Wuthering Heights

Put this book on your list. No reading list is complete without it.

Emily Bronte here offers the classic Gothic novel. Dark secrets, vindictive villains, retribution, mystery... it's all included. The tale is a dark one. It has a semi-happy ending, but for the most part the story keeps to a dark, somber mood.

I enjoyed the recording. Janet McTeer and David Timson are two of my favorite narrators, and they put on first rate performances for this novel. Sound quality is excellent.

If you are looking for a happier book along the same lines then try Jane Eyre by Emily's sister, Charlotte Bronte. I prefer Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights, but would suggest listening to both.

8/10

Far more in-depth than any movie could portray. I was rivetted by the emotions and portrayals of these classic characters. The reading is compelling. I would highly reccomend.

I had never read Wuthering Heights and therefore did not know what I was in for and for the first hour almost quit listening because the characters struck me as so odd. But slowly the characters grew on me and I felt I had to continue it just so I could find out what happened to the miserable lot of people and also in the hope that some good would prevail in the end. I guess the ending was as good as it could be based on the sad portrayal of human character displayed by Heathcliff and Earnshaw. At times it was almost painful to go on listening.
The narrator (the housekeeper and other female characters) had a wonderful soothing voice that told the story so well and I felt like Mr. Lockwood wanting her to keep talking so I could hear the full story as well.

Both readers, but especially Ms. McTeer, were phenomenal in this audiobook. I highly recommend this version of the classic.

I like how this narrative is split between two performers, I was afraid it might be annoying, but the two voices actually add a lot to the story, particularly Janet McTeer, who is absolutely excelent. Janet McTeer does all the characters beautifully, and is particularly good at doing drunk Henley. She has a spirited, but low soothing voice. The audio quality is good.

I love the darkness that Heathcliff's love of Catherine becomes and the way this story plays out. But I especially love this audio version because of Janet McTeer's reading. The first time I listened, I literally gasped when she started reading because her voice is so soothingly perfect for storytelling. When I'm stressed and can't sleep, I love to listen to my iPod. McTeer's narration makes me feel like there is nothing more in the world but the story that her voice gives.

Janet McTeer and David Timson are magnificent narrators and perfect for Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte wrote this one sheer, magically, unadulterated book of poetry then died. Some books I wear out: Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre, The Enchanted April, Rilla of Ingleside. Other books just sit on my shelf of good intentions. They reproach me. I just noticed a Wuthering Heights in cd format on my shelf bought June last year still unopened; I think there is an unopened mp3 version also. I downloaded this version just to complete my Zune's Bronte collection. Why do I avoid this book? The anticipation of pain. The fortune teller in Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict said we humans will do anything to avoid pain. There is pain in this book. There is pain.

I was struck with certain similarities (not exact) of character, behavior, situation and the need for control, between Mr. Earnshaw and later Heathcliff in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Captain Aylmer, the anti hero of Anthony Trollope's The Belton Estate, the husband of Helen Graham in Anne Bronte's The Tenant at Wildfell Hall, Mr Wemyss in Elizabeth von Arnim's Vera as well as St. John Rivers in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. How fascinating they are on first meeting and how easy the women were charmed by them. Still there was an element of simmering violence rippling just below the surface of these ordered lives. There was danger. These men will destroy what they cannot control. Some of the women in these stories finally broke free but others like Cathy or Heathcliff's wife could not, did not. There is pain in this book, a magnificent poetry of pain. The Bronte sisters knew pain well. Emily wrote this book straight from her heart and it is almost unendurable.

I love Wuthering Heights, I read it back in school and it was great to revisit it. The Narration being done by two people i thought at first would be a little jaring but was actually very good, both readers are very talented and create perfectly the mood of this amazing ghost story/love story/horror

I've always had a hard time getting through "Wuthering Heights" and still have difficulty loving any book (however "classic") which offers so few redeemable characters and so much frustration. I'm just saying - gloomy is not necessarily my thing.

But, there is a reason this has been read over and over and is greatly beloved. Emily Bronte's characters are so vibrant and so real that they engage your passion and interest, even if not your approval. No matter how many times you long to cry out "Get Over Yourself!", the story and those characters keep pulling you back in! It would be so interesting to see what Emily Bronte might have come up with had she lived to be a more mature author.

Any listener knows the narrator or narrators are key. Janet McTeer could not be better. In future, I will recommend that anyone new or returning to "Wuthering Heights" have the pleasure of experiencing her narration. She is a wonder!

Listening to this version of Wuthering Heights was absolutely riveting. Normally I don't like multiple readers but it worked very well for this production. I am left trying to decide if this is a love story or a tale of horror because the portrayal of Heathcliff as a seriously mentally ill man was so strong.