"Wuthering Heights" in India

[Walt Whitman]

I’ve been reading a simplified version of “Wuthering Heights” published in India (Great Stories in Easy English — S.E. Paces, S. Chand & Company, India). I suppose the author is Indian (but it’s just my guess). Since I don’t know how Indian English differs from, say, British or American English, I need your help. I’ve chosen three short passages here and there. They seem fine to me, but it’s up to native speakers agree or disagree on what it seems to me.

(1) After years of searching, I have found what I think is the perfect house to live in – Thrushcross Grange. It is large, comfortable and old-fashioned. Best of all, it is cut off the rest of the world by a large park. Here I shall have that peace and quiet that I need so much. My nearest neighbour is four miles away. Mr. Heathcliff by name. I went to visit him today. As I am the tenant, I felt obliged to do so. He is living in Wuthering Heights, a farmhouse built high up on hill.

(2) I dreamed that I got up to break off the branch which was disturbing me. As I could not open the window, I pushed my arm through the glass to seize the branch. To my horror, my hand was seized by a little ice-cold hand. I pulled as hard as I could but those little ice-cold fingers would not let go. I heard a child’s voice sobbing, “Let me in!” I though I should die of fear!

(3) As soon as it was daylight, I ran out into the clear, cold air. The snow had stopped but it lay deep everywhere. It hid all traces of roads and paths, I stumbled on, wondering how I should ever get back to the Grange. Fortunately, before I reached the gate, my landlord came up to me. He said that he would show me the way over the moor as far as the park of the Grange. It was fortunate that he did so because for the whole countryside was one white ocean. We did not speak and he left me at the park gate, saying that I should be able to go to the rest of the way by myself.

Thank you
WW

books.google.it/books?id=wVstDAAAQBAJ&pg=PP2&dq=wuthering+heights+s.e.+paces&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLwZPFkaqDAxX8iv0HHcnIAkIQ6AF6BAgCEAE#v=onepage&q=wuthering%20heights%20s.e.%20paces&f=false

P.S. If three passages are too many or if they are too long, feel free to delete whichever you like.

 

[5jj]

The English of these passages is fine.

 

[Walt Whitman]

Thanks a lot 5jj

Does "fine" mean that you, as a British native speaker, couldn't tell whether the author is British, American, Indian, etc.?
I'm asking because for me, as an Italian native speaker, "fine" simply means that those passages are gramatically correct with an appropriate vocabulary. Of course, as I wrote in #1, I couldn't tell what nationality the author is. I do think it's a matter of nuances which only native speakers are able to recognise.

WW

 

[5jj]

Best of all, it is cut off from the rest of the world by a large park.

Note the missing word I have replaced.

i would say the author was British.

 

[Walt Whitman]

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, OM Illustrated Classics, India 2014 (Adapted by Urbi Bhaduri)

There should be no doubt this time, Urbi Bhaduri (the author) being apparently an Indian name. But… he could also be born or brought up in Great Britain, or the United States, etc. So, here we go again.
Please, have a look at the following passages:

(1) Wuthering Heights is really a recluse’s heaven – so beautiful and so desolate! I arrived today, and deciding to make my landlord’s acquaintance, I waded four miles through heath and mud to his residence “Wuthering Heights”, narrowly escaping the first feathery flakes of a snow-shower.

(2) The two hairy monsters attacked me, the light was extinguished, and a mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton added on my rage and humiliation. My vehement agitation made my nose bleed, and I felt very sick, dizzy, and faint. It was the stout housewife, Zillah, who restored me with a glass of brandy and then ushered me to bed.

(3) I thought there would be more peace in the household when Hindley started going to college, on our curate’s suggestion. But now old Joseph made trouble. He encouraged Mr Earnshaw to regard Hindley as an unprincipled man; and, night after night, poured out a long string of tales against Catherine.

(4) I put my cakes in the oven, and made the house cheerful with great fires befitting Christmas Eve. Then I sat down and amused myself by singing carols all alone, and I remembered how fond kind old Mr Earnshaw had been of Heathcliff. Moved to make amends for the boy’s ill-treatment, I sought him out, and offered to clean him up and dress him smartly before Miss Cathy.

This time, too, it seems to me that the author’s English is fine, certainly much closer to the original text than the one in #1, but fine. What do you think?

Wuthering Heights : Om Illustrated Classics

books.google.it

Thank you
WW

 

[probus]

To me there is nothing Indian about those passages. What distinguishes Indian English for me are:

1. The survival of terms that are archaic or obsolete in BrE. For example I once heard an Indian woman call a man "a cad and a bounder."

2. A few words unique to Indian English such as godown for warehouse or depot.

 

[embertmorton200]

That’s an interesting question about Wuthering Heights being read or adapted in India. English literature, especially classics like Brontë’s novel, has long been part of academic curricula there. It’s often discussed in universities under postcolonial and romantic studies. Indian readers tend to connect with its themes of passion, class struggle, and identity—topics still deeply relevant in many cultural contexts today.

 

[BobK]

Emily Brontë was English. I imagine this Indian edition simplifies the language - particularly the dialogue (which often used dialect words and constructions, especially when a local was speaking to a local).

There are a few slips. I noticed these:

• '...a mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton added on my rage and humiliation. ' - should be 'added to'. And what is 'a mingled guffaw' anyway? Muffled?
• '... on our curate’s suggestion.' -'at' for 'on' (not sure about this one: EB's prose is seldom what a modern reader would expect - which explains the need for a simplified edition)
• '...dress him smartly before Miss Cathy.' Something missing? If 'smartly' means 'in smart clothes'. 'dress him smartly [in readiness for] Miss Cathy.' Or, if 'smartly' means 'quickly''(which it might do), '...dress him smartly before Miss Cathy [arrived]'.

 

[jutfrank]

I can't understand why you think the writer's own personal dialect would have any bearing on how the text of this novel sounds. It's totally irrelevant where the writer was born, as the idea is to keep the language in style with the kind of English Emily Brontë used in the original version. That's what's so hard about writing these simplified versions of classic novels—you have to strike a balance between keeping the language simple and keeping it faithful to the original style. Even if the writer did speak Indian English in his daily life, he certainly wouldn't use Indian English in an easy English version of Wuthering Heights!

 

[Walt Whitman]

There are a few slips. I noticed these:

• '...a mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton added on my rage and humiliation. ' - should be 'added to'. And what is 'a mingled guffaw' anyway? Muffled?
• '... on our curate’s suggestion.' -'at' for 'on' (not sure about this one: EB's prose is seldom what a modern reader would expect - which explains the need for a simplified edition)
• '...dress him smartly before Miss Cathy.' Something missing? If 'smartly' means 'in smart clothes'. 'dress him smartly [in readiness for] Miss Cathy.' Or, if 'smartly' means 'quickly''(which it might do), '...dress him smartly before Miss Cathy [arrived]'.

(1) from Chapter 2 (original text)
On opening the little door, two hairy monsters flew at my throat, bearing me down, and extinguishing the light, while a mingled guffaw, from Heathcliff and Hareton, put the copestone on my rage and humiliation.

(2) from Chapter 5 (original text)
At last, our curate (we had a curate then who made the living answer by teaching the little Lintons and Earnshaws, and farming his bit of land himself) advised that the young man should be sent to college [...]

(3) I too suspected something was missing (perhaps just an involuntary omission). I think it’s “before Miss Cathy arrived.”

from Chapter 7 (original text)
— Make haste, Heathcliff! — I said, — the kitchen is so comfortable—and Joseph is up-stairs; make haste, and let me dress you smart before Miss Cathy comes out—and then you can sit together, with the whole hearth to yourselves, and have a long chatter till bedtime.

You, as a native English speaker, have immediately spotted a couple of what you call “slips”.

Thanks a lot,
WW