Joseph is the servant at Wuthering Heights.

Two families who are neighbors and then intermarried - the Earnshaws and the Lintons. It's all a mess and the story is going to flashback so you can see how it all played out and why it's such a mess. Joseph is a servant.

You met Cathy Linton, the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff >!loved Catherine but didn't marry her. She married Edgar Linton and Heathcliff married Isabell Linton, Edgar's sister. So his son's first name is the mother's last name ("Linton Heathcliff" is a terrible name, lol.!< Bronte made it so complicated).

Fantastic book even has ghosts in it.

Here's a family tree.

That should help you get the relationships straight.

Please note that said family tree contains spoilers, which u/darthluke11 specifically asked to avoid.

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The thing to understand about Wuthering Heights is that the majority of it is told as a story-within-a-story, primarily through Nelly (one of the servants) telling Lockwood (the new tenant you meet in the opening chapter) what happened. The characters that Lockwood meets in between Nelly's storytelling sessions are intended to be slightly ambiguous (who are they? how did they get here? who married who?)—Bronte is essentially giving you some puzzle pieces to try to put together on your own as the story unfolds.

However, it's okay to be confused about the characters in the "current" (Lockwood) timeline. As long as you keep track of who's who in Nelly's storytelling (and that in and of itself is a bit of a challenge), you'll enjoy the novel.

Not really a fan of Emily, I prefer Charlotte, but I bestow upon you blessings in the shape of the glorious Kate Beaton 's illustrations,

caution, spoiler alerts, these are spoofs of the story in cartoon form

part one and two

parts three, four and five, and six

As an extra treat, something that you can enjoy before you finish the novel is Dude Watchin' With The Bronte Sisters

My book edition has a family tree in it and I find it so helpful! I've read the book multiple times and I still get confused lol

Roll with the confusion. As readers we're being aligned with newcomer Lockwood (who admittedly is a fool), and thus deliberately being invited to also try and sort out the confusing muddle of intwined Earnshaw/Linton relationships (hopefully more successfully than him)...

It's a low-key mystery element to the narrative. Embrace it!

Thanks for the warning 🙂

Heyy I just started Wuthering Heights too! It's been on my list since forever but i could never get myself to read more than few pages. The words are a bit hard and like you said so confusing. Hopefully i finish it this time.

Kate Bush’s song Wuthering Heights is a good one to listen to- eerie, longing, powerful mood.

Reading on an e-reader like kindle is a game changer for hard words with one touch look up.

Agreed, i am not a fan of e-reading but it will definitely be really helpful for this