Ten Wuthering Heights Adaptations: What Holds Up

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel has survived countless retellings, from a lost 1920 British silent to Emerald Fennell’s candy-colored bodice ripper. Adaptations face a central trade-off: slavish fidelity isn’t required, but the best films entwine themselves with the book’s spirit rather than simply excising chunks of plot.

Some of the ten versions discussed here falter. Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 film with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes feels curiously inert and overly truncated, and Robert Fuest’s 1970 take with Timothy Dalton, while heavy on psychosexual undertones, doesn’t cohere.

For a compact yet full-bodied experience, the relatively faithful 2009 BBC adaptation with Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley is recommended for its erotic earthiness. Andrea Arnold’s 2011 film, starring James Howson and Kaya Scodelario, most convincingly matches the novel’s jagged landscape, recasting Heathcliff as Black to underline his outsider status.

United Kingdom

wuthering heights, emily brontë, adaptations, andrea arnold, tom hardy, heathcliff, emerald fennell, juliette binoche, ralph fiennes, bbc adaptation