Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights": is the hype worth it?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
If you're enjoying Secret Life of Books, why not join the Secret Life of Books Book Club? For the next four months, we are ascending the Mount Everest of Victorian fiction together, George Eliot's Middlemarch. In our view, one of the greatest books ever written. Members get access to bespoke episodes on each volume of the book, and you get to have your say too. Book Club members can also access past subscriber content, including our long series on The Sonnet. And of course, you get ad-free listening too. You can find us at The Secret Life of Books on Patreon. You can also join up as an Apple subscriber through apple.co forward slash slob whenever you open your podcast app. Sophie, this is the closest to publication I think we've ever recorded an episode.
And that's because we are in slob emergency response mode, aren't we?
Yes, we're in heightened reactivity. It's a code red, literally. And here we are in the immediate aftermath of watching the new Emerald Finale, Wuthering Heights in quotation marks. Did you notice the quotes?
Certainly did. There's been much discussion.
Much has been made of the quotes. OK, so how are we going to get into it, John?
I think importantly, Sophie, we're not going to say what we actually think of it until the end of this episode. And we have both written down what we think the other one feels about this film. And we will read those out at the end of this. It'll probably become clear over the course of the episode what we might think of it.
But at the moment, we have no idea. We haven't discussed it at all, have we?
So set the scene, Sophie. I think you saw it on Valentine's Day itself, didn't you?
No, I didn't. It was the night before Valentine's Day. It was a palate cleanser for the big day for me. And I saw it at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is a very cool venue in Brooklyn. Bam. in a rather wonderful old fashioned theatre that I like very much. I saw it with my great friend Gaines.
Wonderful. I saw it with my auntie Sue, who is in Sydney. She's come to see me and she's come all the way from Montana. And we went on a on a date, a Valentine's date to see it together. There was an uncomfortable amount of sex in that film.
There really was. But I mean, from what I know of your Auntie Sue, if anyone could take it, it's Auntie Sue.
Yes, she did cover my eyes repeatedly at the crucial scenes. My aunt's hand would come over my eyes.
What are the initial thoughts on Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights?
And I was in a crowded theatre, as you probably were as well, and it was fascinating to see the crowd reactions. My theatre was sort of divided between the 20-something and early 30s single women who were obviously very, very much there for Jacob Elordi, and then there were the kind of middle-aged jeeras. I would say that was the demographic of the Brooklyn viewing experience.
That was exactly the same as the Sydney audience as well. I love that split. The middle-aged Jiras and then the Elordi enthusiasts. This is The Secret Life of Books. I'm Jonty Claypole, incredibly handsome young actor from Queensland who has left Queensland, left Australia and become one of the most famous and desirable actors in the world.
I'm Sophie Gee. I'm also from Queensland. I'm from the Goldie. I've left Australia. I've made it big, first in the Suicide Squad, then in Barbie, obviously. And now, finally, the crowning moment of my career, Wuthering Heights. I am, I am Cathy. This episode, Emerald Fennell's, quote, Wuthering Heights, unquote.
Sophie, the way we're going to do this is we're going to look at the winners and the losers of this adaptation. We're going to look at who and what has come out well from Emerald Fennell's adaptation and who and what hasn't. And in the first half of the episode, we're going to be focusing on characters. Listeners will be glad to know there are some inanimate characters in there as well. And the second half, we're going to come back and talk about the meatier stuff, the themes, what comes out well from this adaptation and what doesn't. And we'll be talking about race and domestic violence and sex. And we'll be talking finally about the book itself, how how well it comes out from this adaptation.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:35
2
What are the initial thoughts on Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights?
2:35–16:41
3
How do Sophie and Jonty evaluate the characters in the adaptation?
16:41–19:05
4
What themes of race and class are explored in this adaptation?
19:05–28:43
5
How does the adaptation handle domestic violence and sexuality?
28:43–53:13