Adaptations
Since its initial filming in Great Britain in 1920, Wuthering Heights has consistently inspired filmmakers. The timeless love story of Cathy and Heathcliff has been adapted numerous times. Many critics consider the 1939 English version, directed by William Wyler (United Artists), to be the finest. This adaptation featured Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy, with notable performances by Flora Robson and David Niven. The dramatic black-and-white film highlighted the dark, brooding moors, amplifying the intense passion of the ill-fated lovers.
Another well-regarded English adaptation, directed by Robert Fuest (American International, 1971), starred Timothy Dalton, Anna Calder-Marshall, Harry Andrews, and Hugh Griffith. This version focused more on Cathy's intense, mistreated, and vengeful love.
Abismos de Pasión (Mexico, 1953) is a Spanish-language adaptation directed by Luis Buñuel, featuring Iraseme Dillan and Jorge Mistral, with a musical score by Richard Wagner.
Media Adaptations
- Wuthering Heights continues to captivate filmmakers: notable adaptations include the 1939 version by William Wyler, featuring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, available from HBO Home Video and Home Vision Cinema. Robert Fuest's 1970 adaptation stars Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall, accessible through Congress Entertainment, Karol Video, and The Video Catalog. Luis Buñuel's 1953 reimagining, titled "Abismos de pasion," stars Jorge Mistral and Irasema Dilian, available from Xenon, Media Home Entertainment, and Applause Productions. Additionally, Peter Kosminsky's 1992 adaptation, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, was not initially released in the U.S. but later aired on Turner Network Television.
- Sound recordings of the novel have been released by Listen for Pleasure in 1981, Recorded Books in 1981, and Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio in 1995. An audio version read by Michael Page and Laurel Merlington was published by Brilliance Corporation in 1992, titled Wuthering Heights Readalong and released by Lake Publishing Co. in 1994.
- The novel has also been transformed into a four-act opera by Bernard Herrmann, with a libretto by Lucille Fletcher, in 1950. Another operatic adaptation by Carlisle Floyd, who also wrote the libretto, was first performed in three acts in 1958. Furthermore, Charles Vance adapted the novel for the stage, and it was published by Samuel French in 1990.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Allen, Walter. The English Novel. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1955.
Benvenuto, Richard. Emily Brontë. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
Brontë, Charlotte. “Editor’s Preface to the New [1850] Edition of Wuthering Heights.” In Wuthering Heights, edited by David Daiches. Penguin, 1965, pp. 37-41.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York, NY: Modern Library, 1950.
Crailic, W. A. The Brontë Novels. London: Methuen, 1968.
Daiches, David, ed. Introduction to Wuthering Heights. Penguin, 1965, pp. 7-29.
“Emily Brontë.” In Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism, edited by Cherie Abbey and Janet Mullane, vol. 16. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987.
Evans, Barbara, and Gareth Lloyd Evans. The Scribner Companion to the Brontës. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1982.
Gerin, Winifred. “Emily Brontë.” In Reference Guide to English Literature, edited by D. L. Kirkpatrick. St. James Press, 1991, pp. 300-02.
Glen, Heather, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Brontës. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Kanwar, Asha. Fictional Theories and the Three Great Novels. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1991.
Karl, Frederick R. An Age of Fiction: The Nineteenth Century British Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1964.
Kavanagh, James H. Emily Brontë. London: Basil Blackwell, 1985.
Liddell, Robert. Twin Spirits: The Novels of Emily and Anne Brontë. London: Peter Owen, 1990.
Miles, Peter. Wuthering Heights. London: Macmillan Educational, 1990.
Mitchell, Hayley R. Readings on Wuthering Heights. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1999.
Pool, Daniel. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Punter, David. Gothic Pathologies: The Text, the Body, and the Law. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan Press, 1998.
Sadoff, Dianne F. Monsters of Affection: Dickens, Elliot and Brontë on Fatherhood. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. “Emily Brontë.” In The Athenaeum, No. 2903, June 16, 1883, pp. 762-63.
Tayler, Irene. Holy Ghosts: The Male Muses of Emily and Charlotte Brontë. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1990.
Traversi, Derek. “The Brontë Sisters and Wuthering Heights.” In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Wuthering Heights. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968.
Winnifrith, Tom. “Emily Brontë.” In Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 21: Victorian Novelists before 1885, edited by Ira B. Nadel and William E. Fredeman. Gale Research, 1983, pp. 55-67.
Winnifrith, Tom. The Brontës. London: Macmillan, 1977.
For Further Study
Allot, Miriam. The Brontës: The Critical Heritage. Routledge, 1974.
This collection includes criticism on the Brontë sisters' works, featuring
early reviews of Wuthering Heights and Poems by Currer, Ellis and
Acton Bell, as well as Charlotte Brontë’s thoughts on her sister’s
novel.
Eagleton, Terry. “Myths of Power: A Marxist Study on Wuthering Heights.” In Case Studies In Contemporary Criticism: Wuthering Heights. St. Martin’s, 1992, pp. 399-414. Eagleton examines the novel through the lens of class differences in nineteenth-century England.
Gerin, Winifred. Emily Brontë: A Biography. Clarendon, 1971. Gérin explores Emily Brontë’s life and how her surroundings influenced her work.
Wion, Philip K. “The Absent Mother in Wuthering Heights.” In American Imago, Vol. 42, No. 2, 1985. Wion argues that the early death of Emily Brontë’s mother explains her depiction of orphaned characters seeking mother figures.
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