Q: What do you think are the great books that stand out in the world cannon (sic) of literature, and that have shaped their successors? Wuthering Heights, for one. The legend and mystique that surround this novel also obscure the fact that it is a masterwork of tone, balance and structure. It's these elements, rather than its "romantic" theme (which this book is definitely NOT - in no way, shape or form is Wuthering Heights a "romance") that have proved influential to writers since the book was first read a hundred and fifty-one years ago.