Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights
Title page of the first edition
Author	Emily Brontë
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Thomas Cautley Newby
Publication date	1847
Media type	Print (Hardback)
ISBN	9781932535143

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective, wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.

Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights' met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, with many horrified by the stark depictions of mental and physical cruelty.^[1][2] Though Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was originally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that its originality and achievement made it superior.^[3] Wuthering Heights has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works, including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor and songs (notably the hit "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush), ballet and opera.

Plot summary

The narrative is non-linear, involving several flashbacks, and involves two narrators - Mr. Lockwood and Ellen "Nelly" Dean. The novel opens in 1801, with Lockwood arriving at Thrushcross Grange, a grand house on the Yorkshire moors he is renting from the surly Heathcliff, who lives at nearby Wuthering Heights. Lockwood is treated rudely and coldly by the brooding, unsociable Heathcliff, and is forced to stay at Wuthering Heights for a night when one of the savage dogs of the Heights attacks him. The housekeeper cautiously takes him to a chamber to sleep through the night, and warns him to not speak to Heathcliff about where he is sleeping. During the night, Lockwood finds a book of the experiences of a girl named Catherine Earnshaw, in which he discovers that she and Heathcliff were extremely close as children. As he slowly doses off, Lockwood has a terrifying dream of Catherine's ghost coming in through the window, deathly pale and frightening, and begging him to let her in to the home. The following morning, Lockwood sets off to Thrushcross Grange where he asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell the story of Heathcliff, Catherine, and Wuthering Heights while he recovers from a cold.

Nelly takes over the narration and begins her story thirty years earlier, when Heathcliff, a foundling living on the streets of Liverpool, is brought to Wuthering Heights by the then-owner, the kindly Mr. Earnshaw, and raised as his own. Ellen comments casually that Heathcliff might have been descended from Indian or Chinese origins^[4]. He is often described as "dark" or "gypsy". Earnshaw's daughter Catherine becomes Heathcliff's inseparable friend. Her brother Hindley, however, resents Heathcliff, seeing him as an interloper and rival. Mr. Earnshaw dies three years later, and Hindley (who has married a woman named Frances) takes over the estate. He brutalises Heathcliff, forcing him to work as a hired hand. Catherine becomes friends with a neighbour family, the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange, who mellow her initially wild personality. She is especially attached to the refined and mild young Edgar Linton, whom Heathcliff instantly dislikes.

A year later, Hindley's wife dies, apparently of consumption, shortly after giving birth to a son, Hareton; Hindley takes to drink. Some two years after that, Catherine agrees to marry Edgar. Nelly knows that this will crush Heathcliff, and Heathcliff overhears Catherine's explanation that it would be "degrading" to marry him. Heathcliff storms out and leaves Wuthering Heights, not hearing Catherine's continuing declarations that Heathcliff is as much a part of her as the rocks are to the earth beneath. Catherine marries Edgar, and is initially very happy. Some time later, Heathcliff returns, intent on destroying those who prevent him from being with Catherine. He has, mysteriously, become very wealthy. Through loans he has made to the drunken and dissipated Hindley that Hindley cannot repay, he takes ownership of Wuthering Heights upon Hindley's death. Intent on ruining Edgar, Heathcliff elopes with Edgar's sister Isabella, which places him in a position to inherit Thrushcross Grange upon Edgar's death.

Catherine becomes very ill after Heathcliff's return and dies a few hours after giving birth to a daughter also named Catherine, or Cathy. Heathcliff becomes only more bitter and vengeful. Isabella flees her abusive marriage a month later, and subsequently gives birth to a boy, Linton. At around the same time, Hindley dies. Heathcliff takes ownership of Wuthering Heights, and vows to raise Hindley's son Hareton with as much neglect as he had suffered at Hindley's hands years earlier. Later on, Heathcliff tells Nelly that he despises his own son, Linton, who reminds him of Edgar and Isabella, and favours Hareton as a son, recognising an element of Catherine in him (it having already been established that both Catherine and Heathcliff considered themselves one of the same person), and therefore himself. Yet, Heathcliff chooses to ignore these paternal emotions so that he might continue to degrade Hareton as Hindley degraded Heathcliff: thereby achieving his revenge on his hated foster-brother. This perhaps demonstrates the "evil", dehumanized character Heathcliff is so often thought to represent.

Twelve years later, the dying Isabella asks Edgar to raise her and Heathcliff's son, Linton. However, Heathcliff finds out about this and takes the sickly, spoiled child to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff has nothing but contempt for his son, but delights in the idea of him ruling the property of his enemies. To that end, a few years later, Heathcliff attempts to persuade young Cathy to marry Linton. Cathy refuses, so Heathcliff kidnaps her and forces the two to marry. Soon after, Edgar Linton dies, followed shortly by Linton Heathcliff. This leaves Cathy a widow and a virtual prisoner at Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff has gained complete control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. It is at this point in the narrative that Lockwood arrives, taking possession of Thrushcross Grange, and hearing Nelly Dean's story. Shocked, Lockwood leaves for London.

During his absence from the area, however, events reach a climax that Nelly describes when he returns a year later. Cathy gradually softens toward her rough, uneducated cousin Hareton, just as her mother was tender towards Heathcliff. When Heathcliff is confronted by Cathy and Hareton's love, notably Hareton's determination to protect the defiant Cathy from Heathcliff's attack, he seems to suffer a mental break from reality and sees Catherine's ghost. He abandons his life-long vendetta and dies broken and tormented, but glad to be rejoining Catherine. Cathy and Hareton marry. Heathcliff is buried next to Catherine (the elder), and the story concludes with Lockwood visiting the grave, unsure of what to feel.

Characters

Heathcliff is the central male character of the novel. An orphaned foundling raised by the Earnshaw family, he forms an early bond with his foster sister Catherine Earnshaw, and they fall passionately in love with each other as they grow. Meanwhile he nurses a bitter rivalry with his cruel foster brother Hindley, who resents the attention their father shows Heathcliff. A brooding, vindictive man, his anger and bitterness at Catherine's later marriage to their neighbor Edgar Linton sees him engage in a ruthless vendetta to destroy not only his enemies but their heirs, a crusade that only intensifies upon Catherine's death. Throughout the novel, he can be interpreted as both a romantic hero and an anti-hero in literature. Debates have arisen as to the true nature and perception of Heathcliff's character: should he be considered a semi-Byronic hero, whose passionate love for Catherine redeems his social deviances, or should his actions simply be considered too heinous for him to be anything more than a fiend?

Catherine Earnshaw is Heathcliff's adoptive sister. A free-spirited, rather selfish, bad-tempered and somewhat spoiled young woman, she returns Heathcliff's love utterly, but considers him too far beneath her for marriage into poverty from both not having any money; instead choosing another childhood friend, Edgar Linton, through which marriage she hopes to advance Heathcliff. Heathcliff returns and she renews her friendship, making Edgar angry. However, her physical and mental health are destroyed by the stress of the feud between them, and she descends into prophetic madness before dying during childbirth. Although she dies half-way through the novel, Heathcliff is constantly begging for her spirit to return to him, and she is buried next to both he and Edgar.

Edgar Linton is a childhood friend of Catherine Earnshaw, who later marries her. A mild and gentle man, if slightly cold, cowardly and distant, he loves Catherine deeply but is unable to reconcile his love for her with her feelings for her childhood friend. This leads to a bitter antagonism with Heathcliff, and it is partly this which leads to Catherine's mental breakdown and death. Linton is incapable of competing with Heathcliff's guile and ruthless determination across the decades, and his health fails him while still a relatively young man.

Isabella Linton is the spoilt younger sister of Edgar who becomes infatuated with Heathcliff. She fundamentally mistakes his true nature and elopes with him despite his apparent dislike of her. Her love for him turns to hatred almost immediately, as she is ill treated both physically and emotionally and held captive against her will. Eventually she escapes, leaves for London and gives birth to their son Linton Heathcliff, whom she attempts to raise away from Heathcliff's corrupting influence. Isabella is also the secondary narrator of the novel, first via a letter to Ellen Dean and then via direct speech.

Hindley Earnshaw is Catherine's brother and Heathcliff's other rival. Having loathed Heathcliff since childhood, Hindley delights in turning him into a downtrodden servant upon inheriting Wuthering Heights. However, after his wife's death from consumption, after giving birth to their son, he becomes a self-destructive alcoholic and gambler and it is this that allows Heathcliff, upon returning to Wuthering Heights, to turn the tables and to manoeuvre the family property away from him.

Ellen (Nelly) Dean is, at various points, the housekeeper of both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and is one of the two narrators of the novel. She recognises early on that Heathcliff is Catherine's true love and tries to dissuade her from the disastrous marriage to Edgar. Having been a disapproving witness and unwilling participant to many of the events between Heathcliff and both the Earnshaw and Linton families for much of her life, she narrates the story to Lockwood during his illness.

Linton Heathcliff is the son of Isabella and Heathcliff. He bears no resemblance to Heathcliff and takes after his mother. He is a sickly child who grows up ignorant of his father until his mother's death, when he is thirteen years old. He is forced to live at Wuthering Heights and grows into a bullied, trembling shadow of his father. Heathcliff arranges for him to marry his cousin Catherine Linton so that he may inherit both the estates of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He dies shortly after entering into the forced marriage.

Catherine Linton is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton. She inherits both her mother's free-spiritedness and dark eyes and her father's gentle nature, facial features and fair hair. Heathcliff takes advantage of her fundamentally pure nature and manipulates her into marrying his own son, Linton. Once she has become another captive of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff resorts to the same torture he applies to everyone against whom he bears a grudge. As a result, she regards him with contempt and disgust and becomes silent and morose. She later falls in love with her cousin, Hareton Earnshaw.

Hareton Earnshaw is the son of Hindley Earnshaw, who is adopted by Heathcliff upon Hindley's death. Even before this, he has waged a campaign of torment against the young man while living together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff spitefully turns Hareton into a downtrodden, illiterate servant, much as Hindley once did to him, but does not further mistreat him as Hindley had done. Despite this, Hareton remains strangely loyal to him, even adopting a superficially similar personality. Quick tempered and easily embarrassed, he falls in love with Catherine at an early point, and despite her contempt for him is thus inspired to improve himself. He bears a strong likeness to his aunt and is the only person who mourns Heathcliff upon his death.

Joseph is a servant of the Earnshaws and later Heathcliff. A bullying, lazy and snide man, he hates Heathcliff but is somehow bound to be his servant. Intensely religious, he is sanctimonious, self-righteous and largely held in contempt by those around him. He speaks in the traditional West Yorkshire dialect. This dialect was still used in the Haworth area up until the late 1970s, but there are now only portions of it still in common use.^[5]

Lockwood is the narrator of the novel. A recently-arrived tenant at Thrushcross Grange at the beginning of the novel, he is intrigued by the curious goings-on at Wuthering Heights, and persuades Nelly Dean to tell him the story of what happened during a bout of sickness. Lockwood is apparently a wealthy, relatively young man who comes to regret not approaching the younger Catherine Linton himself. Despite displaying many self-centred attributes, he is also a sensitive and romantic soul who is deeply affected by the saga of Heathcliff and Catherine.

Frances Earnshaw is the wife that Hindley married while away at college. The fact that he did not tell his father suggests that Frances is not of high social standing. From her introduction she proves to be a kind woman to Nelly and Cathy but dislikes Heathcliff. She dies after childbirth, a death brought about by consumption, or tuberculosis, a fate shared by most of the Brontë sisters.

Mr. Kenneth, the local doctor and drinking partner of Hindley. Kenneth often sees to the ill or dead characters: Cathy in her madnesses, Frances during childbirth and TB, Heathcliff and his early illness, Edgar's final hours, and Hindley's death. Nelly tells Heathcliff that he should send for Kenneth to tend to his ill son, but does not tell him that Heathcliff's death is suicide by starvation. He also reports to Nelly that he saw Isabella leaving with Heathcliff.

Timeline

Local background

Though tourists are often told that Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse, near the Haworth Parsonage (Brontë Parsonage Museum), is the model for Wuthering Heights, it seems more likely that the now demolished High Sunderland Hall, near Halifax was the partial model for the building. This Gothic edifice, near Law Hill, where Emily worked briefly as a schoolmistress in 1838, had grotesque embellishments of griffins and misshapen nude men similar to those described by Lockwood of Wuthering Heights in chapter one of the novel:

"Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date "1500"".

The originals of Thrushcross Grange have been traditionally connected to Ponden Hall near Haworth (although it is far too small) and, more likely, Shibden Hall, near Halifax.^[6][7] A feud centred around Walterclough Hall is also said to have been one inspiration for the story along with the story of Emily's grandfather, Hugh Brunty.

Literary allusions

Traditionally, this novel has been seen as a unique piece of work written by a woman confined to the lonesome heath, detached from the literary movements of the time. However, Emily Brontë received literary training at the Pensionnat Héger in Brussels by imitating and analysing the styles of classic writers. She also learned German, and was able to read the German Romantics in the original. The work of Lord Byron was also admired by all three Brontë sisters. The brother-sister relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy is reminiscent of the brother-sister couples in Byron's epics. The character of Heathcliff is reminiscent of the Byronic hero.

Gothic and supernatural elements

The novel contains many Gothic and supernatural elements. The mystery of Heathcliff's parentage is never solved. All film interpretations have failed in accurately depicting Heathcliff's appearance; He is described as "a dark skinned gypsy in appearance," with black hair and black eyes. It is assumed that he is a gypsy; there were, from what M. Earnshaw said, no people in the town who knew him or claimed him; he belonged to no one. In literature, the smoky, threatening, miserable factory-towns were often represented in religious terms, and compared to hell. The poet William Blake, writing near the turn of the nineteenth century, speaks of England’s “dark Satanic Mills.” Heathcliff is described by Hindley as an 'imp of Satan' in chapter four. Near the end of the novel Nelly Dean wonders if Heathcliff is a ghoul or vampire, but then remembers how they grew up together and dismisses the thought. The awesome but unseen presence of Satan is also alluded to at several points in the novel, and it is noted in chapter three that 'no clergyman will undertake the duties of pastor' at the local chapel, which has fallen into dereliction. Heathcliff is constantly described as a devil or demon by many different characters throughout the course of the book. His wife, Isabella Linton, asks Nelly if Heathcliff is a man at all, after she marries him and is exposed to his true nature.

An important theory is often overlooked and has never truly been conveyed in any film adaptation; Heathcliff and Cathy are two halves of the same soul, and are good and evil, angel and devil. Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is based on their shared perception that they are identical. Their love denies difference, and is strangely asexual. The two do not kiss in dark corners or arrange secret trysts, as adulterers do. Cathy famously proclaims "I am Heathcliff!" In that same conversation with Nelly, she talks about a "dream" she had, where she was in heaven, but was very unhappy and wanted to be back on earth. The angels grew so angry with her that they cast her onto the heath and onto Wuthering Heights, and when she woke, she wept for joy. Cathy goes through a transformation in the book; during an argument with Edgar Linton she starts going crazy, biting and ripping the pillows and then lying still as though dead. She is ill for a period of time but never fully recovers; she asks Nelly "Why am I so changed?" Her angelic nature, previously frustrated, surfaces, but she cannot live for long afterwards. Nelly wonders often if she will get into heaven, because of her less than saintly life, but when she watches her on her death-bed she is filled with a wonderful feeling of calm and release, and is assured that she has entered heaven. While Cathy's soul is angelic, Heathcliff's is demonic. Heathcliff's long-lasting malevolence and gratuitous violence can only be explained by his being a demon incarnate. Moreover, Heathcliff, upon Catherine’s death, wails that he cannot live without his “soul,” meaning Catherine.

Ghosts also play a role in the novel. Lockwood has a horrible vision of Catherine (the elder) as a child, appearing at the window of her old chamber at Wuthering Heights and begging to be allowed in. Heathcliff believes this story of Catherine's ghostly return, and late in the novel behaves as though he has seen her ghost himself. When Heathcliff dies, he is found in the bedroom with the window open, raising the possibility that Catherine's ghost entered Wuthering Heights just as Lockwood saw in his dream. At the end of the novel, Nelly Dean reports that various superstitious locals have claimed to see Catherine and Heathcliff's ghosts roaming the moors. Lockwood, however, discounts the idea of "unquiet slumbers for those sleepers in that quiet earth."

Allusions/references in literature

• In Albert Camus' essay "The Rebel", Heathcliff is compared to a leader of the rebel forces. Both are driven by a sort of madness: one by misguided love, the other by oppression. Camus juxtaposes the concept of Heathcliff's reaction to Cathy with the reaction of a disenchanted rebel to the ideal he once held.
• Maryse Condé's novel Windward Heights adapted Wuthering Heights to be set in Guadaloupe and Cuba.
• In the novel Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, several direct quotes from Wuthering Heights are used to compare the main character Bella Swan's relationship with Edward Cullen and Jacob Black with Cathy's situation with Heathcliff and Edgar.
• Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes both have poems titled Wuthering Heights.
• Ann Carson wrote a poem titled "The Glass Essay" in which are woven multiple references to Wuthering Heights and the life of Emily Brontë.
• James Stoddard's novel The False House contains numerous references to Wuthering Heights.
• In the novel H: The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights' by Lin Haire-Sargeant tells the story of how Heathcliff discovers he is the son and heir of Edward Fairfax Rochester and Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre).
• Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels often mention Heathcliff as the most tragic romantic hero. In Fforde's book The Well of Lost Plots, it is revealed that all the characters of Wuthering Heights are required to attend group anger management sessions.
• In Heathcliff and the Great Hunger (1995), Terry Eagleton proposes that Heathcliff was actually a refugee from the great Irish potato famine.
• In the preface of his novel Le bleu du ciel, the French writer Georges Bataille states that, in his view, Wuthering Heights belongs to those rare works in literature written from an inner necessity.
• Alice Hoffman's "Here On Earth" is a modern version of Wuthering Heights^[8]
• The novel Glennkill by German writer Leonie Swann, published in 2005, is in some way centred around Emily Brontë's novel, and is perhaps the main reason why said novel is set in Ireland.^{[citation needed]} The book, as is revealed in the last pages, is being read to the sheep by the shepherd's daughter, and in a strange and dreamy way helps the main character of the novel, a sheep-detective called Miss Maple, to guess the identity of the murderer.
• In Diane Setterfield's novel, The Thirteenth Tale (novel), Wuthering Heights is also frequently mentioned. The relationship between Charlie and Isabelle Angelfield parallels that of Heathcliff and Catherine in many ways.
• Michel Houellebecq's debut novel Extension du domaine de la lutte briefly mentions Wuthering Heights - "We're a long way from Wuthering Heights." -, arguing that as human relations are progressively fading away, then such tales of stormy passion are no longer possible.^[9]
• Cara Lockwood's Wuthering High, is centred around a boarding school that is haunted by dead classic writers, Emily Brontë being one of them. Her novel is mentioned several times, and even her characters make some special appearances.
• Nomura Miduki's second book in the Bungakushoujo series, "Bungakushoujo" to Uekawaku Ghost (published in 2006) refers to and draws from Wuthering Heights heavily.
• The Japanese novelist Minae Mizumura's third and most recent work, A Real Novel, 2002, is a retelling of Wuthering Heights in post war Japan, featuring a half-Chinese, half-Japanese Heathcliff and an even more problematic Nelly. It re-enacts the histo

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• 1920: the earliest version of Wuthering Heights is filmed in England, directed by A.V. Bramble. It is unknown if any prints still exist.^[10]
• 1939: Wuthering Heights, starring Merle Oberon as Catherine Linton, Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff, David Niven as Edgar Linton, Flora Robson as Ellen Dean, Donald Crisp as Dr. Kenneth, Geraldine Fitzgerald as Isabella Linton and Leo G. Carroll as Joseph Earnshaw. The film was adapted by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston. It was directed by William Wyler. The film was nominated for the 1940 Academy Award for Best Picture. It did not depict the entire novel, portraying only half.
• In 1948 BBC Television staged a live 90-minute version of the novel. This was not recorded.
• A 1953 adaptation on BBC Television was scripted by Nigel Kneale, directed by Rudolph Cartier and starred Richard Todd as Heathcliff and Yvonne Mitchell as Catherine. This version does not survive in the BBC archives. According to Kneale, it was made simply because Todd had turned up at the BBC one day and said that he wanted to play Heathcliff for them; Kneale was forced to write the script in only a week as the adaptation was rushed into production.^[11]
• A 1954 very loose Spanish-language adaptation filmed in Mexico by Luis Buñuel, titled Abismos de Pasión.
• In 1962, BBC Television screened a new production of their 1953 version. This was again produced by Rudolph Cartier and has been preserved in the archives. Kneale's adaptation concentrates on the first half of the novel, removing the second generation of Earnshaws and Lintons entirely. Claire Bloom played Catherine and Keith Michell was Heathcliff.^[12]
• In 1966 a musical Hindi-language film adaptation was released in India entitled Dil Diya Dard Liya. It's story and characters were clearly based upon Wuthering Heights. It starred Dilip Kumar (Heathcliff), Waheeda Rehman (Cathy), Pran (Hindley), Rehman (Edgar) and Shyama (Isabella). Names, locations and many plot developments were adapted to suit Indian audiences.
• 1970: Wuthering Heights starring Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff and Anna Calder-Marshall as Catherine (the elder). It does not cover the whole story.
• 1970: Monty Python's Flying Circus Season 2 episode # 15 featured a sketch "The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights", which had the actors communicating via semaphore flags.
• Egyptian television did a serialised version in the early 70's.
• 1978: Another BBC adaptation, directed by Peter Hammond and produced by Jonathan Powell, with screenplays by Hugh Leonard and David Snodin. Ken Hutchison plays Heathcliff and Kay Adshead plays Cathy. This adaptation covers the whole story, and has been reissued on DVD.
• 1985: French film adaptation Hurlevent by Jacques Rivette.
• 1987: Austrian drama adaptation Krankheit oder Moderne Frauen by Elfriede Jelinek.
• 1988: Japanese film.
• 1991: A Filipino film adaptation Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit, starring Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta. It was reprised in 2007 with an English title, The Promise, starring Richard Gutiérrez and Angel Locsín.
• 1992: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights starring Juliette Binoche in two roles, Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter, and Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff.
• 1995: Adaptation for theatre by Gillian Hiscott published by J. Garnett Miller Ltd. (now Cressrelles)
• 1998: Adaptation by Neil McKay for London Weekend Television directed by David Skynner and starring Sarah Smart as Catherine (the younger), Orla Brady as the elder Catherine and Robert Cavanah as Heathcliff. Also broadcast by PBS television as part of Masterpiece Theatre.
• 2000: The Radio Tales series produced the drama The Ghost of Wuthering Heights, which adapted the ghost story elements of Emily Brontë's classic novel for National Public Radio and XM Satellite Radio. For a plot summary of the drama, see the adaptation synopsis.
• 2002: Sparkhouse for the BBC. A modern take on the story with the gender roles reversed, adapted by Sally Wainwright, directed by Robin Shepperd and starring Sarah Smart and Joseph McFadden.
• 2003: Wuthering Heights for MTV. It starred Erika Christensen, Mike Vogel, and Christopher Masterson.

New versions

In 2006, it was reported that a new film adaptation was in development, with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp attached to star, however, no further developments appear to have been forthcoming. M. Night Shyamalan was once offered the project to direct, but he turned it down to work on The Village, which he later revealed to be inspired partly by the novel.^[13]

ITV has commissioned a new adaptation, to be written by Blackpool writer Peter Bowker. The three-hour Brontë is expected to be broadcast in early 2008.^[14] It will star Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy.

In early 2008, a highly publicised fight for the role of Catherine made headlines across the UK with both Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan vying for the role. John Maybury is slated to direct the latest adaptation.^[15]. In April 2008, Natalie Portman was cast as in the role^[16] although she had to leave the project soon after.

Sienna Miller was in early talks to play Catherine Earnshaw, the heroine of Wuthering Heights, while Michael Fassbender, the fast-rising London-based actor signed on officially to play the brooding figure of Heathcliff. Sienna entered negotiations following the dramatic withdrawal from the production of actress Natalie Portman. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1020030/Sienna-Miller-play-Wuthering-Heights-heroine-Cathy-Natalie-Portman-drops-out.html

On August 1, 2008, director John Maybury pulled out of the film.^[17]

Since the Yorkshire Post declared Abbie Cornish as the latest actress slated to star in the role of strong-willed Catherine Earnshaw of the upcoming film, her own fansite, www.abbie-cornish.com, also confirmed the news, as well as numerous other movie sites such as Rotten Tomatoes, and BronteBlog, the daily updated site that posts news articles relating to the Brontë sisters. While Cornish and Fassbender will star, however, there has still been no director to step into Maybury's directing place after disagreements with screenwriter Olivia Hetreed resulted in his quitting the job.

Musical allusions and adaptations

Opera

• Bernard Herrmann wrote an Opera based on the novel in 1951. The libretto was by his former wife, radio play writer Lucille Fletcher. The opera was first performed in a concert version in London in 1966, with the composer conducting the Pro Arte Orchestra. It featured the soprano Morag Beaton in the role of Cathy, and baritone Donald Bell as Heathcliff. The opera was later recorded on a Unicorn-Kanchana records. However, a fully staged version of the opera was not done until 1982 when Portland Opera premiered the production.^[18]
• Carlisle Floyd also wrote an opera based on the novel in 1958.
• Bernard J. Taylor wrote a musical Wuthering Heights, recorded in 1992 as a concept album starring Lesley Garrett, Dave Willetts, Bonnie Langford and Clive Carter, and first performed in 1994. It has been translated into German, Romanian and Polish.^[19]
• The all-female Japanese opera company, Takarazuka Revue, has their own interpretation of the story, the musical drama is first performed in the 1970s and the most recently production is in 1998, starring Yōka Wao.
• Sir Cliff Richard starred in the self commissioned "Heathcliff in the 1990s. Not well received by many older fans of the singer it portrayed the very brutal side of the character. The album of the libretto was recorded by Cliff Richard and Olivia Newton-John.

Other

• "Wuthering Heights" is a song by Kate Bush, which appears on her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, and was also released as her debut single. It has been repeatedly covered by other artists, including Pat Benatar, on her 1980 album Crimes of Passion, the Brazilian power metal band Angra, on their 1993 album Angels Cry, and Hayley Westenra, on her 2003 album Pure. Josh Pyke has also done a cover for No Man's Woman. The Puppini Sisters have released a swing version of the Kate Bush song, as have the Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain.
• The title and cover art of the second 1976 album Wind & Wuthering by the British progressive rock group Genesis were inspired by the novel. It also includes two instrumental pieces titled "Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers..." and "...In That Quiet Earth", respectively, which are the last words in the novel.
• Wuthering Heights is a Danish heavy metal band.
• Song writer Michael Penn makes reference to Heathcliff in his song "No Myth".
• Song Cycleversion of the novel using Emily Brontë poems as libretto.
• Wuthering Heights is produced as a play in the Japanese manga "Garasu no Kamen" by Suzue Miuchi, in which the young Cathy is played by fictional actress Maya Kitajima.
• In an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Aunt Zelda is reading Wuthering Heights when she is missing a chapter in the book she uses her magic to take a short-cut into the book when she says,"Where are you Heathcliff?"as she appears in a dark dream-like mist scene
• In 2003, Japanese singer-songwriter Chihiro Onitsuka penned and released a b-side track on her maxi-single "Beautiful Fighter", which was entitled "Arashigaoka" (嵐ヶ丘), the Japanese translation of the title Wuthering Heights.
• In 2005, Japanese violinist Ikuko Kawai composed an instrumental piece of the same name. Its slightly more elaborate variation includes the subtitle, "Dear Heathcliff."
• Korean pop artist Eugene has a song entitled "Wuthering Heights" released in 2004.
• Songwriter Jim Steinman has stated that the ballad It's All Coming Back To Me Now is influenced by Wuthering Heights, he compared the song to "Heathcliffe digging up Cathy's corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight."^[20]Steinman's other song Total Eclipse of the Heart was also inspired by Wuthering Heights.
• A theatre marquee in the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow advertises the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Laurence Olivier.
• In the 2004 film Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Lindsay Lohan's character sees her favorite singer in New York City and remarks that "except for the garbage and cars, it's like following Heathcliff on the moors."
• A goth rock band Diva Destruction also made a reference on Heathcliff and Catherine on a song called Heathcliff on their album Exposing the Sickness (2002).
• In the indie rock band The Hush Sound's song "A Dark Congregation", the final words of the novel are referenced in the line, "we are surrounded by all of the quiet sleepers inside the quiet earth".
• Artist Jer Ber Jones covered Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights".
• Paris Opera Ballet's Danseur Etoile Kader Belarbi created a ballet based on "Wuthering Heights". Its name in French is actually "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" but Belarbi decided to call it quite simply "Hurlevent", given that it aims to draw a line between the novel and the nature of French Romantic ballet showing mostly scenes of the story and not, in fact, telling it.
• In 2008, a song Wuthering Heights with the theme of Heathcliff's dream was made by Swedish musician Mikael Gökinan with Ludde Wennström (bass and backing vocals) and a rising star Helena Josefsson (vokals).
• The band Alphabeat made a reference to Wuthering Heights in their song 10,000 Nights with the lyrics "Wuthering Heights and the stormy nights"
• The Brazilian band Angra release a song named "Wuthering Heights" in their first album "Angels Cry".

• Gothic band ALI PROJECT has done two songs with the title 'Wuthering Heights'. A tecno version released on their album "Gekka no Ichigun" and a Classical Strings version released on their album "Romance". Both versions have the same lyrics.
• In the Twilight novel by Stephenie Meyer, Wuthering Heights is mentioned. It is the book that Bella reads a lot.
• Heath Ledger and his sister Catherine were named after two characters (Heathcliff and Catherine) in the book.

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Wuthering Heights

• Wuthering Heights at Project Gutenberg
• Wuthering Heights, online text with PDF version.
• Reader's Guide to Wuthering Heights
• Wuthering Heights voted UK's favourite love story, Guardian
• Map of Locations associated with Wuthering Heights and Emily Brontë
• Wuthering Heights free downloads in PDF, PDB and LIT formats
• Brontë Society Website