Victoria Hislop
Author of The Return, Victoria Hislop, lets us in on her all-time favorite line from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
“Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!' He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a savage beast being goaded to death with knives and spears.”
That line comes precisely halfway through Wuthering heights, and it’s my favourite line of any book and I’ve loved it since I was 15 the first time I read it and its Heathcliff ranting and raving against his now dead lover Catherine. He cannot stand the thought that she’s now no longer alive and is not upset but furious with her.
To me as a 15 year old it really was the first time I’d even been able to imagine what love and passion could do to someone.
