This is my absolute favorite novel; I've read it enough times to have parts of it memorized. My first reading was in jr. high for a book report. I chose WH because my mother had told me about (it was her favorite book and she instilled a love of stories and books in us at very young ages) and would often wax poetic about the dark love story and its star-crossed lovers. However, though I was an avid reader and was reading quite above my grade/age level, I had trouble with WH, especially Joseph's colloquial speech.
Rather than have me choose another book, my mother offered to read this one to me. It is one of my most treasured childhood memories, this special time spent with my mother. She would read a chapter, and then she would stop and ask me if I'd understood and to explain what I understood up until that point. She would listen and then answer my questions, correct where I'd been wrong, and we'd discuss the book until I felt comfortable with the story's place. I made a 100 on that book report.
Even now, years later, it is still my favorite novel and I have many copies of it in my house (including an old, beat-up 1963 paperback reprint that a friend picked up for me at a library sale for a few cents. He knew I loved the book, but he had no idea that it was an exact replica of my mother's original book, that she owned and read as a youth, and that she read to me from when I was young. I hope someday to own my mother's copy of the book, as well, because of the special memories attached to it, even if it naught but a simple, battered, aged paperback).
All of that said, I would like to agree that this 1992 version is my favorite. I was delighted when they finally came out with it on DVD, as my old VHS tape - recorded directly from TV - had grown quite worn out! Ralph Fiennes was absolutely perfect as the brooding and darkly vindictive Heathcliff, and though some disagree, I thought Juliette Binoche spun a perfect Catherine - spoiled and passionate yet irresistibly charming despite. The casting, scenery, score, and every last bit was - to me - just a perfect representation of the book that has touched my life so deeply.
<<-- Do it with passion. -->>
reply
share