In 1848, a reviewer for Graham’s Magazine described “Wuthering Heights” as “a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors, such as we might suppose a person, inspired by a mixture of brandy and gunpowder, might write for the edification of fifth-rate blackguards.” Presumably, this grumpy writer would have cared even less for the Thug Notes version.

That Emily Brontë novel is among the latest subjects tackled on Thug-Notes.com, a website where fine literature is reduced to its hip-hop essence. A genial fellow using the moniker Sparky Sweets, Ph.D. serves up video summaries of classics in the language of the street, throwing in a minute or two of analysis for good measure. Dr. Sweets, a black man whose wardrobe leans toward shorts, tank tops and assorted do-rags and caps, sits in a somber-looking library worthy of PBS and holds forth about a new volume each week. The site’s motto: “Classical Literature. Original Gangster.”

In the world of Dr. Sweets (who is actually a comedian named Greg Edwards), Queequeg from “Moby-Dick” is “some tatted-up harpooner.” Jay Gatsby is “a rich playboy with that mad Mitt Romney money.” And the characters of a beloved Shakespeare play include “Romeo’s homieos, Benvolio and Mercutio.”

SparkNotes and others, of course, have been summarizing the classics for years, but their cheat sheets have merely made literature’s dusty volumes drastically shorter, not less boring for the lazy and unappreciative. Mr. Edwards, speaking in character as Dr. Sweets in an interview with The Tampa Bay Times last fall, described Thug Notes as “my way of trivializing academia’s attempt at making literature exclusionary by showing that even highbrow academic concepts can be communicated in a clear and open fashion.”