By what means and how successfully does Emily Bronte engage and sustain the reader's interest in the first three chapters of Wuthering Heights?

The first few chapters of 'Wuthering Heights' appear to set the tone of the novel through the voice of the narrator - Mr. Lockwood. It is through his constant curiosity and thirst for knowledge that we are introduced to Heathcliff and his household. From the tone of the first three chapters, a Victorian reader would have expected this to be a gothic novel, yet the narrative voice, the diary form, structure and broad use of …

…is naturalistic and fully and precisely created. Everything about the setting is used for dramatic impact, it is by this strategy that again, Bronte sustains the reader's interest. ".... One may guess the power of the North wind, blowing over the edge, by the excessive slants of a few, stunted firs at the end of the house and by arrange of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun..."