One book, four ways

Heathcliff is wilder than the moors. But can the Wuthering Heights hero hold his own against the paperback, e-reader, smartphone and audiobook?



Wuthering Heights is my favourite book of all time – I’ve been reading it every winter since I was 14. For the dummies who haven’t read it (not even once? But how is that possible?), Emily Brontë’s passionate, haunting novel is about the unfulfilled, overpowering love between the dark Heathcliff and wild Catherine Earnshaw. But she weds Edgar Linton for social advancement and Heathcliff runs away, only to come back three years later – a gentleman. He marries Edgar’s silly spoilt sister, Isabella, but is cruel to her. They have a son, Linton, whom he despises as well. Cathy dies, leaving behind a daughter, Catherine Linton. Thirteen years pass. Heathcliff forces Catherine to marry his sickly son Linton just before his death. As time passes, Heathcliff gets more obsessed (and haunted) by Cathy’s ghost. The ending? It’s happy.