Some Wuthering Heights Retellings I Recommend, For No Particular Reason
Black Spring by Alison Croggon
A version set in a fantasy world with witches and ancient cycles of vengeance.
Lina, the witch daughter of a village lord, becomes fiercely devoted to her father's ward, Damek, but their circumstances of life threaten to tear them apart.
Very accurate retelling of the story and one of the only versions I've encountered to keep the series of nested narrators.
Really digs into the cycle of vengeance aspect of the story by making it a part of the world-building where characters are bound by tradition to avenge wrongs done to their family.
A great book to read for anyone who thinks Cathy Earnshaw deserved to have a telepathic fit and hurl objects at horrible men with her mind.
What Souls Are Made Of by Tasha Suri
A young adult retelling that imagines both Cathy and Heathcliff as being of British Indian descent.
Really digs into the history of the British Empire and colonialism, but also the communities of people of color that lived in 18th century England and the solidarity between them.
Interesting exploration of Cathy being able to pass for white and Heathcliff not being able to.
This book does some stuff with ghosts and forgetting your family history and birth language that I still think about on occasion.
Does an interesting job filling in the time skip of several years and what Cathy and Heathcliff were up to.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
A retelling where Cathy and Heathcliff a pair of wildly successful but extremely dysfunctional ice dancers.
Believe it or not, the interpersonal drama of Wuthering Heights actually translates extremely well to Olympic sports.
Has a cool mixed-media format that intersperses excerpts of a fake documentary about the rise and fall of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha within the narrative.
Especially recommended to anyone currently really enjoying the figure skating and ice dance at the Winter Olympics.
Some really fun descriptions of ice dance routines, and has a flawed but ambitious female lead I was rooting for.
Wuthering Heights (2011) dir. Andrea Arnold
Starring Kaya Scodelario as Cathy and James Howson as Heathcliff.
Notable for being the only movie I'm aware of to actually cast an actor of color as Heathcliff.
A very sparse adaptation, with stripped-down dialogue and almost no soundtrack, but beautiful cinematography and a lot of time set on the moors.
This version does a really good of cementing the bond between the characters, especially when they're children, so you really believe in the intensity of their devotion.
Has a very strong sense of place which I think is important to the story.
Wise Children's Wuthering Heights dir. Emma Rice
A stage adaptation of the book, with a filmed version currently available to watch for free on PBS (in the USA, at least) until 9/26.
Actually adapts the full story of the book across two acts, and does so very well.
Kind of a musical (Cathy has an angry rock ballad, among other musical numbers), with the occasional puppet, cool staging details especially the transitions between indoors and outdoors, and some clever cross-casting.
Is able to really dig into the themes of cycles of vengeance and generational trauma by adapting the whole story.
Also casts a Black actor as Heathcliff.
