Emily G. Flanders, Colby College, 2025 - Honors Theses. Paper 1526.This project asserts that the moment in which a girl leaves the trajectory of the expected in favor of the unknown in order to pursue her discovery of self is when her coming-of-age narrative becomes queer. This is demonstrated through Jane in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Jeanette in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Jane and Jeannette’s respective coming-of-age narratives–that is, them creating their fully embodied selves, the girl they believe and know themselves to be–happen off the expected life path in the liminal, in-between, undefined space of the queer oblique. There are moments in their narratives in which they must necessarily disorient themselves in order to grow. This project thus also asserts that queer depictions of girlhood are then inherently also depicting the forces of compulsory heterosexuality.
One online creator argues that the erotic nature of the trailer could just be a guise to get more people to buy tickets rather than what actually happens in the movie. She discusses the growing market for smut in the book publishing industry and how that translates to film. However, I think this signals a bigger issue.Why must a piece of media be erotic for it to sell? A classic novel became a classic for a reason, and in this case, it wasn’t because of how hot the characters are.To top it all off, the trailer featured a song by Charli XCX, an artist known for her fun party music. The song, “Everything is Romantic,” comes from Charli’s “Brat” album, which is upbeat and alternative and does not match the story at all.Many of the creative liberties Fennell has taken contradict the essence of “Wuthering Heights” and make me doubt whether she’s read the book at all. With media literacy on the decline, it’s no surprise that classic novels are being taken at face value without any deeper analysis.Brontë, along with her two sisters, did the unimaginable and became literary geniuses as women. Women, during this time, often had to write under pseudonyms to even be considered for publishing. Mary Ann Evans, for instance, published under “George Eliot,” and the Brontës were no different. Each had their own male name to avoid any prejudice due to their gender.“Wuthering Heights,” under Fennell’s direction, would make Brontë turn in her grave. It is not a romance, and framing it as such disregards the entire point of the story and spits on her efforts in writing a gothic masterpiece.I am apprehensive about this movie, but who knows? Maybe Fennell will finally open a copy of “Wuthering Heights,” and the full film will be identical to the book. We’ll all have to wait until Valentine’s Day to find out because, of course, a story that is not about love is coming out on the day of love. (Desara Vladasi)
And, since this is the most historically-informed gathering I’m likely to find, what about Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights? The trailer has featured suggestive dough-kneading and fingers in fishes’ mouths. The most common complaint, though, is about the costumes. “The corset without anything underneath!” one fan sighs. “They didn’t have the metal eyelets back then, but either way you’d have a shift underneath to protect your skin – and because you wash the linen, not the corset.”“If you want to sex up an 18th-century novel, go for it – but maybe just say it’s ‘based on Wuthering Heights’, rather than calling it an adaptation,” says Lou, a Wiltshire-based librarian who prefers Gothic literature to Austen, but comes to Bath for the costumes. “If you look at the [2024] Nosferatu remake, it was such a beautiful homage to the 1932 film, and the original Bram Stoker novel. But they modernised it [so] that you went: ‘Okay, this makes sense in the context.’ [Fennell’s Wuthering Heights] looks more like fan-fiction. Not that there’s anything wrong with fan fiction, but maybe it’s not what you want in a movie.” (Joel Snape)
Across the years of mulling over the idea, Birch read outside her comfort zone: Ernest Hemingway; DH Lawrence; 70s American novels; “trying to read Ulysses and failing”. Given the time and a quiet place to read, she would pick up a Hardy or Brontë. “People on moors,” she laughs. “That’s my favourite.” (Kate Wyver)
The English moors have always been a stage for drama, and for Fall 2025, Max Mara makes them thunder with fashion. Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Creative Director Ian Griffiths looks to the wilderness as both muse and metaphor, finding a heroine who is untamed, resilient, and modern. The campaign, shot by Craig McDean with Angelina Kendall, places this force of a woman against storm-darkened skies and wind-lashed grasses, her presence as commanding as the coats she wears.The set, built by Stefan Beckman, recreates the rolling expanse of the moors within the studio. What might have felt artificial becomes cinematic, thanks to McDean’s lighting and Kendall’s magnetic performance. Every image pits sharp, structured tailoring against unruly nature: a double-breasted coat towers over tangled branches, a cape slices through a horizon heavy with storm clouds. It’s not just backdrop; it’s battle ground, one where fashion and environment collide in equal measure. [...]What makes the campaign sing is its refusal to romanticize. This isn’t nostalgia for Brontë’s tortured souls but a contemporary rewrite, with a protagonist who owns her narrative. Griffiths suggests that resilience and style are not opposites but partners: the storm doesn’t diminish her polish; it intensifies it. The clothes are both armor and expression, conveying elegance without fragility.Ultimately, the campaign is less about weather than it is about weathering. Max Mara shows us a woman who doesn’t shrink from chaos but walks straight into it, perfectly dressed. In her stride lies the reminder that fashion isn’t only about beauty—it’s about power, presence, and the ability to turn even a storm into a runway. She isn’t at the mercy of nature; she is the nature, commanding, untamed, and unforgettable.
Duas narrativas de O morro dos ventos uivantes: Emily Brontë e William Wylerby Guilherme Machado Araujo
Anais Do Xi Seminário Internacionalliteratura E Cultura, 03 a 07 de junho de 2024 - São Cristóvão/SE, pp 487-497Este trabalho consiste numa análise comparativa entre o romance O morro dos ventos uivantes (1847), de Emily Brontë, e sua adaptação cinematográfica homônima (1939), de William Wyler. A bibliografia utilizada para a análise do romance é Gancho (2002). A análise do filme baseia-se em Bazin (2018), Gaudreault e Jost (2009) e Hutcheon (2013). A partir das análises estruturais das obras, traçar-se-ão semelhanças e diferenças entre elas e apontar-se-ão possíveis consequências delas advindas.
Rebirth of Bertha Mason in Wide Sargasso Sea: rereading Jane Eyre in the light of postcolonial feminismby Tanjila AzadB.A. Thesis, Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University, 2025The thesis intends to explore the evolving dynamics of feminist literature by examining how colonial histories eventually reform into postcolonial feminist voices. By investigating Jean Rhys’s reclamation of Bertha Mason or Antoinette Cosway, the underrepresented paranoid character in Jane Eyre, this research examines how Rhys creates a multidimensional figure of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea through a postcolonial lens. This paper also looks into Rhys’ contrapuntal reading of Bertha or Antoinette, reclaiming her white Creole identity, unveiling the colonial oppression contributing to the broader discourse of postcolonial feminism (Said, Culture & Imperialism). Contrapuntal reading, a term introduced by postcolonial theorist Edward Said in his work Culture & Imperialism, is a critical approach that analyses texts from two or more perspectives present in colonial literature. “In practical terms, “contrapuntal reading” as I have called it, means reading a text with an understanding of what is involved when an author shows, for instance, that a colonial sugar plantation is seen as important to the process of maintaining a particular style of life in England” (Said 66). The study investigates how Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea can be read contrapuntally to Brontë’s Jane Eyre, in which the author presents the position of a coloured woman in Victorian literature. The central focus of this paper will be on Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, redefining the character of Bertha in a different light from Brontë’s Jane Eyre and exploring how Rhys reads Brontë from an alternative angle. Through literary exegesis and a contrapuntal reading of Wide Sargasso Sea, this paper analyses how each novel sheds light on the other within the context of the current postcolonial feminist scholarship.
A contributor to Her Campus discusses 'How the ‘Wuthering Heights’ Trailer Is Falling Short of Audience Expectations':
Some fans of the trailer argue that criticism of the film’s sensuality represents the recent resurgence of purity culture and conservatism. However, romanticizing the elite without addressing the issues that come with strict social classes is likely more conservative than disagreeing with oddly placed sexual scenes. However, we can only learn so much from a two-minute trailer. (Rebekah Harold)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean RhysThis is a gorgeous literary take on what it means to be an outsider in the Western world. Written by Jean Rhys in 1966, it remains a beloved classic to this day due to its rich writing, Caribbean pride, and lovely prose. It’s one of my absolute favorites, and I’d go so far as to recommend everything by author Jean Rhys, who’s just as talented (dare I say more so) than Sylvia Plath, yet is far less known by modern society. Her books are actually what got me into reading, and now I’m the ultimate bookworm all these years later. (Bre Avery)
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by Stephanie CowellRegal House PublishingISBN: 9781646036240September 16, 2025In 1846 Yorkshire, the Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Anne, and Emily—navigate precarious lives marked by heartbreak and struggle. Charlotte faces rejection from the man she loves, while their blind father and troubled brother add to their burdens. Despite their immense talent, no one will publish their poetry or novels. Amidst this turmoil, Emily encounters a charming shepherd during her solitary walks on the moors, yet he remains unseen by anyone else.After Emily’s untimely death, Charlotte—now a successful author with Jane Eyre—stumbles upon hidden letters and a mysterious map. As she stands on the brink of her own marriage, Charlotte is determined to uncover the truth about her sister’s secret relationship.The Man in the Stone Cottage is a poignant exploration of sisterly bonds and the complexities of perception, asking whether what feels real to one person can truly be real to another.
Several reviews are available, most of them quite positive: Toby A. Smith, Pickled Limes, Library Journal, Layered Pages, A Shropshire Reader...
5. Emily (2022)Before Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s Wuthering Heights hits screens, check out Emily, a haunting portrait of author Emily Brontë herself. Emma Mackey shines in this part-fictionalised drama, which critics called “spectacular” and “spellbinding.” With an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score, it’s gothic brilliance at its finest. (Holly Fleet)
Jane Eyre (2011)This adaptation of the literary classic stars Mia Wasikowska as the eponymous orphan, who becomes a governess in the household of the wealthy and mysterious Mr. Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender).Dealing with some of the same themes of class disparity and forbidden love, Jane Eyre takes place in an earlier historical period (the 1810s), but features similarly stunning costume design and melodrama. Wasikowska’s portrayal of Jane’s quiet dignity is pitch-perfect, making this film one of our favorite literary adaptations. (Sophie Hessekiel)
From Yoshishige Yoshida to Kate Bush to Emerald Fennell, Wuthering Heights has inspired adaptations across time, medium, and culture. The central couple, Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, are the heart of the story. Widely regarded as one of the greatest books of all time, it’s no mere romance. Told from the perspective of Nelly, a second generation servant in the Earnshaw household, Wuthering Heights examines gender, class, cycles of abuse, and desire itself. It’s no small thing to put it all on screen.Too often, Catherine – Cathy – is more of a ghost on screen than the Cathy on the page. Where Cathy haunts the narrative of any version, adaptations tend to make her overly light-hearted to prove Heathcliff’s darker nature (Juliette Binoche, Wuthering Heights, 1992) or reduce her to an opaque, aesthetic ideal that moves like a ghost while she’s still alive (Kaya Scodelario, Wuthering Heights, 2011). But PBS Masterpiece Theatre’s Wuthering Heights casts Charlotte Riley in a truly complex portrayal. [...]A crucial part of this is in how it embraces sensuality. The adaptation adds steamier scenes on the moors that are only loosely implied in Brontë’s romantic descriptions, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would deny that sex is part of the wildness explored in the book’s themes. Most adaptations ignore this. In 1992’s Wuthering Heights, kisses are primarily reserved for Cathy’s deathbed. In Andrea Arnold’s 2011 film, Heathcliff assaults Cathy when they’re still children, a particularly severe interpretation of their relationship and the themes of sadomasochism throughout the novel.Riley and Hardy's chemistry is primarily playful. Even without explicit scenes on the moors, it’s clear these are two people who want to be affectionate with one another. When they are loving, it’s often at Cathy’s initiation. She’s not just there to soothe Heathcliff – she’s hungry for him. Teasing him until he grabs her, taking his hand, pressing into him, tracing his face, this all communicates that she isn’t just comfortable with Heathcliff. She enjoys physically being with him. More than just expanding the moor's representation of wildness, the added sexuality in Giedroyc’s version further solidifies Cathy as Heathcliff’s mirror. She’s as sensual, dark, and doomed as he is, and her recklessness is often demonstrated through these sensual desires. For Cathy and Heathcliff, a sexual connection becomes another way that they reject the gentility of Victorian society and choose one another. In the film, the corrupting nature of class and hierarchy is seen and felt in these physical expressions.Despite literally haunting the narrative, Cathy is alive more than she is dead in PBS Masterpiece Theatre’s Wuthering Heights. It’s a rare adaptation that shows that Wuthering Heights was a hostile environment before Heathcliff ever came along, and even before her father’s death. Instead of making Cathy an unrealistic exception to her family’s dysfunction and an unwilling victim of a one-dimensional revenge scheme by Heathcliff, she is shaped by her family and desperately wants to eschew expectations and join him.Riley’s easy laughter and frenetic shift to Cathy’s heavier emotions makes you truly miss Cathy when she’s gone, which makes Heathcliff more empathetic. In the end, the heartbreak of Wuthering Heights has nothing to do with the toxic tropes of modern dark romance, and everything to do with two people lashing out because lashing out is the only thing in their control. (Miranda Adama)
Karissa Maust, Department of English, Division of Arts and Sciences, Tri-County Technical College, Pendleton, SC 29670, United States.International Journal of English and Literature, Vol.16(2), pp. 12-17, July-September 2025The literary figure of the governess provides an example of burnout in the Victorian era, though caretakers in this era would not have described what they had experienced as burnout. The answer to this predicament, in today’s terms, is found in the phenomenon of self-care, as well as reliance on sustainable relationships with others. The experiences of Lucy Snowe, as found in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, shed light on the mental health difficulties that people in caregiving professions have long faced. This article argues that the tragedies Snowe experienced, which were largely inspired by events in Brontë’s own life, illuminate the stresses caregivers faced in Victorian England and the effects of these stressors on the mental health of women in the profession, and how these facts have implications for the mental health of women in caregiving and teaching positions today.
Hasan Efe Girenes, Undergraduate Thesis, Ege University (Turkey), Faculty of Letters, Department of English Language and Literature, 2025
An online fundraising page has been launched as part of a campaign to restore the steps of a world-famous church.The weather and years of use have taken their toll on the 19th-century steps at St Michael and All Angels, Haworth.Patrick Brontë, father of the literary siblings, was vicar at the church for over 40 years and most of the family are interred there.Visitors are drawn to the site from across the world.But the condition of the steps has deteriorated, and they have had to be partially closed for safety reasons.Now a GoFundMe page is set up, at https://gofund.me/b1b760a86, with the aim of raising £10,000 towards the cost of repairs.The Rev Oli Preston, rector of Haworth and Cross Roads, says: "For about the last 18 months we have been working on plans to repair and restore the steps."We started with the idea that this might be a fairly limited repair, but as time and assessment has gone on it has become clear that it's the right time to do a fuller restoration."We've managed to secure good community support already and have raised over £20,000 – two thirds of the estimated cost – from a few key grants and donations."With the backing of other leaders and businesses in the village, we have launched the GoFundMe page to ask for wider public support to enable us to complete the project."So far, the fundraising page has coined in over £1,300. (Alistair Shand)
Haworth in West Yorkshire will draw you into another time with its cobbled lanes and old alleyways, some which lead to an ancient church and graveyard where novelist sisters, Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë are buried. Younger sister Anne Brontë also lies at rest in the cemetery of St Michael & All Angels Church in Haworth, the three siblings wrote seven books, including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The village’s high street is full of ‘totally wonderful’ shops, including some with a magical witchy vibe, a ‘divine’ chocolate retailer and several unique gift and book stores to enjoy. (...)Also, edging the countryside that leads to the moorland is the Brontë Parsonage Museum - and this is well worth a visit if you are a fan of the Brontë sisters literature as this is where the family lived in the 1800s. (Katie Oborn)
6. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean RhysJean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is a bold and haunting prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, giving a voice to Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic." Set in Jamaica, the novel explores themes of colonialism, identity, and madness through the story of Antoinette Cosway, a young Creole woman caught between two worlds. The author's lyrical prose brings depth to the marginalised character, revealing the emotional and cultural turmoil that shaped her tragic fate. (...)9. Jane Eyre, Charlotte BrontëCharlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a groundbreaking Gothic novel that follows the resilient orphan Jane as she overcomes hardship and adversity to find love and independence. Working as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane falls for the mysterious Mr. Rochester, but their romance is shadowed by dark secrets. The novel's deep psychological insight and timeless exploration of morality, identity and social class make it a must-read work of literature. (Jennifer Pinto)
This is not an attempt to scold Emerald Fennell for perceived liberties in her upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. We haven’t seen it. What is of interest here is the brilliance of the prerelease marketing campaign.Warner Bros’ translation of a Gothic romance from the mid-Victorian era is, half a year before its arrival, on St Valentine’s Day, already the most-discussed film of 2026. Wuthering Heights is the new Barbie. If they moved it back five months to collide with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey we could have ourselves a ... Wutherssey? Odyssing? Okay, that really doesn’t work. But you get the idea.A large part of the controversy stems from unique and irrational antagonism towards the director in the online bear pit. (...)The content in both films was provocative, but few would have cared so much if Fennell didn’t seem so baldly posh. (...)That lurking hostility nudged the door open when, last September, Fennell announced the leads for her assault on Emily Brontë’s great novel. The horrible phrase “book accurate” now pollutes online discussion of adaptations. Nobody much gave a toss when, for his classic 1939 version, William Wyler scrapped whole acres of Brontë’s plot. But 21st-century book-accurate zealots blew a gasket at the news that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi were to play Cathy and Heathcliff.It mattered that they were significantly older than the lovers when, in the source, they first meet. It mattered a lot more that Elordi was white. Over the past decade or so the reasonable argument that the rugged Heathcliff, often regarded as Romani, could be black has, among many younger readers, evolved into a certainty that he’s a person of colour. Fennell was therefore “race swapping”. Few of these folks seemed concerned that she had cast Hong Chau, an American of Vietnamese descent, as Nelly Dean, the robust Yorkshire housekeeper. (...)The tabloids faked outrage. The Daily Telegraph commissioned an article that ran under the headline “A woke Wuthering Heights reboot is another tedious attempt at provocation”. What is “woke” about nuns groping hanged men? Didn’t the internet just identify the casting of Heathcliff as an assault on wokery? (...)If this Wuthering Heights does turn out to be a deranged, sexed-up, wildly violent deconstruction, like something by the late Ken Russell, that is surely preferable to a drably faithful walk-through of a text that has been so adapted more often than is healthy. (Donald Clarke)
Literary sisters behind "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights".
Black Hills Pioneer recommends Wuthering Heights as a Gothic quick pick. Several Latin American websites report the death of the actor Eduardo Serrano (1942-2025) who played Edgardo Linton in the Venezuelan soap opera Cumbres Borrascosas 1976. The Brontë Sisters UK explores Haworth graveyard's notable gravestones, including that of the doctor who attended Charlotte Brontë's deathbed, while revealing why the local church clock has been silent.
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Curated by Hilton Als12 September through 22 November 2025Michael Werner, 22 Upper Brook St, London W1K 7PZ, United KingdomConceived as a collective portrait of Jean Rhys, including paintings, drawings, and books, Postures explores not only the destabilising force of difference, but the ways in which Empire affected the Creole world Rhys was born into, and never forgot. As a significant presence in post-colonial writing, Rhys offered, in sui generis prose, a view into lives and cultures that had hitherto been marginalised, or ignored, by European male writers. So doing, Rhys’ powerful evocation of her native Dominica, and Jamaica in her master work, Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966, inspired writers Jamaica Kincaid, Derek Walcott, and Caryl Phillips - all of whom are represented in Postures - to write about their own relationship to the places in the Caribbean where they were born and partly raised.Working in tandem with Rhys’ texts, the artists included in Postures explore the interior and exterior worlds Rhys evoked with her pen: a world in which politics is not inseparable from the ways in which women live their lives.
Spanning over 30 artists, the exhibition features a potent mix of names past and present: Kai Althoff, Hurvin Anderson, Kara Walker, Celia Paul, Gwen John, Sarah Lucas, Leon Kossoff and Francis Picabia, to name just a few. There’s a deep sensuality in Reggie Burrows Hodges and the barbed wit of Rebecca Warren are visual echoes of the Caribbean’s colonial past from Agostino Brunias, and 20th-century photography from the likes of Brassaï and Eugène Atget.What ties it all together? Rhys herself. Or rather, the idea of Rhys – a woman born in 1890 in Roseau, Dominica, to a Welsh father and a third-generation Creole mother of Scottish descent. She left the Caribbean in 1907, lived across Europe, and yet never truly left Dominica behind. It bled into her fiction – most famously into Wide Sargasso Sea, her lush and lacerating response to Jane Eyre. That novel alone influenced generations of writers, including Jamaica Kincaid, Derek Walcott and Caryl Phillips – all of whom are referenced in the show. (Emily Phillips)
As it happened, the author had already started work on a text at that point called The First Mrs Rochester. She had read Jane Eyre and was shocked by Charlotte Brontë’s portrayal of Rochester’s ‘mad wife’. She sold the novel in 1957 for a measly £25, but did not complete Wide Sargasso Sea until 1966. Undoubtedly her most famous book, it offers an origin story for the young Antoinette Cosway, who is married off in Jamaica and renamed by her husband, before being transported to England, locked away and declared insane. Rochester’s cruelty is motivated by the racist belief that, as a Creole woman, she is bestial and highly sexed. Since publication, it has been heralded as a feminist and post-colonial text, as well as a beautiful work of literature. (Zoe Guttenplan)
When Elizabeth Gaskell published a biography of her late friend Charlotte Brontë in 1857, it caused a furor. More than 100 letters, ranging from the litigious to the mildly vexatious, arrived at the Manchester, England, home Gaskell shared with her minister husband. “I am in the hornet’s nest with a vengeance,” Gaskell wailed to Brontë’s childhood friend Ellen Nussey, who had been one of the biographer’s chief informants. Yet despite fire from all sides, Gaskell maintained that “The Life of Charlotte Brontë” had done what she intended, which was to make Brontë “known and valued as one who had gone through such a terrible life.” Buoyed by the scandal, the book sold out in a fortnight.The serpentine story of how Gaskell researched and wrote her biography of Brontë has been told before, most signally in Lucasta Miller’s “The Brontë Myth” (2001). In “The Invention of Charlotte Brontë,” Graham Watson returns to the familiar narrative but gives it room to breathe, providing details on Gaskell’s energetic pursuit of letters, memories and souvenirs from the people who had known Brontë best. Her sources included schoolmates, publishers, teachers—not forgetting Brontë’s clergyman father and his curate, Arthur Nicholls, who had married the novelist nine months before her death in 1855 at the age of 38. (...)Mr. Watson, a specialist in the Brontës, has produced a biography of a biography and a gripping testimony into the enduring problems that all biographers face in pursuit of their art: worries over the laws of copyright and libel, the difficulties of managing surviving family members, and the balance to be struck between vivid storytelling and documentary rigor. His writing is often clunky and his use of first names—Elizabeth for Gaskell, Arthur for Nicholls—is disconcerting, not least because, at that time, they would have stuck to “Mrs.” and “Mr.” Quibbles aside, “The Invention of Charlotte Brontë” is a useful book for anyone who wants to understand the twists and turns, revelations and silences, and endless revisions by which a literary legend endures. (Kathryn Hughes)
‘Be More Brontë’, wrote Queen Camilla on a postcard during her visit to Thornton’s literary shrine this year.It was the spring of 1815 when the Brontë family moved to a modest house on Market Street in Thornton. This was the house where Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were born and spent their early childhood, before the family moved to Haworth.To mark 210 years since the Brontës arrived in Thornton, the Queen was invited to the official launch of the Brontë Birthplace, which has opened to the public as a visitor, literary and education centre.Following a remarkable crowdfunding campaign supported by more than 700 investors, and grants from Bradford 2025 and the Community Ownership Fund, the house has had a major nine-month restoration. More than £650,000 was raised to save the historic site, which has opened under the care of Brontë Birthplace Limited.The house offers a fascinating visitor experience, to learn about life during the Regency period in Thornton and the Brontës’ domestic lives as a young family. An education programme is using the property’s legacy to inspire schoolchildren to believe in what they can achieve - just as three girls from Thornton, who went on to write some of the world’s most celebrated novels, did two centuries ago.There’s an overnight facility too, with three bedrooms named after Emily, Charlotte and Anne open for the public to stay in.Having visited the house last year, before the renovation, I’ve been keen to see how it looks now. Thomas Haig from the Brontë Birthplace Committee meets me in the parlour, where Emily, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell were born by the hearth. This cosy space will be home to a new cafe.We go through to a gallery and exhibition space which contains period furniture - including an 18th century long case clock, one of only two by a Halifax clock-maker still existing, gifted by a Brontë enthusiast, and chairs salvaged from a chapel. While the ceiling beams look old they’re replicas of original beams which the builders found rotting.In the scullery, the flagstone floor is from the Brontës’ time. 'The stones were discovered underneath the flooring; each one carefully lifted then put back,' says Thomas. 'The original wooden ceiling was found beneath plaster.'A range that looks like it’s always been there was sourced from a pub in Huddersfield.Leading off the scullery are ‘Nancy’s steps’ up to the room where she slept, where dolls and a cradle are a nod to the Brontës’ childhood. Nancy De Garrs was 13 when she moved in as the Brontës’ nanny. Her storytelling is said to have influenced the children and she went with the family to Haworth in 1820.Nancy’s room has a dress-up rail for young visitors. 'We’ve appointed an education officer, who’ll be working with schools, colleges and adult learning,' says Thomas.The Queen met schoolchildren on her visit, taking part in an activity inspired by the ‘Be More Brontë’ initiative. Unveiling a commemorative plaque, watched by cheering crowd, Her Majesty said: 'I would very much love to visit again.'Up the main staircase we come to Charlotte’s Room, where a four-poster bed takes pride of place and the 200-year-old floor has been restored. This was the children's room when the family lived here. Emily’s Room was Patrick and Maria’s bedroom. Both spacious rooms are beautifully decorated, with original fireplaces. At the end of the landing is Anne’s Room, a delightful little room where an original window has been uncovered beneath plasterboard. This part of the house was built after the Brontës left.Each bedroom has an touch of modern day with an en-suite. 'We’ve had lots of interest from people wanting to stay here,' says Thomas.It’s perfect for a literary retreat, or a mini break on the Brontë trail.There are regular guided tours here - a lively group is arriving as I leave. Thornton Arts Trail drew 350 visitors. While the house celebrates the Brontë legacy, and retains the feel of their busy family home, it also takes visitors back to the times when they lived there. In the visitor experience room is an intriguing display of items found during the renovation, including a Corgi toy box and handwritten schoolwork which was under floorboards.'The Brontës lived here for five years, after that there were other inhabitants,' says Thomas. 'It’s been a butcher’s shop, a museum, a coffee shop. Items from the house reflect its various periods.'Beautifully restored, the house connects visitors with its past and its place in Thornton’s heritage and present day community. This was a bustling family home - Patrick said the happiest days of his life were in this modest house - and this remarkable restoration project honours the Bronte legacy for future generations. (Emma Clayton)
Casting aside, does the film stay faithful to the book? I doubt it, but then hardly any adaptation of Wuthering Heights ever has. Most versions end with Cathy’s death, whereas there’s a whole section of the book that goes beyond this, focusing on the next generation and Heathcliff’s descent into grief-stricken madness. This final arc is grim and disturbing and I’ve only ever known one adaptation, a lengthy TV series, see it through to the end.Will Emerald Fennell’s erotic love story go there? I doubt it.But does it really matter? There have been countless interpretations of Wuthering Heights - it’s up there with A Christmas Carol and Pride and Prejudice as the most re-imagined novels. Wuthering Heights has been a silent film, a Bollywood movie, Spanish, Japanese, French and Filipino films, a graphic novel, a gothic soap opera, a ballet, musicals, operas, TV dramas and mini series (in Mexico and Venezuela, among other countries) and it was of course immortalised in vinyl by Kate Bush.Each adaptation brings something new to the story, and draws a new audience to it. My introduction to Wuthering Heights was the 1970 TV film starring Timothy Dalton. It wasn’t the best version but, watching it as a girl, I was fascinated by it. Kate Bush said that it wasn’t the book that inspired her to write her No.1 hit - it was an old TV series.Any adaptation of Emily Brontë’s only novel, widely regarded as a masterpiece of English literature, will divide opinion. The classic 1939 film, starring Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff, is the most popular but I found it cloying and melodramatic. And I disliked Andrea Arnold’s naturalistic 2011 film because the unskilled acting got on my nerves. Each version is different, and divisive, and that’s okay. Since the trailer for Fennell’s film was released the other day, there has been a spike in ‘Wuthering Heights’ online searches. If this film introduces a Gen Z audience to the novel, and consequently draws more visitors to our own ‘Bronte Country’, that’s a good thing, right?As Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, has said: “Every screen or theatre adaptation brings something fresh for contemporary audiences to think about. It is a testimony of Emily’s legacy that her writing continues to inspire creatives today. We look forward to seeing what Emerald Fennell’s adaptation adds to the mix.” (Emma Clayton)
There are certain books that seem to tempt filmmakers again and again, Brontë’s only novel has been adapted countless times, with versions dating back to the silent era and recurring every couple of decades since. Each adaptation promises to finally ‘get it right,’ but somehow, never do.The problem lies in its structure and tone. Wuthering Heights isn’t just a tale of tragic romance; it’s a layered, jagged story told through unreliable narrators and framed perspectives.The characters are complex and recount the past in fragments, leaving the reader to untangle what might have really happened. Nothing is black or white but morally grey.Heathcliff, one of literature’s most enduring figures, is simultaneously sympathetic and monstrous, while Cathy is both captivating and cruel. Their love is not redemptive or aspirational but all-consuming and ultimately devastating.Film, however, rarely thrives on nuance or ambiguity. It’s a medium which demands clarity; the stories need to be easy to follow with clear arcs and characters who can be neatly defined as either ‘goodies’ or ‘baddies’.Most adaptations tend to cater to this criteria smoothing down the book’s complexities and presenting Wuthering Heights as a grand romance rather than the unsettling, often ugly exploration of obsession and revenge that it truly is.This is why some critics have gone so far as to label the novel “unfilmable.” While that might sound far-fetched, history supports the claim, as despite the beauty and effort poured into the material by various filmmakers none have produced a version that feels definitive.In fact, some of the most compelling interpretations of Brontë’s novel have come not from cinema at all but from other art forms.Kate Bush’s 1978 debut single Wuthering Heights manages to capture the book’s eerie, untamable spirit better than most films have. With her otherworldly voice and surreal lyricism, Bush condenses Cathy’s ghostly presence and the novel’s raw, unearthly passion into four minutes of music.Even in the hands of a daring director like Emerald Fennell, early indications suggest her version will likely join the long line of ambitious but flawed attempts. [...]So perhaps it’s time we leave Wuthering Heights on the page. Because if there’s one lesson Brontë’s novel teaches us, it’s that obsession rarely ends well. (Sophie Clarke)
Vintage Carriages TrustIngrow Railway StationKeighleyBD21 5AXA weekend of family-friendly activities in a Victorian-era railway stationTo celebrate Heritage Open Days, Railway 200 and Bradford 2025 City of Culture, Rail Story will be offering a number of activities across the weekend of 13-14 September 2025, courtesy of the Vintage Carriages Trust.On both days, entry to the Carriage Works and Engine Shed museums will be free and there will be special tours of the workshops throughout the day.Saturday 13 September (according to Heritage Open Days)Sunday 14 September (according to Bradford 2025)Short performance sketch featuring Branwell Brontë, the only son of the famed Brontë family, as he faces a grilling from the host of a tongue-in-cheek TV game show about the reasons he was dismissed as a station clerk on the Leeds and Manchester Railway (11:30 & 14:00)
A bony wire frame peeks through the glittering (alleged) polyester of white skirts. Block eyebrows arch over contoured cheeks. (Allegedly) bleached blonde hair sweeps into the iconic half-up-half down style that no woman in the 19th century ever wore.Behold: Margot Robbie in the upcoming 2026 film adaptation of “Wuthering Heights.”Photos of Robbie in the wedding costume were leaked in March, sparking outrage from devout Emily Brontë fans, people who’ve seen a period drama at some point in their lives, and individuals who know that polyester wasn’t manufactured until the mid-1930s.And then the official trailer was released this past week — and my abject hatred morphed into confusion. [...]It’s surrealist — the trailer shows a blue room with walls completely coated in diamonds. Strange red glassware, like oversized thrift store vases, grace the gilded tables. Robbie’s “peasant” costume is constructed of striking scarlet and blue checkered fabric, jarring viewers out of 19th century Yorkshire into some warped fairy tale, while the background of the stable scene looks like a modern mansion in California with some historical refuse thrown on the ground here and there. Like Joe Wright’s 2012 adaptation of “Anna Karenina,” the set is designed to look like a theater stage rather than reality.“Wuthering Heights” is playing a dangerous game. [...]The surrealist visuals of “Wuthering Heights” paired with its over-the-top eroticism may reach this level of artistic success, entering a dialogue with the original text and revealing themes of sexual repression and female empowerment. Watching the trailer is an experience both uncomfortable and intriguing, suggesting that Fennell may know what she’s doing.Or it could be nothing more than a blatant cash grab, mushing the famous novel with risque sex scenes to draw more numbers at the box office. Who can say — for now? (Laura B. Martens)
Promising a “dark, brooding romance,” Wuthering Heights director Emerald Fennell assured fans Thursday that her new movie would be a faithful adaptation of Twilight. “When you take on a classic, people are understandably going to have strong feelings, but trust me on this—you’re going to love it,” said Fennell, who stressed that the upcoming film was practically a “scene by scene” adaptation of the supernatural-fantasy novel written in 2005. “The respect I have for Twilight is tremendous. In fact, I gave hardcover copies of it to the entire cast. I can’t wait for the world to finally see this film. The performances of Jacob [Elordi] and Margot [Robbie] as Edward and Bella are going to blow everyone away!” Reacting to the news, many fans insisted Fennell would never be able to top the Twilight adaptation that starred Laurence Olivier.
Saturday 13 September:Tour 1000 & 1300Discover the birthplace of Brontë siblings, the Brontë Bell Chapel ruins, Thornton Viaduct, South Square, and hidden ginnels. Led by a local historian our tours last 90 minutes and end at the Birthplace for refreshments and gift shop.Join us for our first-ever walking tour of historic Thornton, uncovering the rich cultural, industrial, and architectural heritage of the Brontë sisters’ birthplace. For many years Thornton has been the forgotten chapter in the Brontë story, but since the grand opening of the Birthplace we are striving to bring to light the fascinating history of this charming and characterful village.Led by local historian and photographer Matthew, the 90-minute tour begins at the Birthplace and takes you through key sites including the Brontë Bell Chapel ruins, Thornton Viaduct, South Square Centre, and the village’s iconic snickets and ginnels. Once overlooked, Thornton’s story is now being brought to life—step into its vibrant past and see how it shaped the Brontës. Tours end back at the Birthplace, where you can relax in the café, browse the gift shop, or book a house tour.
Oakwell Hall Brontë Art Installation
Nova Lane, Birstall, Batley, West Yorkshire, WF17 9LG
Sunday 14 September:1200-1600
Unveiling of Oakwell Hall Bronte inspired art installation and Brontë Way marker on Sunday 14th September with artists Amy Foster and Natasha Jackson
Join Artists in Residence Amy Foster and Natasha Jackson as they reveal a beautiful community-led installation inspired by the enduring friendship between Charlotte Brontë, Ellen Nussey, Mary Taylor, and Margaret Wooler. Discover the buildings and stories behind these remarkable women and explore a brand-new wayfinder marking the start of the Brontë Way.
Monet took inspiration from the Seine. Van Gogh found his spark in a star-filled sky. Teddy Blanks? He discovered his muse in his wife’s underwear drawer.“Warner Bros. contacted me about doing a custom logo for their Wuthering Heights marketing campaign,” explains the title designer behind the eye-catching fonts in the key art for Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë’s bodice-ripping 19th century gothic novel. “I was working on a bunch of different designs, and my wife suggested something sultry and sexy that had lace inside of it. That’s when I came up with the idea to use one of her bras to get the texture right.”Blanks’ wife, by the way, has highbrow literary credentials of her own — she’s former New York Times book critic Molly Young — but still seems delighted to have her unmentionables plastered on posters nationwide. “From a young age I always knew my Intimate Apparel would be 1 inch from Jacob Elordi’s head, I just didn’t know how,” she recently joked on Instagram. (...)But the lacy logo for Wuthering Heights could mark a breakthrough for Blanks and his Brooklyn-based CHIPS Studio. “I’m hoping this will become my thing — anyone who’s looking for lingerie to be placed in their title cards will come to me,” he quips. “Underwear of any kind — boxer briefs, jock straps, I’m willing to go there.” (Benjamin Svetkey and Julian Sancton)
We have been unable to trace the original font of Molly Young's quote, but nevertheless, se non è vero, è ben trovato. LOL.
Warner Bros. first-look trailer of Wuthering Heights opens with Catherine sitting at the table, seemingly having a romantic fantasy about Heathcliff. Footage plays out with a remix of Charli XCX’s “Everything Is Romantic” over the top showing how this could be a more modern approach to the classic romance story.There’s been some controversy over the casting of Heathcliff with several interpretations over the years, many believing he comes from Romani, African, or South Asian origins. While Brontë doesn’t specify his race, there are some ambiguous clues, such as describing him as “dark-skinned” and revealing he was found in Liverpool as a child, which was a major port for Britain at the time.That’s not the only controversy, with Emerald Fennell’s version seemingly not looking like a simple Wuthering Heights adaptation. The trailer hints at something darker and more unexpected. (Nathan Ellis in The Yorkshireman)
Shock Sells. In a crowded film landscape, nudity, kink, and controversy guarantee attention. Complexity gets lost. What Brontë wrote as a meditation on cruelty and obsession risks being repackaged as a sultry, doomed romance with very nice cheekbones.
For a reader, when a cult literary work is stripped for its most titillating parts, the layers of meaning—about race, class, gender, and the limits of love—fall away. Wuthering Heights becomes another meme-able romance instead of the unsettling, windswept tragedy Brontë intended.
Maybe the film will surprise us. Perhaps Emerald Fennell’s vision has more nuance than the trailer lets on, and the shocking flourishes are just marketing bait rather than the heart of the movie. Adaptations, after all, often reveal depths that early teasers obscure. But trailers set the tone, and this one, with its hyper-sexual sheen, has already lowered expectations. (Malika Bhagat in Times Now News)
Also on CBR, Cosmopolitan, Independent Online (South Africa), Magic828 (South Africa), Perfil (Argentina), Parati (Argentina), La Nación (Argentina), Televitos (Chile), El Confidencial (Spain), L'Officiel (France), Marie Claire (France), 361 Magazine (Italy), Bild (Germany)...
TikTok user itsyourfilmsis has a theory about the use of quotation marks in the Wuthering Heights 2026 poster. In her opinion, the quotation marks in “Wuthering Heights” suggest the film isn’t a direct adaptation but a story about someone reading and fantasizing themselves into Brontë’s novel. The era-shifting costumes and Margot Robbie’s possible role as a Victorian reader support this meta-framing, making the film about obsession and interpretation rather than faithful retelling. The theory is repeated in, among others, Fotogramas (Spain) and Wired (Italy). Other theories about the quotation marks can be read in The Indian Times, quoting both X-perts and Reddi-perts.
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WhittingtonThe village is associated with the Rev William Carus Wilson, a former rector and founder of charity schools for girls. He established the Whittington School for Training Servants and Teachers in 1820.He also founded the Clergy Daughters’ School in Cowan Bridge which the Brontë sisters attended. He and the school are thought to have inspired Lowood and its headmaster, Mr Brocklehurst, from the book Jane Eyre. (Robbie Macdonald)
People publishes an excerpt of the Wuthering Heights-inspired novel The Favourites of Layne Fargo, now in paperback.
Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September at Culturlann Sweeney Theatre, KilkeeCurator Jenny BassetFriday September 12th.8pm Opening by James Scully from the Banagher Brontë Group at 8pm.8.15pm Rose Dawn Gant, a regular contributor for the Brontë Studies Journal, will be talking about the early childhood writings and illustrations by Charlotte and her brother Branwell. Their juvenilia informed Charlotte’s later bestselling novels.Saturday September 13th10am to 11.30am, Jenny Bassett will be facilitating ‘Nourishing the Flow’. This creative writing workshop is open to people who would love to write or are emerging and experienced writers. The one and a half hour workshop will include mindfulness techniques and exercises designed to: help overcome writers’ block, encourage inspiration and discourage over-thinking.1.30pm Artist and Film Maker Dr. Maebh O’Regan will show and speak about two of her short films: The Irish Legacy of the Brontës’ in Banagher and Prenuptial Politics at the Parsonage in Haworth.While upstairs in the meeting room at Culturlann Sweeney The Legacy of the Brontës’ in Banagher exhibition will be on display. The exhibition, consisting of a variety of textile panels, will show precious items connected to the Brontë family brought over to Banagher by Charlotte Brontë’s widower Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1861. The work is an ongoing collaboration between the Banagher Crafting Group and Maebh O’Regan formerly of the National College of Art and Design in DublinFollowing the double bill of short films, Nick Holland will deliver his talk titled The Loves of Charlotte Brontë. Yorkshire born and bred, Nick is well known internationally for his books on various members of the Brontë family and his weekly In Search of Anne Brontë blog.4.30pm, Courtney Caitlin travelling from Alabama, USA, will talk about how the Brontë novels inspired her to write a series of chamber music compositions. Courtney said she is ‘Absolutely delighted to have been invited to Kilkee, a watering hole Charlotte loved and adored and so excited to be part of this year’s festival’. The audience will get the opportunity to listen to recordings of Courtney’s exquisite compositions. There will also be a Q&A session following each talk.To close the Kilkee Brontë Festival, Nigel West, a descendant of Charlotte Brontë’s Irish husband Arthur Bell Nicholls, will address the audience via Zoom from the recently opened Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, Bradford. As the Fundraising Officer on the Brontë Birthplace committee, Nigel will share the inspiring story of how a group of determined and committed people bought and renovated the house in Thornton where all four of the Brontë siblings: Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were born. The house was recently officially opened to the public by Her Majesty Queen Camilla.
The cast of Jane Eyre is a collection of longtime thespians and some brand new to the stage. Angello Vasquez as John Reed and Noah brings enthusiasm to his roles as do Kayla Vasquez and Julia Nelson. Monica Bonnington as Miss Temple and Leah lends a gentle and solid presence. Mimi Hamilton as Mrs. Fairfax is full of warmth and goodness. Her eyes are so welcoming to Jane, yet contain flickers of concern for everyone. Laura Martin-Chapin is equally strong as Mrs. Reed and Lady Ingram. She provides a sharp contrast to Fairfax and delivers it with aplomb. Edward Rochester is a complex character, and we see a bit too much of Justin Parish rather than Rochester in his portrayal. His speech is stilted, and missing much of Rochester’s moody and sardonic nature. Still, he hits the mark in believability for his love of Jane. Carolina Ryklansky as Helen, Blanche, and Bertha was divine. These characters couldn’t be more different, and Rylansky nailed all of them. From bosom friend, to society snob, to madwoman, every moment on stage is used with intention and purpose. Quick wit, shy smiles, and heart-felt discourse mark Sophie Ruf’s portrayal of Jane Eyre. She gives Jane both an assertiveness and tenderness that bibliophiles will appreciate. With her earnestness and ease of manner, she is truly Jane Eyre. Marian Simpson as Old Jane has a wonderful voice for narration, and the audience is glad to finally meet her.Orinda Starlight Village Players makes the most of a small budget with good decision-making and priorities. As a playwright, Malcolm Cowler condenses the hefty book into a manageable size by introducing an older Jane Eyre as a narrative voice that is used during transitions for exposition and connecting the scenes. In conjunction with the narration, projections both fill out the space and move with the narrator’s voice through the house and countryside. The projections provide detail and a grand scale to the space. The costumes by Matt Cardigan-Smith work well for the time period and were flattering. His design was especially helpful in distinguishing different characters played by the same actor. The set design by Cowler is simple and clear, allowing the projections to do the heavy-lifting. As a director Malcolm Cowler has his cast well prepared. Early performances by community groups are often marked by stalls and stops, but this performance flowed with good pacing. (Kelly Rogers Flynt)
And that’s where the danger lies. In satisfying what Brontë only ever suggested, a film risks deflating the very power that has kept Wuthering Heights burning through centuries. Desire thrives in absence. When the audience sees everything, the spell can break.Yet, perhaps Fennell knows this. Perhaps the explicit is not meant to replace the implicit, but to refract it—to show how violently desire contorts when it’s been repressed too long. If she succeeds, this could be less a modernisation than a kind of exorcism—dragging the unspeakable into the light, not for titillation, but for reckoning.Still, the question remains: can a story built on haunting withstand heat? Can the spectral be made flesh without losing its sting?There’s no easy answer. But one suspects Brontë, radical in her own time, might have welcomed the attempt. After all, her novel was never polite. It was brutal, bloody, and wild long before Hollywood touched it.The real test will be whether this adaptation leaves us gasping not from what we saw—but from what still lingers after. (Shatakshi Ganguly)
Perhaps that is the lasting legacy of Emily Brontë’s singular work: not that it is impossible to adapt, but that each adaptation serves as a haunting reminder of how wild and untamed the original remains: which is a literary ghost that refuses to rest. (Marie Cris Estrada)
With the thudding, mind-numbing lyrics of “Fall in love again and again” senselessly repeated (again and again) along with erotic and bizarre images (what in the world is up with that fish?), the new Wuthering Heights trailer is the apotheosis of the intellectual depravity and moral baseness of media geared toward women.A lot of women’s media is an insult to their intelligence and moral compass, but the new Wuthering Heights trailer takes the cake. One can’t help but watch it and wonder, “Is this what society thinks women want? Just a hodgepodge of senseless sensuality and intellectual debasement?” (Meg Marie Johnson)
Now, BP Land Ltd has submitted plans to Kirklees Council to bring three residential properties to the site. Two will be located in the main mansion, if the application is approved, with the barn to be converted into a third home.In the main house, original windows would be refurbished, with a bay window to be replaced to the south. An existing window to the west would be removed, partially infilled and new windows then installed.The site would still be accessible from Oxford Road, with car parking provided for eight cars.The three units would provide “generous” family accommodation, according to the application, with the two properties within the mansion set for three bedrooms and the house in the barn earmarked for four bedrooms.A planning statement on behalf of the applicant added: “The application is driven by the desire to utilise, develop and refurbish a historically significant yet dilapidated site within a predominantly residential area for housing and to retain and convert the derelict listed buildings to help to retain the assets for future generations and diversify the local housing stock with properties of real character.”Due to the nature of the building, the applicant has applied for planning permission and Listed Building Consent. Both applications are expected to be determined by October 21, 2025. (Abigail Marlow)
Right now, the top audiobook titles on the “BookTok’s Current Obsessions” shelf are Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. The “Hottest Authors” include Zoe Whittall and Donna Hill.
Reconstructing Identities Amidst Spatial transgression in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847)
by Zhixing Nie and Hardev Kaur, Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, MalaysiaJournal of Language and Communication, 12(1), 89-102 (2025)This study explores Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), a novel thoroughly examined through feminist, trauma, narratological, and psychoanalytic perspectives, especially concerning its enigmatic character, Heathcliff. However, the theme of spatial transgression as a crucial narrative element has received less attention. Applying Deleuze and Guattari’s notions of “striated space” and “smooth space” from A Thousand Plateaus (1980), this paper investigates the spatial dynamics within Wuthering Heights. It uncovers how the restrictive environments of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and patriarchal and religious constraints confine Catherine and Heathcliff within “striated space.” Brontë contrasts detention and freedom, confinement and mobility, and oppression and liberation to highlight this binary opposition. This study reveals the complex interplay between “striated space” and “smooth space”, and their significant impact on Catherine and Heathcliff’s identities. It particularly examines how themes of “flight,” “nomadism,” and “becoming” are woven into the narrative, illustrating the characters’ struggles with identity crises and their processes of identity reconstruction.
When British filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights arrives next year, a Charli XCX anthem pulsing over Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff, the internet will do what it always does. Instagram will light up with edits of Margot Robbie’s Catherine whispering, “I am Heathcliff.” Bookstagram and Booktok will churn out reels about “toxic soulmates.” And yet again, Emily Brontë’s classic will be flattened into the same tired pitch it has endured for nearly two centuries, vaunting it as one of literature’s greatest love stories.Except it isn’t.The great error of Wuthering Heights’s cultural afterlife, part of which was fueled by Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight series, is the assumption that Brontë intended a romance in the lowercase sense, evoking images of candlelit devotion, destiny-laden courtship, love conquering all. What Brontë gave us is Romantic with a capital R, a work born of a literary movement obsessed with wildness, excess, the sublime and the terrifying. Heathcliff is not Mr Darcy in a leather jacket. He is closer to Milton’s Satan: elemental, vengeful, almost inhuman in his capacity for cruelty. Catherine is no heroine either. Her mercurial whims, her selfishness, and her inability to choose make her a tragic agent of destruction.And yet, generation after generation, we keep insisting otherwise. Why? Because we want it to be true. Because we are addicted to the idea that passion redeems suffering. Because we crave love stories so intense they burn morality away. It is why Wuthering Heights ends up on bridal Pinterest boards and “best romances of all time” lists. It is why reels clips swoon over Heathcliff, despite the fact that he systematically abuses nearly everyone in his path, including the next generation of characters who never wronged him at all.In other words, it is not Brontë who romanticised Heathcliff and Catherine. It is us. (Aishwarya Khosla)
At worst, this adaptation of Wuthering Heights reminds me of AI image-making. A new language for our times from which a slick monster has emerged – a too-smooth amalgamation of parts of parts. Always, something is off, an element is ill-formed – the entire creation lacking in human intelligence, a deeper meaning, evidence of work and process. (Claire Mabey)
2. Jane Eyre (BBC, 2006)One of the definitive adaptations of another Brontë, Charlotte, this four-part miniseries makes room for nuance and slow character development. Ruth Wilson (spine-tingling as Mrs. Coulter in His Dark Materials) and Toby Stephens (son of Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith and star of Black Sails and Lost in Space) capture the psychological and emotional complexity of Jane and Rochester’s relationship without veering into melodrama.The gothic elements are handled with care, making it ideal viewing if you’re craving the atmosphere promised but not yet delivered by the new Wuthering Heights trailer. [...]6. Les Soeurs Brontë / The Brontë Sisters (1979)Curious about the actual lives of the Brontë sisters? Start here. This French-language biographical film is a moody and evocative exploration of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, starring Isabelle Adjani, Marie-France Pisier, and Isabelle Huppert. It’s a haunting and melancholic portrait of three brilliant women whose art was shaped by isolation, illness, and imagination.Though it takes liberties with the facts, Les Soeurs Brontë captures the emotional and psychological reality of being a woman writer in the 19th century and offers context for understanding why Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are so emotionally charged and complex.7. To Walk Invisible (BBC, 2016)For a more historically faithful take on the Brontës’ lives, To Walk Invisible is essential viewing. Written and directed by Sally Wainwright (Gentleman Jack), it dramatizes the sisters’ struggles to publish under male pseudonyms while navigating poverty, illness, and family turmoil.It’s an eye opening look into the real conditions that shaped their writing and offers far more insight than any stylized adaptation of their novels ever could. For newcomers to Brontë lore, this is an excellent entry point.8. Wuthering Heights (1992)Now let’s return to the source, but perhaps not where you'd expect.The 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, directed by Peter Kosminsky, may diverge from Emily Brontë’s novel in key ways (including its choice to cover the second generation of characters which other adaptations don’t usually do), but it nails the emotional essence of the story.Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort in the Harry Potter series and many other iconic roles) is raw and magnetic as Heathcliff, while Juliette Binoche (who also appeared opposite Fiennes in The English Patient) brings a wildness and fragility to Cathy.And the most daunting performance of all is delivered by Sinéad O’Connor, the Irish singer and songwriter, portraying Emily Brontë herself, whose voice narrates the film with a ghostly melancholy. The score is sweeping and unforgettable, and the cinematography captures the stark loneliness of the Yorkshire moors in a way that few adaptations have matched. Despite its liberties, this version is worth watching for its atmosphere and performances alone. (Maria Margarita Caedo)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean RhysThis is a gorgeous literary take on what it means to be an outsider in the Western world. Written by Jean Rhys in 1966, it remains a beloved classic to this day due to its rich writing, Caribbean pride, and lovely prose. It’s one of my absolute favorites, and I’d go so far as to recommend everything by author Jean Rhys, who’s just as talented (dare I say more so) than Sylvia Plath, yet is far less known by modern society. Her books are actually what got me into reading, and now I’m the ultimate bookworm all these years later. (Bre Avery)
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Edited by Ruth Heholt and Joanne Ella ParsonsManchester University PressISBN: 9781526181923 (hardback)ISBN: 9781526181916 (ebook)Publish Date: Sep 2025Ghosts have long been connected with the Gothic, but until now there has not been a book dedicated to the subject. This collection examines ghostly presences (and absences) in both classic and lesser-known Gothic texts from the beginning of the genre to the present in a global context. Arguing that the undead, in the form of ghosts, are intrinsic to the Gothic mode, essays in the collection question the place of manifested spirits. The Gothic has always been 'political', and essays in this collection examine some of the most relevant issues facing us today: from the destruction of the natural environment, to questions of 'freedom', to gender politics.
Miss Charlotte Brontë says of my writing: Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth, hands, and feet; what sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study, but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of Life and the sentient target of Death—this Miss Austen ignores.Ouch!Miss Brontë herself throbs fast and full, unhidden and unbidden, on the plethoric pages of Jane Eyre. Never was a heroine more virtuous than Jane, no hero more satanic than Mr Rochester. He kept a mad wife locked in the attic. With messianic diligence Miss Brontë killed the wife and struck Rochester blind. You would expect Jane to duck just in time, but Reader, she married him.The heroine of Villette is unique. Her ability to sour the milk of human kindness in the reader’s veins, every drop of it, is surely unparalleled in literature. (Kalpish Ratna)
For some, September provides an opportunity for a final sunny getaway, while others are ready to embrace the colder seasons. For autumn lovers, it's the perfect time to dig out woolly jumpers, enjoy steaming hot chocolates, and visit 'cosy' UK villages.For a charming staycation, you need not look further than Haworth, in West Yorkshire. Famous for its literary history, the "postcard" village has no shortage of attractions. According to social media users, it also offers the "cosiest autumnal day out".Praising Haworth on TikTok, @thecosy.home shared a video captioned: "For the cosiest autumnal day out, you must visit Haworth in Yorkshire. From the Cabinet of Curiosities to the Brontë Parsonage, there is so much to do."Her post included videos showcasing Haworth's picturesque streets and some of its popular attractions, including The Cabinet of Curiosities, a former Victorian apothecary shop. While there are many attractions, other spots popular with visitors include the Brontë Parsonage Museum, home to the world's largest collection of Brontë items, and the Brontë Waterfall, ideal for walkers who love rugged scenery. (Her post included videos showcasing Haworth's picturesque streets and some of its popular attractions, including The Cabinet of Curiosities, a former Victorian apothecary shop. While there are many attractions, other spots popular with visitors include the Brontë Parsonage Museum, home to the world's largest collection of Brontë items, and the Brontë Waterfall, ideal for walkers who love rugged scenery. (Amber O'Connor)
A romantic comedy series created by Lena Dunham and Luis Felber, “Too Much” is newly released on Netflix. The series follows a bereft New Yorker who moves to London seeking a fresh start. The story has shades of “Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Brontë’s 19th-century novel about a young woman who overcomes hardship to find love and independence, but with contemporary sass. (Laura Moreno)
