New Wuthering Heights production

I’ve just been listening to The Book Club podcast describing Emily Brontë and her life.

What an unpleasant character! Perhaps as a result of her early life? But not someone one warms to at all, particularly knowing her cruelty to her dog.

I’ve just ordered the book as I read it as a teenager, and like others had a very romantic view of Heathcliffe. I suspect that my view will have totally changed. We shall see.

I love Patricia Routledge’s voice so might get this audio book.

Chrissie15 on your recommendation I have just added Wuthering heights to my audible library so that will be my next book. Looking forward to hearing Patricia Routledge’s narration of it.

I’ve seen the new Wuthering Heights and would highly recommend it. I especially enjoyed the characterisations & the gorgeous cinematic setting & costumes. It is a beautiful but truncated adaptation & works well.
I read the book when I was at school and I am now listening to Patricia Routledge reading Wuthering Heights on audible and enjoying it all over again - what an amazing literary imagination Emily Brontë had.

By putting the title of the film in inverted commas, the director clearly indicated that it was not going to be faithful to the book, which I suppose was a warning to lovers of the book to keep well away.

WH is by a long way my least favourite Brontë novel, but I respect it enough not to want to see this film.

What a shame. Anna Karenina is anything but a simple romance. Why don’t they just read Mills and Boon books or that type of book out on audio rather than butchering classics?
Just as they could have done a Bridgerton on this latest production rather than calling it Wuthering Heights.

Fallingstar

I think a lot of people will go to see it but probs the same crowd who loved fifty shades of grey.
Such a shame that we treat our literary giants like this, a sign of times, making everything about instant gratification and ‘likes’.

Audiobooks of the classics can be a great disappointment, too. They are usually abridged - you have to look carefully to check. I was devastated to find that 'Anna Karenina' had been gutted and converted into a simple romance - by Penguin!

Certainly I won't be paying to see this version of WH. It's my understanding that they've removed the character of Hindley (Cathy's brother) from the story completely, along with his wife & son. IMO this is absurd: I see them as key characters in the story - and also for the ending with "young " Cathy.

Dylis

I remember a school trip (all girls) to see Wuthering Heights in 1970. The film starred Timothy Dalton and was greatly enjoyed by a hormonal group of 14-15 year olds!

My favourite version with Tim.
I wish though, they would stop re-hashing these old classics, I mean how many versions can they keep churning
out?
No I will give this one a miss

Lilyflower

Emily Brontë was a vicar’s daughter and certainly a virgin with little to no personal experience of love or sex. WH is devoid of any overt sexual references - though Cathy does give birth to Linton’s daughter. It is as much about Heathcliff’s desire for revenge on Hindley as about his obsession with Cathy. The adaptation sounds risible and vulgar. It will probably win an Oscar.

In those days any overt mention of sex would have meant it wouldn’t have been published at all, not by any mainstream publisher anyway.

The first publication of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd was as a serial in a monthly magazine, published IIRC by Virginia Woolf’s father. Hardy was instructed to tone down the ‘shocking’ bits, IIRC particularly the section where Bathsheba opens the coffin to reveal the dead (unwed) girl and her baby.
They couldn’t possibly have any nice, well brought up, middle class girls who might well read the magazine, being exposed to any such thing!

Of course it was acceptable though, for the sort of people who could afford to buy novels in 3 volumes, at IIRC a guinea a go, to read them - Hardy reinstated them for the books.

It was interesting to see that he ended each of his monthly serial episodes on a real cliffhanger, just like modern soaps.

Nannan2

Was willing to keep an open mind,as had only seen blurbs about it in magazines, but today seen a whole article in House Beautiful (online) describing in great detail as '9Easter eggs in wuthering heights' you cant unsee once you've seen them' depicted i think from the views of the director and the set production- some nonsence about sweating walls, and pink,veiny walls as though Cathy has 'become part of the house'- and she looked in one photo as though her dress is partly made of red pvc- which i'm not sure they had in those times- so no i wont be rushing to cinema to spend money to view this.I might look it over once its eventually moved onto the sky tv.But not sure ill stick with it.The 1970's film i think we went as a group from school when it was reshown(i was about 13 then) as part of our English literature class.But i thought the later one with Tom Hardy was quite good,although i did think Tom made a bit of a fatter- faced looking Heathcliffe,which im not sure Heathcliffe was meant to be?But acting was ok.But as for this new guy, well yes,i must admit he does'nt look that hot to me! After reading the article today it seems to have been based more on the writers & directors perspectives, rather than miss Brontés.

Going to watch the Tom Hardy version tonight. I’ve loved Tom ever since I saw him in a tv series about Elizabeth I. I love the book ( possibly because something that happened in the book happened to me, too) and don’t want to see this new version.

Withering heights was gothic but entertaining showing two dysfunctional humans Cathy and Heathcliff loves who would tear each other apart because of their awful pasts.

A friend of mine wants to see it and I love Jacob Elordi. I also really enjoyed Saltburn but looking at the casting and the omission of Hindley, I don’t know if I can make myself watch it.
Someone earlier called the book a “soppy love story” so either hasn’t read it or missed the point entirely. The book is visceral, gritty and full of yearning (Kate Bush embodied it) but I’ll have to weigh my love of it against knowing that the film will be a feast for the eyes (and Elordi is 6’5 not 6’4 💕) Maybe it’s a case of suspending disbelief and not allowing myself to be a literary snob. My friend hasn’t read the book so maybe I’ll go for her and sit back…

Open minded - it's not really Wuthering Heights, most of book missing, but am happy to be entertained. But then I watched the Cliff Richard version.....

I remember Saltburn!! I won't be watching I don't know what Emerald will do with this classic book.

Fallingstar

IT WAS FANTASTIC! Don't knock it before you see it!
There were a few 'older peeps' in tge audience who also thought it was great. Martin Clunes was great too.
Fir those relating to to 50 shades, I'd say it was between 2-5 shades!
There was a 'sequence' of sex, not in any shape indecent that showed the unity and obsession between the two leads. If you don't go, you'll never truly know!

Glad I read this before I wasted my time and money going to see it.

I won’t be seeing it as I can’t stand the alterations that the screenwriter makes. Awhile ago there was an adaptation of Great Expectations on tv. Miss Havisham was some kind of Madam and procured a woman for Pip’s birthday . There was a lot more nonsence. Then the latest film of Little Women had Jo’s novel at the end published by the local newspaper and not by a friend of Professor Bhaer. The characters were wrong. Amy was too old. Now I loved Wuthering Heights which I read when I was 11 and cried so much when Cathy died and decided that if I ever had a daughter I would call her Catherine.My Cathy is now 63. The reason I loved Gone With the Wind was that it kept to the book and the characters were completely as imagined. So no I’m not bothering to watch this ridiculous attempt at gaining an audience. Poor Emily, what have they done to your masterpiece?

I cannot believe that yet another adaptation of my favourite novel has been attempted. I say attempted, because as far as I am concerned it has never, and will never, be able to translate on to the screen. Obviously I will not be going to see it. Wuthering Heights has to be read; it is the only genre in which it succeeds.

I enjoyed Saltburn in a "watch from behind hands" kind of way. Emerald Fennel is never boring to watch, I think her take on Wuthering Heights is a big slant away from the book, which when you read it makes you realise that Heathcliffe, far from being a desirable romantic hero, was a violent, unpleasant, cruel man, with obsessive passions and hatreds, who treated his wife with psychological and physical abuse and even hung her dog. In short he was horrible. Emily Bronte didn't have first hand knowledge of being pregant, I am curious to know how she presented the scene where Heathcliffe sneaks in to see Catherine shortly before she dies, they have a passionate love scene and then wham, you suddenly realise Catherine is about to give birth. She must have been obviously pregnant.! And Nellie Dean is only a few years older than Heathcliffe and Catherine, not a maternal figure. But really, Emerald flew off at her slightly crazy but exciting and provocative tangent with this book, probably not for purists who love the book and want it to be faithfully reproduced.

Having studied WH in agonising detail for ‘O’ Level many years ago, I won’t be queuing to watch the film. I don’t care for soppy love stories. Give me a good whodunit or a comedy any day (without the swearing)!

Grandmabatty

I read Wuthering Heights years ago but didn't really enjoy it. I disliked the heavy use of dialect as it slowed down the pace for me, disliked every character intensely and didn't enjoy the storyline. The setting seemed so bleak to me too.
I watched the original film with Laurence Olivier which was highly sanitised.
I'll pass.

Do you not like Yorkshire then ? Our accents and our landscapes ? I admit it can be harsh and bleak,but also very beautiful and inspiring !

Not sure if I’ll go and see it, but it’s difficult to go by reviews. If I recall Les Miserable got poor reviews initially!
I heard it said in the media last week that Hamnet was the best film ever made. I enjoyed it well enough, if enjoy is the right word for a sad and gloomy film, but, for me, it certainly wasn’t the best film ever.

Sarnia

The film critic I read said it ought to have been titled Fifty Shades of Grim.

Love it 🥰😂

Shandy3

Well I'm off to see it in the morning, on the release date, i'm going with my daughter!
I'll decide then whether I like it or not, until I see it I couldn't possibly comment.

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