WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Richard Pasco does a near-perfect job with this morbid classic of violent love on the moors of rural Britain. His characterizations are vivid, and his sense of the dramatic exquisite. Moreover, he handles the turgid Victorian atmosphere with considerable aplomb--giving us the overwrought gothic melodrama without ever falling into scenery chewing or bathos. Unfortunately, this abridgment too drastically truncates the original, depriving us of important characterizations and confusing the plot points. Y.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]