Ever since it was published in the mid-19th century, Emily Brontë's tale of passionate love and ruthless revenge has captivated readers and baffled critics alike.
Attributed to a certain "Alice Bell", a novel Hurricane Heights When published in 1847, it provoked mixed reviews.
Some critics were merciless, appalled by the "brutal cruelty" and the depiction of "almost wild love."
Others appreciated the "strength and clarity", "narrative that is both powerful and true".
And many said the novel was simply "strange."
Despite the popularity of the Gothic novel during this period, it is perhaps not surprising that Hurricane Heights shocked readers in the 19th century, an era of strict scrutiny of moral suitability.
"People didn't know what to make of this book because it didn't have a clear moral angle," says Claire O'Callaghan, professor of Victorian literature at Loughborough University in the UK and author of the book Rereading Emily Bronte.
Three years after the novel's publication, Charlotte Brontë discovered the true identity of the book's author – Alice Bell was not a man, but the pseudonym of her younger sister Emily Brontë.
Charlotte claimed that critics did not give Emily's work due recognition.
"Immature but very real forces revealed in Hurricane Heights "They are not recognized at all, the way they are used and their nature is not understood at all."
The Gothic tale of two families, set in the wild moors of Yorkshire, has become a classic that transcends genres, and Charlotte Bronte's words still ring true.
Now we wait for director Emerald Fennel (saltburn) reveals her version of the story, which will premiere on February 13, and the main roles are entrusted to Australian actors Margot Robbie (Catherine) and Jacob Elordi (Heathcliff).
Perhaps partly in response to the various controversies that preceded the film, regarding the age and ethnicity of the main actors, the erotically charged scenes, and the inauthentic costumes shown in the trailer, Fennell says she did not adapt the novel.
She filmed her own version of the book, as the story was too "impenetrable, complicated and difficult," she points out.
Is he right?
Why has this "strange" but captivating novel puzzled fans, readers, and critics since its publication?
A story of passion and revenge
Fennell is not wrong about the complex nature of this novel.
Its nonlinear, multi-layered structure and multiple narrators can be confusing at first.
Why do they all have the same name? How many Cathys and Catherines and Lintons and Heathcliffs and Linton Heathcliffs can there be in these 300 pages?
Wuthering Heights is practically a story within a story.
Jumping from past to present over the course of 30 years, this story is told by Lockwood, a tenant at Heathcliff's estate, and Emily Dean, a servant at two estates: Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.
None of the narrators are reliable.
Lockwood, a London gentleman suffering from an superiority complex, functions as a curious outsider, through whom readers can discover secrets from the past.
Nelly, who uncovers these secrets, relies on a supposedly perfect memory.
She controls the narrative and often interferes even when she shouldn't - it's very visible how emotionally attached she is to certain characters, while judging others.
Fenel talked about how the novel completely captivated her when she first read it.
Her film is advertised under the slogan "the greatest love story of all time," but "the greatest revenge story of all time" would be more accurate.
Of course the story is full of obvious romantic passion: "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different from mine as the moonbeam from the lightning, and the frost from the fire."
But some readers got caught up in it, forgetting what came later.
It quickly becomes apparent that Heathcliff is more of a tortured antihero than a romantic hero.
Katherine is also a complex character, she is melodramatic and mean.
Their unbreakable bond, though spiritual and eternal, is ominous, and the endless misfortune creates a generational cycle of abuse and destruction that is difficult to break.
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Structure Hurricane Heights it cleverly fits into the themes of passion and revenge.
The first edition was divided into two volumes, which can be seen as a division between generations – the first deals with Catherine and Heathcliff, and the second with their children.
Brontë counts on our sympathy for Heathcliff in the first volume.
When he arrives in Visove as an orphan, he is immediately viewed as something else: "a ragged, black-haired child, a dark-skinned gypsy."
Katherine even spits at him.
Later, he is physically abused by Hindley Earnshaw, a brother in the family where he was adopted, treating him like a servant.
Throughout the novel, he is referred to as "dirty" and his only solace is Catherine, with whom he wanders the wild moors.
But even then, despite her declaration: "I am Heathcliff...he is more me than I am myself," and partly because of a conversation she overheard and misunderstood, she marries the wealthy Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange.
Heathcliff's revenge against Edgar and Catherine will only intensify in the second part of the novel, after her death.
Brontë seriously tests any sympathy readers may have had for Heathcliff, as he will rule like a monstrous tyrant.
He physically and mentally abuses his wife Isabella (who is also Catherine's sister-in-law) with heinous acts, such as hanging her dog.
He also abuses the children in the family - Hindley's son Hareton is forced to work as a servant, just as Heathcliff had to as a child, then he kidnaps Cathy Linton, the daughter of Catherine and Edgar, in order to secure ownership of the Thrushcross Grange estate.
His every action is cautious, calculated, and vindictive.
The complex legacy of the novel
Some film and TV adaptations have skipped the second half entirely. Hurricane Heights, supposedly due to its cruelty and complexity.
In the 1939 Oscar-winning film by William Wyler, the ending takes place shortly after Catherine's death, with her ghost and Heathcliff wandering the moors.
Robert Fuest's 1970 film, starring Timothy Dalton, also ends with her death, as does Andrea Arnold's 2011 film, which gives most of its space to young Catherine and Heathcliff.
But her death occurs halfway through the book, so numerous adaptations do not show the next 18 years, softening the ending and embellishing the darkest parts.
Only a few authors have attempted to tell the whole story.
Among them are the authors of the 1967 BBC series, which inspired Kate Bush to write her famous 1978 song.
The 1978 mini-series, also produced by the BBC, is considered the most faithful to the novel thanks to its five-hour running time.
Ignoring the second part of the book “makes no sense,” says Claire O'Callaghan.
"I think love and revenge drive the plot of the book and that's what's great about it... There's no limit to the depths Heathcliff will go to just to get revenge on others," says O'Callaghan.
Heathcliff's life is filled with torment and unbridled sorrow, but he inflicts this suffering on everyone around him, without any remorse.
By not correcting his sins and allowing him to die with impunity, Bronte asks the reader more complex questions rather than offering answers, says O'Callaghan.
What is love, does marriage as an institution work, what are the limits of violence, are just some of them.
It is part of the novel's complex legacy.
“Popular culture tells us that this is a great romance and when readers first encounter it, it confuses them, because the book is completely different.
"It still has the ability to shock and, I think, like the Victorians, we're still struggling with how to define it and what to do with it," says O'Callaghan.
Another common misconception about this novel is that it is endlessly gloomy, which overlooks the fact that it is occasionally very funny.
Nelly and Zilla, two maids, are big gossips.
Linton Heathcliff is a gloomy, sickly, and spoiled boy who makes the reader roll his eyes.
And if you can understand what the field worker Joseph says in his heavy Yorkshire dialect, he is often a witty cynic who never has anything nice to say.
When Catherine falls ill after looking for Heathcliff in the rain, he mutters sourly, "You've been chasing boys, as usual?"
And Lockwood's conceit is amusing.
"He's like a character from a Jane Austen novel who's wandered into the Bronte world, and I find that hilarious."
"If you read this book as a kind of gothic satire, at least in part, it's a very different book, but people take it very, very seriously - they're absolutely convinced that these are real characters, not some gothic, over-the-top work," says O'Callaghan.
Emily Brontë never experienced the success of her only novel, but we know that she read the first reviews.
Her writing desk is in the Bronte Parish Museum in Haworth and contains five excerpts of criticism. Hurricane Heights, mostly negative.
She died at the age of 30 from tuberculosis, about a year after the novel was published.
She left behind a masterpiece.
Whether you are a die-hard fan or hater of Emily Bronte's flawed hero, a poignant and disturbing plot, and a toxic romance, there is something for everyone. Hurricane Heights An army of admirers gathered, whom this book, one might say, drove crazy.
We can be sure that Emerald Fenel's interpretation will not be the last.
However, whether someone will manage to successfully bring this book to the big screen is a completely different story.
After all, we can all at least agree with the anonymous critic, who wrote of Wuthering Heights in January 1848:
"It is impossible to start a book and not finish it, and it is equally impossible to put it down afterwards and have nothing to say about it."
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