Inside the illustrated edition
Enter the wild country
Wind-bent trees, weathered stone, a sky alive with light. Ten atmospheric paintings open a window onto Emily Brontë’s world.
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Listen to the night
Snow at the casement, a branch against the glass. A close, quiet painting catches the unease that lingers at the edge of the story.
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Another world within
Two children look towards a glowing room. Cold night and warm colour meet at the window.
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Where the heart belongs
Heather, distance and a luminous sky. The moor becomes a landscape of feeling, painted in violet, pearl and gold.
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The shape of a memory
Winter light falls across linen and scattered feathers. Small things carry the presence of another place.
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What words cannot hold
Pale light and an urgent embrace. Gesture carries the feeling in an intimate, softly painted scene.
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Beyond the familiar
The last light touches the crags while the valley slips into shadow. A distant prospect invites the imagination to wander.
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A brief warmth
A fireside conversation, a small rocking chair. The novel’s younger voices find a warmer palette.
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The room grows smaller
A closed door changes the feeling of a room. Shadow and distance give tension a visible form.
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A page shared
Two readers, one open book, a moment of patient attention. Find the novel’s quieter colours in an intimate painted scene.
View artwork detailsRead. Listen. Stay in the story.
Hear the book come alive.
Distinctive voices, expressive narration and words that light up as you listen. Move between reading and listening in the Read Classics app, at your own pace.
Download the audio you have access to in the app, then listen offline.
Begin without a purchase
The opening is yours.
The title announcement, introduction and everything through the end of the first chapter, including any intervening preface or dedication, are included free.
The complete ebook is free in our launch collection. Audio beyond the opening is a separate purchase.
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Read and listen in the Read Classics app: get it for Android now; the iPhone app is coming soon. The website has no player and no file downloads.
Two houses on the moor. A past that will not stay buried.
A stranger arrives on the Yorkshire moors and hears the tangled history of two neighbouring families. Through their fierce attachments and conflicts, Emily Brontë explores belonging, exclusion and the dangerous desire to possess another person.
Discover the edition
With an original introduction, chronology and further reading. 10 paintings accompany the story.
Read the complete ebook in the Read Classics app, for Android now and for iPhone soon. The free audio opening is separate from ebook access. This website offers an excerpt from the introduction, not an interactive browser reader.
From the introduction
In 1801, a newcomer to the Yorkshire moors calls on his landlord and congratulates himself on finding a fellow recluse. His confidence outruns his understanding. This awkward visit begins Wuthering Heights, a novel in which entering a house is easier than knowing what has happened inside it. Expect fierce attachments, humiliations and domestic violence, but also dry comedy and sharply observed household routines. The landscape matters as much for its distances, weather and difficult journeys as for its beauty. These are inhabited moors: someone owns the land, someone works it, and someone decides who may cross the threshold.
An excerpt from the original Read Classics introduction.
A house in the wind
as if craving alms of the sun
Chapter 1 · Painting 1 of 10
At the window
the branch of a fir-tree that touched my lattice as the blast wailed by
Chapter 3 · Painting 2 of 10
Beyond the glass
clinging to the ledge
Chapter 6 · Painting 3 of 10
The heath was home
where I woke sobbing for joy
Chapter 9 · Painting 4 of 10
A memory of the moor
Bonny bird; wheeling over our heads in the middle of the moor.
Chapter 12 · Painting 5 of 10
An urgent embrace
in a stride or two was at her side
Chapter 15 · Painting 6 of 10
Beyond the park
the whole extent of landscape besides lay in shadow
Chapter 18 · Painting 7 of 10
A brief warmth
we laughed and talked so merrily
Chapter 24 · Painting 8 of 10
The closed door
He shut and locked it also.
Chapter 27 · Painting 9 of 10
An open book
two such radiant countenances bent over the page of the accepted book
Chapter 32 · Painting 10 of 10
Wuthering Heights
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