12th Grade English Summer Reading Guidelines Selection: Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë After a recent poll by the UK Guardian, in which 2,000 readers voted Wuthering Heights “the greatest love story of all time,” columnist Martin Kettle wrote, “If Wuthering Heights is a love story, then Hamlet is a family sitcom. . . and the Sistine Chapel a cool piece of interior design.” Although Brontë’s novel is often tagged a love story, it is actually a study in obsession and vengeance. It is also a story of new beginnings and transformations. Though published in 1847, the novel is incredibly relevant for 21st century readers. Since, you will be preparing for university-­‐level classes, you will need to practice “close reading.” By now you should be well equipped to determine theme and to communicate how such devices as motif, symbol, parallel structure, and figurative language enhance thematic statement. To effectively respond to these works in the fall, take notes as you read during the summer. Make marginal notes, underline, highlight, and write a sentence or two at the beginnings of chapters or scenes (Addendum 1). Annotation will help you locate passages when you are responding to prompts for essays. I will post study guides for various chapters. Although you will not be required to submit completed guides, answering the questions will help in remembering details. Not only will the annotated text or completed guides help you to be specific when defending a thesis, but they will also be invaluable when reviewing for tests. Be prepared to complete a comprehensive test on the second day of class next fall. Expect to identify items/quotations from the text and explain the significance or function of each. On the following day, you will write an essay about some aspect of the novel. This essay will be evaluated for content and mechanics. You may use your annotated text only when responding to the prompt. Both the test and the essay will be major grades. Eleven points for having completed a compliance form will be factored in the grading scales for the test and the essay. Because you have been assigned only one work for summer reading, spend serious time reading and studying the work. As seniors, you are responsible for purchasing your own summer reading text, which should be easy to locate. You must purchase the specific copy listed below with the corresponding ISBNs (numbers). Because so much of our class involves analysis through group discussion, you must be able to locate passages quickly. Online novels are not usually paginated; therefore, if you read an online text, you will have great difficulty keeping current in class discussion. Reading from the same edition will eliminate much loss of time and confusion. If you have any trouble locating this edition, contact me immediately. Enjoy this novel. You will be reading about characters that have become part of our literary tradition. Read closely, take notes, and be prepared to discuss the novel when you return to class. As always, read and think on your own. I am much more interested in what you think than in what you have read on the Internet. Read Wuthering Heights, not notes on a website. If you do watch a film adaptation, read first; watch later. Your responses on test and in essay will need to reflect a close reading of the actual text. I leave you with Eudora Welty’s lovely words: It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been
written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like
grass. Yet regardless of where they come from, I cannot remember a time when I was not
in love with them -- with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they
were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms,
captured and carried off to myself. Still illiterate, I was ready for them, committed to all
the reading I could give them ...
― Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings (William E.Massey Senior Lectures in the
History of American Civilization)
Have a great summer and, as you read your novel, be like Welty: “committed to all the reading [you can] give them. . . .” Kathryn Scarbrough See next page for ISBNs. Note that both the ten-­‐digit and the thirteen-­‐
digit ISBN are listed. These ISBNs will be slightly different, but you should be able to find the edition with either. This edition is unabridged and is available on Amazon. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë. Dover Thrift Edition, unabridged. ISBN-­‐10: 0486292568 ISBN-­‐13: 978-­‐0486292564 See Addendum 1 on the next page. Addendum 1 Sample annotated page from Wuthering Heights: