, images of Catherine and their past love resurface. At that moment, his hatred fades, and love prevails. He cannot bear to take revenge anymore. He sets out to find Catherine. On a stormy night, he leaves the world with a hollow heart, filled with the bitterness of his revenge, laughing wildly.