- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; 1st New edition edition (Nov 30 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140434186
- ISBN-13: 978-0140434187
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.4 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (386 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,446,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The main drama in Bronte's novel happens in a long narrative told by an elderly housekeeper to a convalescing new tenant. This story-within-a-story setup makes it well suited for audio adaptation, as Scales takes the housekeeper's part and relates the past, while West performs as the tenant and describes the present. Scales primarily uses a folksy lower-class accent, but she also makes her voice harsh and threatening when speaking as Heathcliff, the surly man at the novel's heart. West, as the bewildered tenant, manages to sound both nervous and pretentious, but his part is fairly small, especially with this abridgment, so he mostly serves to provide transitions for the housekeeper's story. The extensive abridgment generally deletes sentences and phrases rather than entire paragraphs or sections. One drawback for the audio format is the difficulty of clarifying the novel's convoluted plot and family tree, since it's harder to search back through long CD tracks than through earlier chapters of the paperback. While a little of the depth of Bronte's writing is lost in abridgment, the novel's emotional core remains intact and wrenching, and the actors' heartfelt interpretations make it easy to imagine being curled up by a warm fire listening to an absorbing tale. In June, Penguin Audio remastered and released on CD for the first time nine other Penguin Classics: Crime and Punishment, Dracula, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Tale of Two Cities.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-British actor Martin Shaw reads this shortened version of the classic Emily Bronte novel. His easily-understood accent is appropriate and helps to set the mood. Shaw reads at a very steady pace, pausing effectively for emphasis or when his character might be thinking. Usually calm and gentle, his voice can resonate with anger or other emotion when necessary. There is some differentiation in pitch to emphasize male vs. female speech, but it is not exaggerated or overdone. The abridgement retains Bronte's words linking speech or narration sometimes from one page to another. It provides students with an easier way to become familiar with the story and get a feel for her style. Teachers could use this presentation to introduce the novel or to entice students to read it on their own.
Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why Did I Read This?,
By "toxicomaniac" (Leuven, Belgium) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penguin Classics Wuthering Heights (Paperback)
I am absolutly stunned. Why do I like this book so much? How did I manage to finish it? I am a 21 year old man living in a modern city and I somehow related to this book. I have nothing in common with the characters or the author or the story or the setting. I had to read this book for college but dropped out before reading it. Several months later I picked it up and gave it a try. I'm not sorry I did. Thinking about it now I start to realize what is so good about the book: it's author's compassion for humanity. All characters in this novel suffer a great deal (partly because of their own stubbornness) but retain their essential humanity: they still need to be loved. And while reading it you can feel the author's longing to be loved herself. So this is what made me read through the book: it speaks directly to your heart in a way you can not ignore.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Call me immature, but...,
By The dryness of the plot is second only to the dryness of Emily Bronte's style. For a story attempting to establish themes of love and hatred, passion and apathy, the book is sure dull as hell. I simply can't see any saving quality in this book whatsoever, save the fact that nothing at all happens so you can skim through it without missing a single element of the non-existant plot. The climax of all action within the book is a scene one third of the way in the book where young Heathcliff hurls applesauce at his effeminate and whiny rival, and it just goes even further downhill from there. It is very obvious in her writing that Emily Bronte has never left her home, as her characters are all pallid one-dimensional reflections of her own disgusting parasitic victorian life. Never in a book, even with the most despisable of villans, have I let out such a cheer as a character died, because with the dying of each character in Wuthering Heights there is a feeling of, "FINALLY." Every character is dying from page 1, in one way or another, and Wuthering Heights is the "journey" of seeing them to their graves, and breathing a sigh of relief, interlaced with mindless whining from one character or another about how the tea and scones are too cold today. If the use of the adjective "Wuthering" is not a warning enough, then read the first five pages. THe only thing I can thank Emily Bronte for is the knowledge that I'll never face pain as great as she has given me in trying to force my way through her book, and I am probably now able to withstand any sort of torture or physical torment by looking back and rememebering, "It could be worse... I could have to listen to Joseph speak again, or Catherine whine." I realize there's going to be multiple posts debating this, in an "Emperor's New Clothing" sort of fashion of only those who are smart can see the meaning in this book, but the only meaning this book has is what literary critics and English Professors try to stuff it with, no different than the stuffing forcefully injected into a long-dead thanksgiving bird. For a moment, put away your pride, cast down your defensiveness at the view that you're supposed to enjoy this book, and ask yourself: Is there really anything of value in this entire novel? The critical mind will find the answer. The coward will continue to uphold the sanctity of victorian cow-dung. Enjoy your reading :)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The dark and brooding tale of Cathy & Heathcliff,
By
This review is from: Penguin Classics Wuthering Heights (Paperback)
What a great experience to finally reread this classic as an adult. Emily Bronte depicts a very gothic and depressing story of two star-crossed (but not terribly likeable) lovers, Cathy & Heathcliff, and the love between them that transcended the grave. Added to that a wonderful depiction of the dark English moors and the local characters with their strange dialects. This was also told in a very unusual style, like a tale within a tale within a tale, adding more layers and perspectives to the story.
How unfortunate that one's upbringing can so affect a person that their grief and bitterness turn what could have been a fine young man into such a hateful and vengeful person as Heathcliff became. And fortunate that Cathy's daughter and Hareton could overcome their dark upbringing to bring a happier light onto the dark moors of England. I did not read this version of the book, but the Selected Works of the Bronte Sisters, which did not have all the footnotes. I think I enjoyed that better as I wasn't constantly distracted by looking to the back for the notes and just allowed myself to become engrossed with the story. It's one book you have to read at least twice in your life -- of course in school as required reading and then again as an adult to add that perspective of age and experience in life so that one can more fully appreciate a such a classic tale.
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