Wuthering Heights
Click here for online version of the novel.
Victorian novels were published in lots of different formats. Many were first published serially in magazines or journals and later re-published in a more lasting format on better quality paper. In the 1840s, especially popular novelists such as Dickens and Thackeray published their works in 20 sections. Readers could buy one “number” in paper covers each month. The 19th number generally included the two final sections. Some publishers would release the entire novel in bound volumes before the final number came out, hoping that readers would not be able to wait to find out what happens and would shell out the extra cash to buy the novel in the much more expensive format of a three-volume “triple decker.”
Relatively unknown authors like the Bronte sisters could not expect crowds to purchase their works. Publishers would pay such aspiring writers a very small amount for the right to print and sell their narratives, and sometimes they would demand that the author put up the cost of the printing themselves. The first edition of Wuthering Heights (above) was published in three volumes along with the first novel by Emily’s sister Anne, Agnes Grey.
Check out these film versions of Heathcliff. Who is closest to your vision of the character?
Lawrence Olivier (1939)
Timothy Dalton (1970)
Ralph Fiennes (1992)
Tom Hardy (2009)
James Howson (2011)