Wuthering Heights

Descubrí a Emily Brönte después que a su hermana Charlotte, autora de "Jane Eyre", a quien un día dedicaré una entrada en el blog. La conocí en clase de inglés cuando tenía unos 15 años, porque en el libro había un extracto de de novela que ocupaba sólo unas líneas, pero no pude reprimirme y me leí el libro, o me lo zampé, no lo tengo muy claro, y desde entonces no puedo escoger entre las dos hermanas, porque me parecen las dos igual de fantásticas. Os dejo con el resumen del libro, espero que lo disfrutéis y esto, como a mí, os anime a leerlo o devorarlo:

"Wuthering heights" was published in 1847 under the pseudonym of Ellis Bell. It is one of the most romantic stories ever.

Mr. Loockwood wanted to rent a house in the mountains and met Mr. Heathcliff, a rude and curt man, owner of Wuthering Heights.
That night he had to stay in Heathcliff's house and he found a personal diary of a girl called Catherine Earnshaw, a close childhood friend of Heathcliff. That night Loockwood dreamt about this girl and started to shout and scream. Heathcliff came into the room and when he knew that it was all about Catherine, everybody left him alone and he tried to spoke to Catherine... that's why Loockwood asked about his story.

Everything began when Mr.Earnshaw found an orphan, dark boy in Liverpool, and brought him to Wuthering heights. He was called Heathcliff.
Mr.Earnshaw had also a son and a daughter, Hindley and Catherine, respectively. The son didn't like Heathcliff at all, but Catherine soon became a good and close friend. They were in love, but they were too young.
When Mr.Earnshaw died, three years later, Hindley became the owner of the state and treated Heathcliff as a servant, but it couldn't end the friendship of him and his sister. Hindley married a woman, Frances.

One day, they both were playing, Heathcliff and Catherine, near their neighbors, the Lintons, when a dog bit her and she had to stay there for a while, recovering herself.
This family was very kind and helped Catherine to become a polite and well-manared young woman. The son, Edgar Linton, began to like Catherine, and Heathcliff couldn't stand it.

One year later Frances, Hindley's wife, died, while giving birth a boy, Hareton, and Hindley took to drinking.

Two years later Catherine agreed to marry Edgar Linton, although he was in love with Heathcliff, and her love was immovable like the rocks.
Heathcliff couldn't stand it and left. She felt sick and desperate, but Edgar took care of her and finally they marry, but a few months later Heathcliff came back, wealthier, like a gentleman.

Hindley was a drunken man and died, what meant that Heathcliff was then the owner of Wuthering Heights.
At the same time, Isabella, Edgar's sister, fell in love with him and Heathcliff made the most of it, as it was a good opportunity to have the Lintons states, too.

Catherine initially was happy at seeing Heathcliff again, but then becomes very ill after a harsh argument with Heathcliff regarding Isabella. They reconcile a few hours before her death, however, reaffirming their feelings for one another. Catherine dies after giving birth to a daughter also named Catherine, or Cathy.

I have not broken your heart—you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.

Heathcliff married Isabella and they had a boy called Linton, despised for his own father.

Hareton, Hindley's son, reminded Heathcliff of Catherine... but he couldn't think of that, he had to degrade him as Hindley degraded himself in the past.

Twelve years later, Isabella was dying and tried to left his son to his brother, Edgar but Heathcliff found out everything and decided to take care of him, by letting him live in Wuthering Heights, but despising him, too.

Then, Linton and Hareton lived together but in different ways: Cathy and Linton were friends and Hareton was working all day, he couldn't hardly speak...
Heathcliff forced Cathy and Linton to marry, and because Edgar Linton died, Cathy became a prisoner in Wuthering Heights.
Linton was very ill and died, too. So, Cathy and Hareton, cousins, lived in the same house and started to be very close of each other, like Catherine and Heathcliff in the past... Cathy teached Hareton to read, write...

Heathcliff is confronted by Cathy and Hareton's love and Hareton's determination to protect the defiant Cathy from Heathcliff's attacks remained Heathcliff his own story and he seems to suffer a mental break from reality and begins to see Catherine's ghost. He abandons his life-long vendetta and soon dies, smiling as he fulfills his life-long dream of joining Catherine in the afterlife.

No me he presentado

Me presento ante todo, porque aún no he dicho ni cómo me llamo, ni quien soy, ni qué hago con este blog.
Me llamo Carmina y vivo y trabajo en una ciudad preciosa con río, humedad y una gran catedral, Girona.
Hace unos días pensé que las redacciones que escribo para mis clases de inglés no tenían porqué estar escondidas entre las hojas de una libreta, así que creé un blog con resúmenes de libros, pero en inglés. Lo que veréis es que están llenos de errores (al menos durante los primeros días de tenerlos colgados) y que después mágicamente desaparecen, y eso se deberá a qué me los ha corregido mi fantástico profesor nativo de Londres que no habla una palabra de catalán, alguna de castellano, y sobrevive en Girona desde hace 3 años.

El primer resumen se lo dediqué a "Kane y Abel", de Jeffrey Archer, porque es un libro que me entusiasma, que me he leído dos veces (y eso nunca lo hago) y me da una energía y motivación que nada más ni nadie podrá conseguir. Lo recomiendo con fervor y veréis que es posible conseguir cualquier cosa.

El segundo resumen, sobre "Orgullo y prejuicio", de Jane Austen, me vino a la cabeza escribirlo después de ver 4 episodios (3 horas en total) de una serie inglesa llamada "Lost in Austen", sobre una chica tan obsesionada con este libro que se mete en la historia y acaba enamorada de Mr.Darcy. Y quién no. Hace más de una semana que vi la serie y el señor Darcy no se va de mi cabeza. Quedan hombres así?

Hoy decidiré cuál será mi tercer libro, porque no lo tengo muy claro. Es muy difícil ir escogiendo, pero intento que tengan que ver conmigo, con lo que me pasa y vivo día a día, así que... voy a pensar!

Espero que os vayan gustando las reseñas. Si queréis proponer algún libro, por mi encantada.

Pride and prejudice

Jane Austen wrote this book when she was only 20 years old. It was published on the 28th January 1813.

The family Bennet, with five daughters, lived in the countryside, near London. Mrs.Bennet saw marriage as the only way of hope for her daughters, and she tried desperately to marry them before her husband’s death.

One day a single and wealthy man called Charles Bingley arrived to the neighborhood and Mrs.Bennet was pretty excited. Mr.Bingley stayed in Netherfield with his sisters and brother-in-law. A friend of him, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, stayed with them, too.

One day all of them went to a ball in the village and Mr.Darcy starts to seem too much proud and disdainful with all the village people. One of the Bennet’s daughters, Miss Elisabeth, heard Mr.Darcy talking about her in a very disgusting way and she couldn’t put up with this.
On the other hand, Mr.Bingley was very charming with Jane Bennet, the oldest of the sisters.

One day Mr.Collins, Mr.Bennet’s cousin, visited the family and tried to marry one of the daughters of his cousin. He proposed Elisabeth, but she rejected it immediately. Her father supported her in this decision.
Finally, Mr. Collins married Charlotte Lucas, Elisabeth’s best friend, who was 27 years old and a small dowry.

Elisabeth started to fall in love with an official, Mr.Wickham, an enemy of Mr.Darcy. Elisabeth liked that, because she had a lot of prejudices.

Suddenly, Charles Bingley decided to come back to London, and Elisabeth suspected it was an idea of Darcy to separate Jane Bennet and Bingley.
Elisabeth visited Charlotte and Mr.Collins, who lived in Lady Catherine’s domains. Lady Catherine was the aunt of Mr.Darcy, and it was a coincidence that they both met there. They saw each other every day and with the past of time, Mr.Darcy fell in love with Elisabeth, against his wishes. He proposed and Elisabeth declined, because of his manners, and with her pride hurt.
The day after that, Darcy gave a letter to Elisabeth and disappeared.
In this letter Darcy admitted that he convinced Mr.Bingley to leave Netherfield and Jane, too, in order to protect him. About Mr.Wickham, he explains the entire real story about them.

Elisabeth went on holidays with her uncle and aunt and they visited Pemberley, Darcy’s home, while he was out. They met each other by chance in Pemberley and she started to see him as a better person than she thought. He was very kind with her family and his sister Georgiana.

While Elisabeth was out, her little sister Lydia escaped and ran away with Mr.Wickham. It could be the biggest dishonor for the Bennets.
Mr.Darcy went to find them and paid him to marry Lydia.
This action made Elisabeth feel better and thankful to Darcy. Sometimes, first impressions are not the good ones.

Lady Catherine found out these feelings between Elisabeth and Darcy and tried to persuade them to break up their relationship, but she couldn’t.
Darcy proposed for a second time and Elisabeth accepted.

At the end of the story, Darcy and Elisabeth got married, but also Jane Bennet and Mr.Bingley.

Kane and Abel

Kane and Abel is the most famous book of Jeffrey Archer. It is the story about two men, who were born the same day (18 April 1906) in different places of the world. One is William Kane, American, and the other one is Wladek Koskiewicz, pole.

William was born in a very wealthy family, son of the owner of the Kane and Cabot Bank. His father was dead in his way back home to America on board the Titanic and he became fatherless. William was very smart and intelligent and he had soon the best marks in the school and university (Harvard), because he wanted to be like his father, a great banker. Although his family had plenty of money, he never asked for anything, only his weekly pocket money, one dollar every week from his grandmothers, and with this money he could always survive: he invested it in many different ways, even when he was in primary school, where he made business with stickers.
His best friend was Mathew Lester, the son of the Lester’s bank owner. William promised Mr. Lester that one day he will be in charge of his bank.
William’s mother started dating Henry Osborne, an awful man with gambling problems, who early spent all her money. She died having a miscarriage and after that, William threw Henry Osborne out and they became enemies.
William Kane achieved the position of director in the Kane and Cabot bank, in his late twenties.

In another part of the world lived Wladek Koskiewicz, son of a prostitute, who was born in the middle of the forest and he was token in a poor and simple family. All the family could see that he was different, smart and intelligent. The Baron of the castle near the village asked the family to take Wladek in his castle in order to become a friend, partner and competitor of his son Leon.
The World War started and Poland was occupied by the German. His sister Florentyna died, his friend Leon died and finally, the Baron Abel Rosnovski died, but before dying he gave Abel a wonderful bracelet made of silver with his name.
Wladek was captured and moved to Siberia, to a concentration camp, and although he had a big injury in his leg, he managed to escape with the help of the Jewish doctor of the concentration camp, a man who seemed to be 60 years old and who really was 30.
Wladek traveled to Russia and then to Turkey, almost without money, and was captured because of stealing food. He almost lost a hand, but two English men from the consulate rescued him and they heard his story. They help Wladek and gave him a boat ticket to travel to America.
During the trip he met George and Zaphia, two poles and became friends. When he arrived to the USA and told his name, he used “Abel Rosnovski”, his real father’s name.
Abel (before Wladek) started to work as a waiter in the Plaza hotel and he studied business in the evenings at Columbia University. One day Davis Leroy, the owner of a big hotel chain, met Abel and asked him to work as a manager in one of his best hotels. He did a really good job and David and he became good friends and partners.
During the Great Depression, Mr. Leroy had several money problems and he committed suicide, after giving Abel all his hotels shares and telling him that the Kane and Cabot bank didn’t want to help his chain hotel.
Abel felt very angry with this bank and blamed William Kane for that. The first time they met, was the beginning of an eternal enmity.

Abel needed money to keep all the hotels and he received help from an anonymous backer. He became a very successful business man in collaboration of Henry Osborne, now a politician with lots of influences.

Abel had a daughter with Zaphia, the pole woman, and they called her Florentyna (in memory of his dead sister).
At the same time William had a son and called him Richard, in memory of his dead father. Both sons grew up and one day they met in a big store, where Florentyna was working as a sales woman. She was working there because she wanted to get some experience in business. They didn’t know who their parents were and when they discovered that their parents were big enemies, they tried to spoke to them, but there was no way.

The fight between Kane and Abel last until Kane died. After Kane's death, Abel knew that William was the person who invested money in his bussiness during the Great Depression and felt sorry for that... he went to Kane's funeral and reconciles with his beloved daughter and son-in-law. He knew his grand son, too. Abel died soon after and left everything to Florentyna, except his silver bracelet, which left to his grand son, called William Abel Kane.