Classics Revisited: The 'Wuthering Heights' Adaptation That Gets Catherine Earnshaw Right

As part of our "Classics Revisited" series, we're looking back at some of our favorite series and movies from years ago. Next up: The 2009 ITV adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which certainly takes some liberties with the text of Emily Bronte's classic novel, but is remarkably faithful to its spirit.

Eager to make much of the subtext of Bronte's story almost glaringly textual, this is a version of Wuthering Heights that includes sex scenes, suicide, and a strong hint that the love of Cathy's life may be her half-brother. Subtle, it is not. But while there are undoubtedly substantial changes to the source material, this is also an adaptation that understands that part of the appeal of this story is its wild, untameable heart and that nowhere is that crucial element more evident than in its messy, endlessly appealing depiction of the book's heroine, Catherine Earnshaw.

Though Wuthering Heights is an unapologetically Gothic story, the female lead at its center is surprisingly modern, particularly in this take on Bronte's original. This Cathy is bold and opinionated, loves running around the moors and horseback riding, and isn't — at least until she meets the Lintons — particularly interested in being a proper lady, or even an especially feminine one. Her love for Heathcliff is presented as a simple fact that has existed for much of her life, and she subsequently doesn't spend much time angsting over their differences in station or the secret questions of his birth and background.