"I love. . . E. Brontë"

Mourning the death of J.D. Salinger, we have come across a couple of sites that mention both him and Wuthering Heights today. Alt Film Guide quotes Samuel Goldwyn in the article 'J.D. Salinger and the movies'.

It has been my good fortune to have produced many motion pictures which the public has established among its all-time favorites — such as Wuthering Heights, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Bishop’s Wife, Pride of the Yankees, and, of course, The Best Years of Our Lives," boasted Samuel Goldwyn in a trade ad. "Now I have made My Foolish Heart [based on the short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" by J.D. Salinger]. I am genuinely convinced that the public will add My Foolish Heart to the roster of the finest of Goldwyn productions." (Andre Soares)

The other mention is not quite so flattering. It comes from a comment to an obituary written by Stephen King for Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life. One Dusty writes,

Any of Stephen’s books are superior to anything ive read by Salinger. Catcher in the Rye is as overrated as Wuthering Heights.

We won't comment on Stephen King's 'superiority', but in our opinion neither Wuthering Heights nor The Catcher in the Rye are at all overrated. And as a very humble tribute we have added an additional weekly quote to our sidebar where J.D. Salinger mentions Emily Brontë as one of the writers he loves.

Anyway. An earlier post announced the ongoing performances of Wuthering Heights at the Yale Cabaret and today the Yale Daily News reviews the production.

When it was first published in 1847, “Wuthering Heights” was scathed by the critics as “savage,” “animal-like” and “clumsy in construction.” Since then, “Wuthering Heights” has overcome these initial reactions to achieve the posthumous adoration of the public. The unlikely ascendancy of Emily Bronte’s only novel has recently been crowned by a surprising victory in a poll for the greatest British love story, ahead of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers and Austen’s Lizzie and Mr. Darcy. But don’t be mislead by this poll — “Wuthering Heights” is not a conventional love story and is certainly not chick lit. It is as tormented and disturbed as its closest competitors are charmed and fated. It is this tragic romance that is the subject of Elizabeth Barrett Groth’s play.
What differentiates Groth’s adaptation from any other version of “Wuthering Heights” is its unequivocal focus on the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. There is no backdrop, no costume changes, minimal props … no other actors, even, with the exception of the nurse, Nelly. Moreover, the tables are arranged in a way that the audience is literally close enough to smell the actors’ sweat, as they say; close enough to see the chests heaving, to feel the emotions of tormented love. Groth wanted her retelling to be “intimate,” so that her audience might truly experience the love between the two unfortunate lovers. There is nothing to distract from the quality of the acting and even the slightest changes in gesture and expression are perceptible to the eye.
Groth evidences her immense passion for the story by acting as both the playwright and as Catherine Linton herself. As the lights turn off, her piercing scream penetrates the darkness to open the play. A soft light illuminates Nelly (Shannon Sullivan GRD ’11), who is calmly knitting and sitting on a rocking chair. A second scream mirrors the first and is quickly revealed to belong to Heathcliff (Sam Lasman ’12). In the midst of the audience’s confusion, Nelly begins to retell the tale of their love, beginning from childhood.
Haughty, selfish and headstrong, Catherine is not immediately likeable, as she ought to be. Her behavior is questionable, her antics obnoxious and her treatment of Heathcliff is, above all, “abominable.” Catherine was never meant to be a sympathetic character and Groth is both accurate and compelling as the consummate anti-heroine. At the same time, when she finally does admit her love for Heathcliff, the interruption of her overwhelming abrasiveness with a sudden vulnerability is both believable and well-executed, especially when she whispers, “But Nelly, I am Heathcliff.” Her understanding of Catherine’s psyche is inimitable and the versatility of her emotions signifies her command of her own play and her beloved character.
Although a little overshadowed by the wild strength of Groth’s character and performance, Heathcliff, is nevertheless, a persuasive character. Because the play does not delve into the intricacies of his revenge, Heathcliff is a little more likeable and a lot less wicked than the book portrays him to be. Heathcliff is, as ever, the indefatigable lover, consumed and possessed by his love for his childhood love, successful in eliciting the sympathy of the audience for his misunderstood love.
The most likeable character of all is Nelly, the only source of benevolence and reason. She is the vital character that fills in all the gaps between the stories. Groth’s ingenious use of Nelly allows her to achieve her minimalist vision, defying a traditional understanding of the work by siphoning the romance from the novel and forgoing everything that is nonessential to her interpretation of their relationship. Not only is she resourceful with the characters, but also with the very few props that they have, re-appropriating various objects to define their setting. Proving that the impossible can be plausible, in this case, is not only effective, but imperative. Even with its drastic reductions of the original plot, the play ran for about an hour and a half, in an extremely intimate setting. Sometimes, however the play seemed to gloss over important points of the novel’s plot, but this is to be expected of an adaptation.
“Wuthering Heights” is a novel about the destructive love between two tragic lovers and how their utter disregard for everything but each other brings about their ultimate demise. In many ways, Groth’s play is also a literal adaptation of a love in which nothing else matters. So don’t go if you are a stickler for textual accuracy, but do go if you want to be absorbed by exemplary acting in a no-frills affair. Even for those who have not read Emily Bronte’s masterpiece, keep in mind that it is not an easy feat to do what they have done with the novel. (La Wang)

Another adaptation is the one supposedly starring Gemma Arterton and Ed Westwick and for which Andrea Arnold was recently chosen as new director. The Irish Times comments on it.

Wuthering gets a third director
A strangely troubled adaptation of Wuthering Heights has, after two directors vanished, ended up in the safe hands of the singular Andrea Arnold. John Maybury, director of Love Is the Devil, was originally behind the megaphone before dropping out last summer. Then Peter Webber, the Girl with a Pearl Earring bloke, was in charge for a while.
On balance, Arnold seems like a good choice. The director of Red Road and Fish Tank should bring some grit to a story that is too often tidied up by the cinema. (Donald Clarke)

The South County Independent praises Fritz Eichenberg's wood engravings of Wuthering Heights.

The same is true with Eichenberg's illustrations of classic literature. One example was a wood engraving made for a 1943 Random House edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights."
"When you look at the way he presented Heathcliff, you say 'That is Healthcliff [sic],' " Wyant said, referring to the iconic print showing the forsaken lover leaning rigidly against a gnarled tree on a cold, windy night, with a tormented expression, gazing up at the dark sky. "There's nobody else who could have captured that." (Doug Norris)

We do indeed think it might be the most iconic image of Heathcliff there is.

Artnet too finds traces of Wuthering Heights in the 2009 Large There painting by Les Rogers.

Last summer the veteran artist Les Rogers sent me a jpeg of one of his new paintings from his New Jersey studio. The minimal image thrilled me, a kind of Wuthering Heights brown cloud on a cliff, called Large There, which seemed to be a take on that old vaudeville joke about the white picture that is really a polar bear in a blizzard. (Charlie Finch)

And The McCreary County Record uses Wuthering Heights to illustrate the current economic lookout.

But for many Americans, the domestic scene is bleaker than the moors in Wuthering Heights. (Peter S. Ferrara)

The East Hampton Star has now published the complete article on Sheila Kohler which we mentioned yesterday.

“When my sister died a violent death 25 years ago in apartheid South Africa, my writing took a new turn. I was driven to explore the reasons for violence within intimate relationships, in particular, the abuse of power and privilege,” writes Sheila Kohler on her Web site. “Since then I have published seven novels, three collections of short stories, and several others not yet collected, all of which focus in some way on this theme. They represent my attempt to delve into the mysteries of hate and anger, and of love and compassion, as well.”
Ms. Kohler’s latest book, “Becoming Jane Eyre,” a fictionalized biography of Charlotte Bronte, from which she will read at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor on Saturday at 6 p.m., fits her exploration of those mysteries as she unfolds the story of the Bronte sisters and the disasters visited upon the family.
At the novel’s center are Charlotte Bronte and the writing of “Jane Eyre.” Ms. Kohler delicately unravels the connections between one of fiction’s most indelible heroines and the remarkable woman who created her.
Ms. Kohler, who was born in Johannesburg, is the author of 10 books, including “The House on R Street,” “Bluebird, or the Invention of Happiness,” “Crossways,” and “Cracks,” which was just released as a feature film. Ms. Kohler lives in New York City and Amagansett. (E.D.H.)

The New Zealand Herald quotes from Jane Eyre on an article about morality.

Two blogs post reviews of Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre: Soon Remembered Tales (mostly good) and The Fill in the Gaps: 100 project (mostly bad). Life's A Picture and Veneno Anti - Monotonia (in Portuguese) write about Jane Eyre, the novel. And The Squeee reviews two radio adaptations of Jane Eyre, those of 1938 and 1940. Hope. Just Hope. posts about Jane Eyre the Musical. Arte☆ Cultura☆Lazer (in Portuguese) posts about all things Wuthering Heights, from the novel to Kate Bush's song. Happenstance & The Reason Why is having a hard time deciding which edition of Wuthering Heights to buy judging by two very nice covers.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Illustrations, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre, Wuthering Heights