Hello and welcome back to Chronicles, where today we're going to be talking all about the second part of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Now, I do have to start with something of a confession, which is that when I sat down to record part one, I hadn't

actually had in mind for it to be an hour of 40 minutes, but I just ended up sitting here and

just going into it in far more depth than they anticipated. And why not, after all, there is so much to say obviously about it.

But I will endeavour to keep this one a leaner, tighter beast,

and I hope that I can get it all to you in a much more concise manner.

But let's just start, shall we, by reflecting on, you know,

what did happen in part one, where some of our characters are, which ones are no longer with us,

and then we can go into a bit of a recap, and then we'll go into the entirety of part two and

the other half of the story that awaits us.

So at the heart of all of this, we have the battle between nature and civilization,

between Wuthering Heights, which, you know, even in the name Wuthering,

there's an idea of it being battered by the very weather, which is exactly as Mr. Lockwood first finds it, but also the

characters in the actual house as well, once Heathcliff takes mastery over it, these are people

who are against civilisation. And I don't mean that in a conscious sense of course, but I mean in their

actions, how they conduct themselves. They're kind of anti-refinement characters. Heathcliff is not a

refined man in the first half. Hindley is certainly not. And Kathy is young and wild and free.

And in fact, those authoritative leveling up voices,

those ones that give some sort of like moral instruction, are also very cold, very harsh

voices like that of Joseph, who I didn't really talk about a great deal in the first part, but there is undoubtedly

a strong religious element to Wuthering Heights, and that's something I'll certainly come

on to by the very end of this.

...