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Wuthering Heights cover art

Wuthering Heights

By: Emily Brontë
Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
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Summary

Michael Kitchen gives us a masterclass in narration with this intelligent and believable performance of Emily Brontë's classic work. Listeners will be swept up in Heathcliff and Cathy's turbulent love affair, not to be released until long after the final word. 

The only novel written by Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights was originally published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and at first was thought to be the work of Emily's sister, Charlotte, the author of the classic Jane Eyre.

Wuthering Heights tells the tale of Heathcliff, a young orphaned gypsy boy, who is brought to the windswept moors of Yorkshire by Mr Earnshaw, the master of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff's childhood there is riddled with bullying and humiliation, but the master's daughter, the precocious and untameable Cathy, becomes his ally, and a childhood fondness for one another grows to a great passion.

Following a misunderstanding, Heathcliff believes that Cathy has rejected him, and he leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return after three years have passed. When he returns, now mysteriously rich, he learns of Cathy's marriage to another and vows to focus his passionate nature on merciless revenge. Heathcliff's retribution proves so destructive that left in its wake are not only his enemies, but the very object of his obsession and, ultimately, himself.

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Search no further. A masterful vocal talent has found a masterpiece of world literature to perform.... Kitchen's intoxicatingly rich voice is the perfect medium for Bronte's romantic lyricism.... His interpretation is so precise and intelligent.... Michael Kitchen has given a long-awaited voice to a timeless classic." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Wuthering Heights

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Spellbinding

Michael Kitchen brings this timeless classic to life in a way that really lets you enjoy the intensity of the relationships between the characters. Your involvement in the story is total.

If you have to study this work as part of educational studies (unfortunately the way most of us encounter it) this recording is the way to make it stick in your head and thoroughly enjoy it.

Once you start listening to it make sure you have the rest of the day at your disposal as you won't want to stop!

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Wuthering Heights

I am enjoying this! Michael Kitchen reads this extremely well. It is not too dark and I found myself laughing at the black humour.
I too studied this for A level. I really didn't like it at the time and woke up after the exam in a cold sweat thinking, "Oh no, I've still got to read Wuthering Heights!". Kitchen makes this fun! Not too savage but capturing the story well.
Well worth it

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wuthering Heights

I could never read this book, just could not get into it, so decided to download it after I saw that Michael Kitchen was the reader. I love his voice and that made me want to continue listening to the story and see how it would unfold. I couldn't wait to get back to it. I am glad that I have at last heard the unabridged story and can judge for myself whether it is a great love story or not.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Still brilliant!

I've been looking forward to re-reading this for a long time now. I remember feeling that I was missing out by the piecemeal reading of it in school almost twenty years ago, but it took me this long to get back to it. This time around I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to finish. It has been reviewed so many times that there is nothing new for me to add, but here is a summary of my thoughts nonetheless.



I've often seen Wuthering Heights categorised as a classic romance novel. Although it is certainly a classic, I'd rather describe it as an anti-romance novel. There is a happy ending, of sorts, which sees two people together in love but even this is perhaps more by pragmatic acceptance of their situation than real romance. As for the rest of the plot, the message is clearly that any hint of romantic attachment results in loss, pain, retribution, madness and death.



A key element to the plot is the class struggle and divide between the key characters, and it is the subjugation of Heathcliff as orphan adoptee which first sets events in motion that will destroy almost everyone and everything. The key characters are extremely unsympathetic, at least to a modern reader. They read as foolish, naive, vindictive, and self-absorbed. Set in an isolated corner of nineteenth-century England with the class structure of the time to create tensions though, the characters remain believable if not likeable.



If I had to make a criticism, it would be that the last few chapters (originally published as volume three of three) are a bit rushed, and ended up feeling like an attempt to tie up all of the loose ends as quickly as possible.



All in all though, a brilliant read, and one I will probably revisit again. Highly recommended to everyone and anyone!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant and haunting

Everyone's heard of this story, but I thought it's about time I read it. What a good decision. Michael Kitchen,s narration is first class.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

A bit dull

I'm sorry to say that I found this book rather dull. I just couldn't connect to the characters. I didn't care about them. The storyline was ok but not amazing. I only finished the book because I hate to leave a book unfinished but it was a chore rather than a pleasure. The concept of a housemaid just casually telling the goings on of the family she worked for in such great detail just didn't sit right with me. I normally quite enjoy the classics but would not recommend this to anyone. It's such a famous book and in my opinion so overated.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Wuthering its withering!

Would you listen to Wuthering Heights again? Why?

Yes, Michael Kitchen brings this book to life, his intonation and diction are wonderful. The fact that he was the reader encouraged me to buy the audio book.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

It's a classic so there's no need to mess with anything. Hearing it read, rather than reading it myself, changed my attitude to the tragic romance! I had read it for my A level English Literature and got the whole romantic hero, rough diamond perception sad eh?

Which character – as performed by Michael Kitchen – was your favourite?

All of them!

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Changed my attitude about Cathy and Heathcliff as star-crossed lovers! But then I'm no longer a naive 17 year old English student at an all girl school!!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • E
  • 09-04-13

Loved it!

Wuthering Heights is one of those classics I have always meant to read but never quite managed it, so decided download it instead. I loved the story and it was every bit as good as I had hoped it would be. What added to the experience was the beautiful storytelling by Michael Kitchen, making all the characters come to life and I felt without any dodgy Yorkshire accents!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

This is a difficult book to read because of the intensity of the language and the extreme characters, but Michael Kitchen tackles it brilliantly. His understated style allows the language to create the intense impact the author intended without tipping into melodrama.

Wuthering Heights is not an easy book. As a youngster I loved the passion and intensity but now I find it gruelling and life experience has taught me to view the characters in rather a different light. This reading, however, is very accessible. It delivers all the intensity but also brings out the flashes of humour (albeit rare and rather dark) inherent in characters such as Lockwood and Joseph which usually disappears beneath what is otherwise the unremitting dourness of the tale.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Expected More

What made the experience of listening to Wuthering Heights the most enjoyable?

I was really hoping to enjoy this book but after a promising start with good writing i found the characters to evolve to become unrealistic, unrelatable and uninteresting.

Has Wuthering Heights put you off other books in this genre?

Yes, as one of the 'classics' this book has made me more weary of reading many more

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1 person found this helpful