The main narrative of Wuthering Heights opens in 1801, when Mr Lockwood visits Heathcliff.
Lockwood is the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, a property rented from Heathcliff. His visit to the remote farmhouse Wuthering Heights introduces the novel’s bleak Yorkshire setting and its strange inhabitants, including Heathcliff, Hareton and the younger Cathy Linton.
A snowstorm traps Lockwood at the house. In his room, he discovers Catherine Earnshaw’s writing in an old book and later experiences a disturbing dream or apparent encounter with her ghost. After returning to the Grange and falling ill, he hears the family history from his housekeeper, Ellen “Nelly” Dean.
The year 1801 is easy to confuse with 1847, the novel’s publication year. The story’s retrospective sections reach back roughly thirty years before Lockwood’s visit, but the framing narrative begins in 1801.