India, Feb. 13 -- 'I did not feel as if I were in the company of my own species,' is how Heathcliff is described by Nelly in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which was first published in 1847. Be the work of a visionary or divine, there is little space for anyone to question the fact that in Heathcliff, Bronte created a figure of extreme contradictions. The book itself is a rush of maddening emotion, possessing the fury and rage of a volcano, one that refuses to obey. The new adaptation, directed by Academy Award-winner Emerald Fennell, demands obedience. In doing so, it commits the error not only of discarding the gigantic obligation of adaptation but also of making an utter mess of it.

At Wuthering Heights, Young Cathy Earnshaw (Charl...