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Talking ScaredThis Valentine’s week, come for a walk up on t’moors with me and Agatha Andrews.I’ve invited Agatha, my friend and sister-in-Gothic, host of She Wore Black podcast, for a conversation about Wuthering Heights.It’s known as “the greatest love story ever told,” but that’s such nonsense. Instead we talk about mania and melancholy, hate and power, cannibalismand necrophilia… and we also look ahead to the Hollywood adaptation with bated (but amused) breath.Enjoy!Other books mentioned:David Copperfield (1850), by Charles DickensThe Brontës (1994), by Juliet BarkerThe Gabriel Hounds (1964), by Mary StewartEast of Eden (1952), by John SteinbeckThe Vampyre (1819), by John PolidoriThe Favourites (2025), by Layne Fargo
“She wasn’t a fan of Austen,” Dr Stewart said.Charlotte once told critic G.H. Lewes she’d never read Austen (despite her very literary childhood). And after he urged her to give the books a try, she said in correspondence:“Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? I am puzzled on that point… I had not seen ‘Pride & Prejudice’ till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book and studied it. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face; a carefully-fenced, highly cultivated garden with neat borders and delicate flowers – but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy – no open country – no fresh air – no blue hill – no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses.”This, Dr Stewart said, might be called “damning with faint praise”. [...]Basically, her greatest compliment to the author appeared to be something along the lines of, “cool story, Austen!! Now imagine if it had literally any heart, soul, or vim whatsoever...”Why didn’t Charlotte Brontë seem to like Jane Austen?We’ll never truly know, but it’s highly possible the more restrained author just didn’t float Charlotte’s boat.And Austen isn’t the only victim of Charlotte’s sharp tongue, either.“She liked Dickens even less. She disliked his ‘ostentatious extravagance,’” Dr Stewart told us.But it’s hard not to wonder if the writer, who was one when Austen died, was sick of unfair comparisons to the literary titan.“I don’t think there are any meaningful comparisons between the work of the Brontës and Austen. In many ways, they are exact opposites. Although Anne’s Agnes Grey was called a ‘coarse imitation of one of Miss Austin’s [sic] charming stories,’” Dr Stewart explained.To that point, he noted that “Emily and Anne [Brontë] were no fans of Austen either”. (Amy Glover)
Haworth, West YorkshireGrowing up in Yorkshire, I was never far from an idyllic village. One of my favourites has to be Haworth, in the moorlands of the Pennines.While it might be small, it has some world-class literary credentials — it’s where the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) wrote their iconic novels, including Wuthering Heights.Head to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the Grade I listed Georgian building, formerly the home of the sisters which has been preserved to offer a glimpse of their life from 1820 to 1861 — entry is £13.Brontë fans should also take a country walk to Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse near Haworth, believed to have inspired Wuthering Heights.And to continue your Victorian education, take a trip on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a five-mile heritage steam train that runs through the village.Finally, if a day of sightseeing has tired you out, stop for a classic pub lunch.My favourite is Haworth Old Hall, a cosy inn set in a 16th-century manor house. Try the Whitby Scampi (£14.79) and a pint of local ale for the ultimate Yorkshire experience. (Sophie-May Williams)
1. Cathy and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights (2026)Is there anything more toxic (or dramatic) than ghosting your childhood best friend for five years when she chooses another man? Emily Brontë proved that toxic relationships have been around since the dawn of time with her writing of Cathy and Heathcliff, and Fennell's take shows us just how self-destructive a love like this can be... No thanks. (Kirsty Thatcher)
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d'après le roman et la vie d'Emily Brontëmise en scène Maëlle DequiedtComédie de Colmar. Grande salleTuesday 17.03. 14h15Tuesday 17.03. 19hWednesday 18.03. 20hRoman noir et scandaleux, sur fond de landes sauvages du Yorkshire, Les Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë plonge dans les tréfonds de la nature humaine. Maëlle Dequiedt explore très librement ce monument de la littérature anglaise, dans un spectacle impressionniste et musical.En complicité avec la compositrice et performeuse Nadia Ratsimandresy, la metteuse en scène libère toute la puissance de ce texte tempétueux, d’une force tellurique, brute, immorale. Devenu mythique, Les Hauts de Hurlevent reste l’unique roman d’une écrivaine morte à trente ans. Maëlle Dequiedt, artiste associée à la Comédie de Colmar, s’approprie l’histoire tourmentée de Catherine et Heathcliff pour en proposer une version très personnelle, iconoclaste, faite de sensations et d’images fulgurantes, autour des thèmes du roman : la famille, la violence, l’enfermement, le mal. La langue brûlante d’Emily Brontë devient matière poétique et sonore, en anglais et en français, tandis que les fantômes qui habitent l’histoire prennent vie à travers les corps de quatre comédien·nes. La musique, jouée en live aux ondes Martenot — instrument précurseur de l’électro —, suggère puissamment la lande battue par le vent et la pluie, autant que les émotions qui ravagent les personnages. Un voyage sans retour au cœur d’une œuvre obsédante.
Always wanted to step right into Heathcliff and Cathy’s sort-of-love story? Clearly, you’re not alone.Since it was released on February 13 one thing Emerald Fennel’s somewhat controversial adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’ has done is show just how beautiful Yorkshire can be. As a result, Haworth, a tiny hilltop village in God’s Own County, has been swept up in ‘Brontëmania’. Local businesses and guides have apparently reported a major uptake in bookings since the film’s release. (...)If you’re hoping to make your own Brontëmania trip, the nearest local station is Keighley in Yorkshire – which is on the East Coast Main Line and a direct LNER train away from London, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh.Once you’ve made it to Keighley, Haworth is less than an hour ride away on the Brontëbus – yes that’s really what it's called. For only three quid, the bus takes you past iconic Brontë locations (as well as where The Railway Children was filmed). (Anna Mahtani)
Wuthering Heights still remains in the top ten of the Fiction Paperback Sunday Times Bestsellers List. It's number 9.
Emerald Fennell’s sexed-up take on Emily Brontë’s gothic romance feels empty. (...)Maybe Fennell’s Wuthering Heights was, like its protagonists, doomed from the start. If nothing else, watching it has made me wonder why our culture is so invested in this gothic tale as a paragon of romantic longing. Brontë’s novel is about two people whose love, cankered by misunderstanding, narcissism, and a soupçon of undiagnosed mental illness, devolves into a rage that destroys them and their estates; the traditional love plot it is not. Fennell is not particularly interested in exploring that material, but she also doesn’t have enough grasp of the power and promise of romance to produce the film it seems she wanted to make. She missed the essence of Charli XCX’s repetitive call to “fall in love again and again” in “Everything is romantic,” the track used to mesmerizing, vibes-enhancing effect in the film’s early trailer.She missed the romance, missed why, with the right book or film, we crave letting ourselves fall in love over and over and over. (Eric Newman)
Because the novel itself was not polite Victorian entertainment. It was wild, obsessive, and deeply strange. Catherine and Heathcliff behave like forces of nature, not characters designed to teach moral lessons. In that sense, the chaotic energy of “Wuthering Heights” feels strangely appropriate.The internet may continue to argue about casting, costumes, accents, and Charli XCX. The discourse will probably last months. But inside a cinema, away from social media commentary, the film reveals itself as something much simpler.Not a sacred text.Just a loud, messy, visually striking movie that is actually pretty fun to watch. (Katarina Doric)
If you’re a purist looking for a faithful adaptation of Catherine and Heathcliff’s destructive, often sadistic but seemingly chaste and tragic love story, you’re going to be pissed. Fennell’s screen adaptation pointedly puts “Wuthering Heights” in quotation marks for multiple reasons. (...)As someone who reread the book immediately before watching the recent adaptation, the film left a lot to be desired.In Brontë’s book, just about everyone is kind of awful. A number of her characters, especially Heathcliff, are selfish, vengeful and violent and there is a supernatural element that looms over it all in a way that is fascinating and thoroughly unsettling.In Fennell’s film adaptation, Heathcliff in particular is highly sanitised. (Martha Mukaiwa)
If this isn't up your alley, the good news is that there are five books out there that have successfully reimagined "Wuthering Heights". "Here on Earth" by Alice Hoffman will satisfy any gothic romance craving. "What Souls Are Made Of" by Tasha Suri, part of the Remixed Classics series, reimagines "Wuthering Heights" through an Indian lens. For a fantasy twist, readers can enjoy "Ruthless Devotion" by Rebecca Kenney. In "For No Mortal Creature" by Keshe Chow, Brontë's classic is retold through a world of dark romance and Chinese superstitions. "The Favorites" by Layne Fargo portrays Cathy and Heathcliff's turbulent relationship through professional ice skaters competing at the Winter Olympics in the 21st century. Whatever you're craving, these books are guaranteed to fix the Brontë blues. (Danielle Summer)
Ver a Heathcliff proclamar que "no puede vivir sin su vida y no puede vivir sin su alma" mientras luce un perfil donde hay músculos que ni siquiera sabía que existían genera un cortocircuito en las generaciones de ahora. (...)Teniendo clarísimo que la película es bastante mala y una versión muy libre del libro, tenía muchas ganas de ver qué sucedía en la sala de cine y cuál era la reacción de quienes acuden a ver la película. La realidad ha superado mis expectativas. La directora no ha rodado un drama gótico, ha filmado un deseo colectivo en un mundo de ghosting y frialdad digital; ver a un semidiós moderno sufrir por amor nos parece la más envidiable de las fantasías que puede que ninguna confesara jamás. (Belén Unzurrunzaga) (Translation)
Fennell leans all the way in. The film is decadent and drenched in color. Cathy’s beautiful, vivid ballgowns stand out against the Longley mansion’s abundance and excess, and even the walls of her bedroom, painted almost exactly the color of her own skin, down to the nerves, create an unsettling intimacy.It’s visually rich – almost indulgent – yet always heavy with doom.Costume design deserves serious praise. Robbie stuns in exquisite period dresses and deep red frocks that mirror Cathy’s emotional turbulence. The opulence never feels accidental – it amplifies her mood swings.Alison Oliver’s Isabella adds an unexpected edge. She brings comic timing to a character who is, at her core, deeply insecure and slightly twisted. Watching her willingly allow herself to be degraded by Heathcliff is uncomfortable. She is vulnerable, desperate for love and craving control in the only way she thinks she can claim it. It’s disturbing, but compelling. (Anjola Fashawe)
En conclusión, un producto entretenido y de alta calidad, pero que ha sido relegado de la esencia original de la obra a una simple historia de pasión, que dentro de unos años nadie recordará. Sin embargo, la novela de Emily Brontë seguirá perdurando como clásico de la literatura universal por su complejidad emocional y social. (Mercè Homar Mas) (Translation)
De algo parecido adolece Cumbres borrascosas según nos la intentan empotrar en esta última adaptación al cine. Sin duda Jacob Elordi y Margot Robbie son dos de las personas más agraciadas que se hayan puesto jamás delante de una cámara. Derrochan fotogenia. Lo que no derrochan, por desgracia, es ninguna química. Encerrados los dos en las respectivas burbujas de una fría estética narcisista, la cámara tiene que hacer milagros para arrancar algún destello aislado de morbo que a lo mejor funciona en un vídeo cortito de TikTok, para la promoción y tal y tal. Pero luego vas al cine y la película vista del tirón se te hace larga y tediosa. Quien busque las emociones fuertes que el marketing promete, las encontrará antes en un cruce de miradas entre Humphrey Bogart e Ingrid Bergman en Casablanca, que en el señor Elordi tirándole del corsé a la señora Robbie. (Anna Grau) (Translation)
Cumbres Borrascosas (2026) es una película fallida con momentos de belleza real, pero entre la megalomanía estética y la superficialidad emocional termina siendo una linda y tóxica forma de romantizar la dependencia sin el valor de explorar por qué eso duele. (Luis Zúñiga) (Translation)
Where “Wuthering Heights” ultimately fails is her inability to replace the core themes and messaging in Brontë’s novel, which she stripped away with material that makes for a new, provocative, and unique interpretation.Rather, Fennell did not care for the character’s interior and exterior lives, only wishing to “smuttify” a beloved literary classic in the hopes that audiences would be satisfied with watching two beautiful people get steamy in beautiful backdrops. (Marissa Chin)
Raio Ángulo (Cuba) reviews the new(?) film, but clearly, they have not seen it. The author of these new articles in Her Campus and El Generacional, at least, did. The RNE podcast, Tres en la carretera also reviews the film. Die Welt (Germany) explores the GenZ reactions to the novel or the movie.
Movie-Locations fittingly explores Wuthering Heights 2026's locations. The Telegraph & Argus lists a top ten of tourist attractions around Bradford, including the Parsonage, of course.
In Emerald Fennell’s rendering of Wuthering Heights, Latif plays Edgar Linton, the well-to-do textiles merchant who marries the story’s protagonist, Cathy, played by Margot Robbie. Traditionally, Linton is a dull, sensible foil to Cathy’s true love, Heathcliff, butFennell and Latif had other ideas for their version of the character.“We wanted to make him less of the pathetic guy he comes across as in the book,” he says, “and more of a real rival to Heathcliff.” Linton’s visceral devotion to his new bride is apparent when Cathy arrives at his dreamlike manor house, where one bedroom wall is decorated, complete with veins and moles, to mimic her own skin. (...)One of the numerous controversies surrounding Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is an accusation of whitewashing. In Brontë’s novel, Heathcliff is described as a Lascar, a term for a sailor from India or south-east Asia; the casting of Elordi, a white man, in the role has raised eyebrows in corners of the internet. When I bring it up, he says, “If anything, it shouldn’t be on me, or any person of colour, to comment on this. It’s one for the industry. What is cool, to me, is being able to play these roles. We’re adding colour back into period dramas becausewe’ve always been there.” Understandably, he would rather focus on the ease with which his own heritage was woven into the narrative.“We were able to flesh out this backstory, which included the Linton family being from South Asia and adopting Isabella, who is white, as a ward. It adds another dimension to the story.” (Michaela Makusha)
In Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Clunes is the one dishing out the floggings, in a bravura performance as Cathy’s dissolute father. He looked like he was having enormous fun, with his mouthful of terrible teeth, and also on the red carpet, where he was the one person grinning alongside Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi and Charli XCX. “I loved it, loved it,” he says. “My wife trod on Charli’s dress at the premiere, but it didn’t rip.” (...)When Clunes was working on Wuthering Heights, Fennell told him the audience needed to like Mr Earnshaw, even though he was cruel. (Melissa Denes)
Melissa Dumpleton: The first book you ever remember reading:L.S.: There’s no way this won’t sound ridiculously pretentious, but I think it was Jane Eyre, when I was around six. I was staying at my grandparents’ apartment that summer, and it was one of the few books on my grandfather’s bookshelf that wasn’t about engineering. All I remember is having recurring nightmares about the scary lady who lived in the attic.
“It was only while re-reading this book a few years ago that I realised this wasn’t just the coming-of-age story I’d always assumed it to be. First published under the pen name of Currer Bell in 1847, Jane Eyre is also a masterclass in psychological suspense with all the hallmarks of the genre: the first-person narrator with a dark past, the creepy old house, the strange noises and goings-on in the dead of night, the twists and turns, the lies, deceit, and fear.“When Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall to be a governess, she soon picks up that there is something strange about both the mansion, with its rambling corridors and forbidden spaces, and its elusive master, Mr Rochester. Is the house haunted? And what is the secret in the attic?” (Anna Bonet)
Mae's Food Blog reviews Jane Eyre.
The Art of CostumeFebruary 2026Costume nerds... It is time. This week on The Art of Costume Podcast, we brave the windswept Yorkshire moors for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.First, Spencer and Elizabeth call to order the gathering of costume nerds to discuss the debate regarding period films and costume accuracy. Then our hosts dive headfirst into this passionate, chaotic, and beautifully toxic love story, unpacking Heathcliff and Catherine’s destructive devotion, the moody atmosphere, and, of course, the stunning costumes designed by Jacqueline Durran.It’s stormy, it’s dramatic, it’s a little unhinged—and we absolutely have thoughts.
Fennell is not the first director to transform the darkness at the heart of this novel into a romantic film. In 1939, William Wyler released an adaptation produced by MGM, which became a global success and received eight Oscar nominations, establishing Wuthering Heights as a revered pop culture icon. In this version, Heathcliff – played by the devastatingly handsome Laurence Olivier – is a lovelorn, disappointed romantic, far more sympathetic than the character in Brontë's novel.Gone, for example, is the abuse inflicted on children, on his own wife Isabella – whom he marries purely out of revenge – as well as on various animals, especially dogs. In the novel, Brontë often uses cruelty toward animals as a metaphor for domestic violence. "To show battered women directly would have been considered too shocking at the time. So what Emily Brontë does is transfer that violence from the woman's body to that of an animal," explained Athéna Sol, a literature teacher and researcher, in a YouTube video on the subject. The original Heathcliff hangs Isabella's spaniel from a hook before marrying her – a grim foreshadowing of what he will later put her through.In Fennell's film, these acts of violence have not disappeared entirely, but have instead been reframed as part of a consensual sexual game with Isabella, in the vein of the soft-core erotic romance Fifty Shades of Grey, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and released in 2015.What is entirely left out, however, is the racist violence suffered by Heathcliff. In the novel, he is described as a "gypsy" and "dark-skinned," whose appearance unsettles everyone. He is found by Catherine's family in Liverpool, one of England's main slave-trading ports in the early 19th century. Given that Brontë grew up amid fierce debate over the abolition of slavery, that detail is no mere accident. The film industry has often ignored it, instead casting White actors – from Olivier to the Australian Elordi. Only in 2011 did British director Andrea Arnold cast a Black actor for the role. Her version also included the hanging of Isabella's spaniel, scenes of domestic violence and a necrophilia sequence that is strongly suggested in the novel. In short, the work's deeply political elements remain largely ill-suited to the Valentine's Day tie-in. (Margaux Baralon)
I find it quite serendipitous that my first ever trip to Yorkshire coincided with the cinematic release of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights.As a Brontë-obsessed teen (and later, swoopy Kate Bush kitchen disco fan), I always had romantic notions about the stark landscapes these literary sisters existed within, holed up in their parsonage at the edge of the moors scribbling about doomed love while the wind howled around them like restless ghosts.A whimsical image some would say, but let’s face it, indulging in a little bit of whimsy these days is good for the soul, which is why spending a weekend at Denton Reserve in the heart of the Yorkshire countryside was the perfect getaway for this Brontë superfan – if only to escape the scandalised chaos of Wuthering Heights content being unleashed on social media, and indulge in the fantasy that I’d be looking out across the same vistas that backdropped Emily’s gothic masterpiece over 150 years ago (albeit in a far more luxurious setting than some drafty old parsonage). (Amie-Jo Locke)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë“It was only while re-reading this book a few years ago that I realised this wasn’t just the coming-of-age story I’d always assumed it to be. First published under the pen name of Currer Bell in 1847, Jane Eyre is also a masterclass in psychological suspense with all the hallmarks of the genre: the first-person narrator with a dark past, the creepy old house, the strange noises and goings-on in the dead of night, the twists and turns, the lies, deceit, and fear.“When Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall to be a governess, she soon picks up that there is something strange about both the mansion, with its rambling corridors and forbidden spaces, and its elusive master, Mr Rochester. Is the house haunted? And what is the secret in the attic?”
Retold by Maggie PearsonIllustrated by Lia VisirinFranklin WattsISBN: 9781445197593March 2026Beautifully simple abridged versions of the Classics for a young new audience.In this story based on Charlotte Bronte’s original text, Jane Eyre overcomes hard beginnings to become governess at the Thornfield Hall where she encounters the handsome but stern Mr Rochester. But as time goes on she feels the house may be hiding an eerie secret …Enter the world of literary classics with these expertly retold chapter books for young readers. Atmospheric and evocative colour artwork accompanies accessible text in a dyslexia friendly-font. Extra features include a short biography of Charlotte Bronte, plus some extra facts and comprehension exercises at the back of the book to help students study the text in more depth. A brilliant edition for all classrooms and perfect for readers age 7+ making the next step to longer texts.
It’s been a month since Wuthering Heights was released in cinemas and the Cathy/Heathcliff fever is still burning. But if Emerald Fennel’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel deviated too far from the original story for your taste, you’re likely to find more to love about Essie Fox’s recent literary reimagining, Catherine.Shifting the perspective from the original book’s narrators – outsider Mr Lockwood and insider Nelly Dean – to that of Catherine Linton, née Earnshaw, we follow the titular character as she forms a fierce and unbreakable bond with a foundling boy her father rescues from the streets of Liverpool. As they grow older, Catherine and Heathcliff’s friendship evolves into an intense love. But everything changes when Catherine’s father dies, leaving her bitter and pitiless brother as master of the house. Heathcliff is reduced to servitude and Catherine, desperate to save him, turns to her kindly neighbour, Edgar, believing that her marriage to a wealthy heir will free Heathcliff from cruelty. Reader, it does not. [...]I first read Wuthering Heights almost two decades ago and whilst the specific details of the story have faded with time, that haunting backdrop and the intensity of the characters has stuck with me ever since. It’s a relief to read Essie Fox’s take on Cathy and Heathcliff’s destructive relationship and still recognise the gothic backbone that made Brontë’s story such a seminal novel. Catherine is steeped in the kind of dark and moody atmosphere that makes you live and breathe every part of the book. It helps that the setting is almost a character in itself; Fox captures the rugged, windswept Yorkshire moors with a cinematic wildness that’s both brutal and beautiful.The same words can be used to describe the story’s central duo too. As children, they’re equally charming in their own ways – Catherine is passionate, spirited and open with her affections, whilst Heathcliff is quiet, compassionate and empathetic. It’s easy to like their younger selves, but much harder to like who they grow up to become. As a woman and a wife, Catherine’s youthful tendency towards immaturity and selfishness is amplified. Heathcliff, on the other hand, has become an entirely different person. Having shed the softness that made Catherine love him in the first place, he’s made himself into a monster purely to torture those who tortured him. And yet, toxic and terrible as they both are, they remain sympathetic characters – which is no mean feat.By framing the narrative around Catherine’s POV, Fox gives her novel an urgency that really delves into the character’s deep inner turmoil. The book leans more heavily into parts of Brontë’s story that were only hinted at or briefly touched upon, which really ups the tragedy, trauma and emotional torment the characters wrestle with. Wuthering Heights was never supposed to be a romantic love story but there is still love to be found in all the misery, whether it’s housekeeper and mother figure Nelly Dean’s love for the children under her care, or in Catherine’s love for the daughter she never had a chance to know, or the ghost of the boy who deserved a kinder life than he was given.If you want to read a classic novel with a modern touch, Catherine delivers all the obsessive yearning, eerie chills and untamed insanity you could hope for in a Wuthering Heights reimagining. It’s an absorbing and detailed historical novel that will please fans of the original, whilst introducing new readers to Brontë’s literary genius – which is exactly what retellings should do. (Natalie Xenos)
Grey skies, gravestones and misty moors might not seem like the obvious ingredients for a viral social media post.Yet since the release of Wuthering Heights, influencers’ and BookTokers’ gloomy content has inspired hundreds to descend upon a village on the edge of the Pennine moors.There has been an influx of younger visitors to Haworth in West Yorkshire, where the Brontë sisters lived, buying copies of Wuthering Heights and occasionally wearing costumes inspired by Cathy, the story’s female protagonist.The interest in the village, which is typically busy during the summer but less so during colder months, has filled up car parks and prompted businesses to extend their opening hours.Brontë-related attractions include the parsonage, where the family lived, the church, where Charlotte and Emily are buried, and the post office, where the sisters posted their manuscripts.Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse on the moors above, is believed to have inspired the location of Wuthering Heights.Although Emerald Fennell’s adaptation was not filmed in Haworth, she used locations across Swaledale and Langthwaite in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, now signposted on the Visit North Yorkshire website.Dani Leigh, 33, a travel blogger from Manchester, decided to visit Haworth with her partner for Valentine’s Day in anticipation of the film’s release that weekend. She said it was busy with other tourists.She posted videos of her visit, overlaid by Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights and the caption, “If you’re a literature girlie, a dark academia lover or a whimsy traveller, you need to go to Haworth.”Leigh told The Times: “It was amazing to wander the same streets that the Brontës would have done. With the strong winds, sweeping moors and cobbled streets, I can definitely see how Wuthering Heights came to be written.”The film, which puts the title of the novel in quotation marks, received mixed reviews from book fans, who criticised the casting of Heathcliff and changes to the original plot. The headline stars and press tour outfits, however, helped the film gross $80 million domestically and over $130 million internationally and brought younger generations to the Brontë story.Staff at the Brontë Parsonage Museum said they welcomed double the number of visitors this February half-term compared to the same time last year. The shop also sold 388 copies of Wuthering Heights, double the amount it usually sells in a week.On Saturday, March 7, the museum welcomed 590 visitors, a figure they would typically expect at the height of August.“Comments in the visitors’ book reveal that some people have been inspired to visit after seeing the film, and we did spot a visitor last week channelling Margot Robbie’s look in the film, complete with ribbon-braided hair,” Diane Fare, a staff member, said.Mark Graham, the operations manager at The Hawthorn restaurant and co-owner of Haworth Old Post Office café, said, “I live opposite the Brontë Parsonage, and therefore I can see the car park … and it’s full every day.“It used to be the case that it was full in June, July, August, at weekends. Now it’s full when you look out on a Wednesday or a Thursday.“People are parking outside the village, up on to the moors, on the road and then walking in.”He said that the Old Post Office recently had a queue outside its door before it opened, while each weekend the café has 70 to 80 bookings a day despite only accommodating 50 covers.“Haworth used to be coach trips, pensioners, there’s now a lot of younger people, and you’re seeing your sales rise of things like matcha, Valencia lattes,” he said.He added that the café had been selling 20 copies of Wuthering Heights a week.Jamila Juma-Ware, 42, co-owns Writers Bloc, a bar which hosts book clubs and serves Brontë Bramble cocktails.“It’s gone from being almost like a ghost town in January, February, when it’s really chilly,” she said, to “an influx of influencers and people via social media coming to take a look.”“I don’t think anything of our time has kind of had this much impact in terms of this tourist drive.“It’s been such a hotly debated topic this film … I think just that kind of talk appeal mixed with social media has created this kind of frenzy.”Cobbles and Clay, a pottery painting café, noticed the trend online when their social media platforms soared from 41,000 views in January to 98,500.There was so much interest in a Brontë quote on display in the café that the owners offered visitors free copies of the poem the quote was taken from. In two weeks, the staff said 240 copies have been taken.Around 20 minutes drive from Haworth is Holdsworth House hotel, where the cast, including Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, stayed for the final night of filming in 2025.Chris Meehan, the general manager, estimated the film had boosted his usual bookings during the “quieter months” by around 15 per cent.“The film is on the tip of everybody’s tongue. Everybody’s either seen it or wants to see it,” he said, adding that more guests had pre-planned visits to the Brontë attractions.Wuthering Heights? I don’t recall Emily Brontë writing about masturbationDue to demand, the hotel introduced a Brontë Country Escape package, which includes tickets to the parsonage museum.AirBnB also temporarily installed “Cathy’s bedroom” on the site, after searches for West Yorkshire Valentine’s getaways increased by 67 per cent among UK Gen Z travellers and 59 per cent globally.In the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Andrew Hields operates both the Tan Hill Inn and the Green Dragon, near filming locations.He said they had hosted a “smattering of influencers” at both pubs, including Italians and Germans trying Yorkshire pudding and posing by the fireplace.“We always say that if Cathy and Heathcliff ever went on a pub date, they would meet at Tan Hill Inn,” Hields said. (Lara Wildenberg)
In early 2026, a museum employee at the Brontë Parsonage described the weeks after the release of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation as “mind-blowing”. Visitors from America were turning up in numbers the parsonage doesn’t usually see outside peak summer. People who had never read the book bought it on the way in. The cobbled main street filled up on weekday mornings. It was, by most accounts, the most concentrated burst of interest in a very long time.None of this was new, exactly. Haworth has been doing this for over 130 years. What’s worth asking is how it started, what it actually built, and whether literary tourism – the kind that rests entirely on three writers who died in their thirties – is a stable foundation or just a very old habit.There’s a pattern in how people approach places with a strong cultural pull. Whether someone is planning a walk to Top Withens or deciding which casinacho casino to try on a leisure trip, the decision tends to start the same way – with research, with a story someone already believes, with a destination that promises to match an expectation. Haworth has been selling that match for a very long time. The question is whether it still delivers.How literary tourism in Haworth actually beganThe Brontë Society formed in 1893, two years after Charlotte’s biography by Elizabeth Gaskell had already turned the parsonage into a place people actively wanted to visit. Earnest readers were knocking on the door through most of the 1870s and 80s – the Society simply institutionalised what was already happening. In its first year of formal operation, roughly 10,000 visitors came through. By the 1930s, when the parsonage was purchased and opened as a museum, that number had grown substantially.What the Brontës did to Haworth was not subtle. Before the family arrived in 1820, the village was a working industrial township. Patrick Brontë’s appointment as curate brought him to a place with an estimated 1,200 working handlooms, 13 small textile mills, and public health conditions that would horrify anyone reading about them now. An 1850 report found that more than two in five children died before their sixth birthday. Average life expectancy sat under 26 years. Haworth was not a destination. It was a place people tried to survive.The Brontës didn’t transform it while they were alive – they mostly just lived there, often miserably. The transformation came after their deaths, when their novels became canonical, their short lives became the subject of biography and mythology, and the physical place they had occupied became somewhere people felt compelled to see for themselves. That process took decades. It never really stopped.What the economy of Haworth actually looks like nowToday, with a population of around 6,000, Haworth functions almost entirely as a tourism economy. The 2019 Retail and Leisure Study for Bradford District found that the village centre exists primarily to serve visitors rather than residents. Of 55 retail units on the main street, 28 cater almost exclusively to the tourist market – gifts, craft shops, art galleries, second-hand books. The convenience retail that a normal village needs is thin.The Brontë Parsonage Museum draws between 70,000 and 80,000 visitors annually in ordinary years. The Bradford district as a whole attracts 12 million visitors per year, generating an economic contribution of £696 million and sustaining 14,000 jobs. Haworth accounts for a meaningful slice of that cultural draw, alongside Saltaire and the city’s other heritage sites. [...]The parts of Haworth that have nothing to do with the BrontësHere is where the story gets more interesting. Haworth has always had a second tourism strand running alongside the literary one, and it doesn’t involve parsonages or moors at all.The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway opened in 1867 – six years after Charlotte’s father died in the parsonage, ending the family’s direct connection to the place. The five-mile heritage line has since appeared in The Railway Children, Yanks, Alan Parker’s The Wall, and numerous other productions. It runs its own visitor events throughout the year and draws an audience that has no particular interest in Victorian literature. It attracts railway enthusiasts, film location tourists, families on school holidays.The annual 1940s Weekend, which fills Haworth’s cobbled street with people in wartime dress, draws coachloads from across Yorkshire. The Christmas Market does something similar in December. Neither of these events connects to the Brontës in any direct sense – they function on the village’s physical character: the stone buildings, the narrow streets, the preserved appearance of a mid-19th century settlement. The Brontës didn’t create that character. The village’s industrial past and the absence of postwar redevelopment did. The Brontës just made people look.What happened in early 2026The release of a major Wuthering Heights film adaptation in February 2026 produced the most immediate and measurable spike in Brontë tourism in recent memory. Staff at the Parsonage described visitor interest as unlike anything seen outside peak summer months. People arrived from North America and continental Europe specifically because of the film. The museum ran an exhibition – Haunt Me Then… and Now: Wuthering Heights on the Big Screen – to meet that interest directly.This is not the first time a film or television adaptation has done this. Every major screen version of the novels produces some version of the same effect. The 2011 Jane Eyre adaptation added a visible peak to parsonage visitor numbers that year. The pattern is consistent: adaptation releases, visitors arrive within weeks, numbers return to baseline after several months. The spike is real. Its duration is finite.Whether the original proposition still holdsThe honest answer is yes, but with caveats. Three things keep Haworth’s Brontë tourism working across 130 years where other literary destinations have faded:The novels are still read and still taught – they are not obscure or dated in the way that drives other literary sites toward decline; Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights remain on school syllabuses internationally.The parsonage is physically intact and genuinely interesting as a place – the rooms are small, the moorland setting is immediate, the family history is extraordinary enough to hold attention without being dressed up.Screen adaptations keep arriving every decade or so, each one resetting the cultural clock and sending a new generation to Haworth who might not have gone otherwise.The village’s second tourism strand – heritage railway, events calendar, moorland walking – absorbs visitors who arrive for the Brontës and then find other reasons to stay.What does not hold is the idea that literary tourism is self-sustaining or risk-free. The Brontë Parsonage is a charity-run operation that depends on ticket sales, memberships, and event income. When visitor numbers drop – as they did during the pandemic and in poor weather years – the financial pressure is real and the consequences fall directly on the building and its collections.Haworth as a place is also not without tension. The village centre reads, by Bradford’s own planning documents, as a tourist economy that serves visitors rather than residents. That works when visitors are arriving. It creates a fragile local retail structure when they are not. The butcher and the pharmacy are not the main businesses on Main Street. The souvenir shops are.What the Brontës did to Haworth was remarkable, durable, and, on the evidence of early 2026, still capable of producing something close to frenzy when the right film lands. Whether that constitutes a solid foundation depends on what you think a foundation needs to do. It has lasted 130 years. It also needs a new film every decade to keep the numbers moving.
Every few years, Heathcliff trends again. A new adaptation is announced, a new actor is cast, and suddenly we are filled with declarations that this is the ultimate love story. Once more, Heathcliff is portrayed as intense, irresistible. Once more, we are invited to fall for him. And I find myself asking the question: did we read the same book?Heathcliff is framed less as Brontë’s embodiment of obsession and cruelty, and more as a misunderstood romantic hero whose violence is merely the byproduct of heartbreak. The cultural script is familiar: he is damaged, intense, difficult. But he’s redeemable. The question worth asking is not whether the latest adaptation succeeds or fails. It is why we are so determined to rescue Heathcliff from the novel. Because the Heathcliff on the page is not merely brooding, he is methodical in his revenge. He marries Isabella Linton not out of passion, but to punish her brother; he abuses her and hangs her dog before the marriage even begins. He brutalises his own sickly son. He manipulates the young Cathy Linton to extend his resentment to the next generation. This is not moral ambiguity. It is sustained, deliberate harm.What is often lost in adaptation, and in popular memory, is the second half of the novel. Many versions prefer to linger in the feverish intimacy of Catherine’s death, freezing Heathcliff in a posture of eternal grief. But Brontë does not grant him that romantic stasis. He lives on, not chastened but hardened. He does not simply suffer; he cultivates suffering. Even her death, so often aestheticised as tragic romance, is somewhat darker in the text. Heathcliff begs her ghost to haunt him, he asks not for peace, but for perpetual disturbance. This is not a love that seeks healing. It is not a romantic attachment but a consummating obsession. Modern adaptations keep the windswept declarations and lose the cruelty. “I am Heathcliff” survives, the bruises and manipulation don’t. The result is a softer Heathcliff, wounded rather than monstrous. In a culture obsessed with the “morally grey” man, intensity is mistaken for intimacy. Heathcliff begins to look less like a warning and more like a prototype.The casting of Jacob Elordi in the latest adaptation makes this shift clear. Elordi arrives already seen as a romantic ideal. He is globally recognisable and algorithmically desirable. But in Brontë’s novel, Heathcliff is described as “dark-skinned gypsy,” a stray of obscure origin whose presence unsettles the household from the beginning. His otherness is racialised and classed. He is seen as foreign, animalistic. That exclusion is not incidental; it shapes both his humiliation and his rage. When Heathcliff is re-imagined as a conventionally beautiful, culturally adored leading man, the dynamic changes. The unsettling outsider becomes an object of aspiration. His persona is aestheticised. We are no longer confronted with a figure whose difference destabilises the social order; we are invited to desire him. And here the algorithm quietly hovers in the background. Contemporary culture is structured around repetition and desirability. Certain faces circulate. Certain archetypes trend. We consume variations of the same romantic template. When an idealised heartthrob plays Heathcliff, we do not meet the character neutrally. We import desire into him. The cultural machinery has already decided he is someone to want.What cannot be so easily re-framed, however, is the extremity of Brontë’s original vision; a man who hangs dogs, terrorises children, and clings to his own resentment as a form of identity. That version resists romantic branding. It is too abrasive, too uncompromising, too uninterested in redemption. So, we adjust him. We explain his violence as trauma. We disguise his obsession as devotion. But Wuthering Heights offers no redemption arc. Heathcliff does not apologise, evolve, or transcend his bitterness. He persists in it until it consumes him. The novel’s bleakness is structural, not decorative. Love here is not glorified. The moors are not a backdrop for swooning romance but a symbol of emotional extremity.So why do we keep re-writing him?Perhaps because the idea of an unredeemable man is intolerable. It is easier to imagine that cruelty hides vulnerability than to confront the possibility that some forms of love are simply destructive. We want the aesthetic of darkness without its implications. Maybe the real discomfort of Wuthering Heights is that it refuses to reassure us. Heathcliff does not become better, love does not fix him, time does not soften him. The novel leaves us with a man who chooses bitterness again and again, and calls it devotion. Each generation produces its own Heathcliff. In doing so, we reveal less about what Brontë intended and more about what we desire.The question is no longer whether Heathcliff is redeemable.It is why we need him to be. (Lola Mandalaoui)
What makes this film so great, in my opinion, is that it refuses to be orderly. For every declaration of love, there is pitiless cruelty. For every moment of sheer tenderness, there is a wound that is reopened and left to bleed. Fennell allows room for seamless contradictions, and she does not at any point attempt to soften edges or make it more palatable. It remains erratic, selfish, obsessive, and utterly human. I will not go as far as to suggest that it is the most provocative film I’ve seen, but it is making its way up there. There is something romantic and erotic about the griminess and chaos that defines the film and subsequently Cathy and Heathcliff’s romance. It’s not meet-cute, candlelit dinner, standing-outside-your-window-with-a-boombox romantic, but rather something so deeply feral and intimate that it is destructive.I left the movie theater in shambles. The only other movie that makes me cry this much is Titanic (which I was not allowed to watch as a child because I would have a nervous breakdown every. single. time). But this was different. This is the type of movie that shifts something in your soul, leaving you feeling helpless and empty, yet so very full. It’s been about two weeks since I’ve seen it, and it still has me by the throat. I applaud Emerald Fennell for not trying to tame “Wuthering Heights” and letting it exist in all its wildness and glory. She embraced the obsession, brutality, and anguish that can only exist within unrequited love—and had fun doing it. It’s a visual tour de force with a soundtrack that will stop you dead in your tracks every time you hear it.Some films entertain you for however long they are, and some linger in your heart and head, leaving you haunted and wondering how something so fleeting can feel so eternal.I give it a 4.5/5. Some part of me never quite made it back from the moors. (Sama Farrag)
Robbie and Elordi appear to be acting in different movies. Elordi is inert early on, wandering shirtless and brooding without much projection; later, as a sleek avenger, he’s slyly amusing but never convincingly dangerous.Robbie fills the frame with a committed but undisciplined performance. As often happens when she lacks firm directorial guidance, she pours twenty gallons into a ten-gallon bucket.The two leads generate neither chemistry nor heat. Considering their self-immolating bond is the story’s engine, this is disastrous.There is no fire here. “Wuthering Heights” becomes a whirling stylistic dervish with no heart, no soul, no passion. Dirty words and dirty bits are flung at us, but without conviction. The film doesn’t end with Fennell winking into the camera — but it comes close, finishing on a smirk that says more than perhaps it intends. (C.B. Jacobson)
In a 1970 interview with Peter Burton, Jean Rhys, fresh off the success of her 1967 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, was asked about her reasons for making Bertha Mason, or as she’s known in WSS, Antoinette, the central lynchpin of the novel. The consequences of this literary act are not insignificant: in writing what is effectively a prequel to Bronte’s 1847 bestseller Jane Eyre but focussing on the “horrible white indian” woman, Rhys reframes Antoinette and gives her a voice outside of her captivity. She becomes a complex, lonely woman rather than the mad villain. Rhys replied with almost comical honesty: “I had always wanted to write about her […] she’s not a true character at all, unlike Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, so I wrote her life”. (Lottie Roddis)
New York-based luxury knitwear brand Lingua Franca — celebrated for its hand-embroidered cashmere pieces and literary sensibility — partnered with Wuthering Heights 2026 for a limited-edition capsule collection launched in January 2025, timed to the film's Valentine's Day release.The collection was on display at the movie's junket in Los Angeles, where Jacob Elordi himself was spotted admiring the logo Maxine Sweater and even asked to purchase one. The collection comprises 15 pieces across three silhouettes: the iconic Maxine Sweater (a cotton-cashmere relaxed crewneck), the Women's Crewneck in pure cashmere, and the Classic Cardigan — all rendered in diferent colours: Black, Cream, Navy, Pale Pink, Oatmeal, Sea, and Smoke.Each piece is hand-embroidered with phrases pulled straight from the soul of Brontë's story and the film's script:
- "be with me always — take any form"
- "so kiss me again"
- "come undone"
- "drive me mad"
- "forever after"
- The Wuthering Heights logo motif
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Cannonball with Wesley MorrisValentine’s Day weekend is over, and we’re left with a new film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.” Audiences are hot, bothered and swooning. Can you blame them? The trailer had promised — and the film delivers — a stunning Margot Robbie, a seductive Jacob Elordi and a lot of sticky substances (like, a lot.) Wesley Morris knows sex and shock to be the director Emerald Fennell’s specialty, and this flick is no different. But where’s the actual substance? To confront his suspicion head on, Wesley takes a movie buddy, the culture editor Sasha Weiss, to see the film that’s got everybody and their lovers in knots.
Wuthering: A Musical on the MoorsBy Hannah GregoryWorld PremiereMainStageDirected by Caitlin McWethyApril 2-18, 2027Rated: PG-131787, Yorkshire, England. After her father’s death, the once bright and wild Cathy Earnshaw marries the wealthy Edgar Linton, in order to provide financial security for herself and her true love, Heathcliff. Devastated by her betrayal, Heathcliff disappears for three years, only to return as a wealthy man intent upon seeking his revenge. An original folk musical inspired by Emily Brontë’s classic novel about the socioeconomic anxieties of love, class, and race in Victorian England.
The world premiere of Lucy Gough’s adaptation of Anne Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ will be performed at Aberystwyth Arts Centre this month.Theatr Gymunedol Aberystwyth Community Theatre present Gough’s version of Brontë’s novel on Friday, 20 March at 7.30pm, and on Saturday, 21 March at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. [...]Commenting on the novel, Aberystwyth writer and director, Lucy Gough said: “Anne Brontë wrote a brilliant novel and I have worked with Aberystwyth Arts Centre Community Theatre to bring this to life on stage.“It has been an exciting journey, from novel, to script and now stage. I hope people new to the novel will be stimulated to read and enjoy it and those who know it find the play opens up fresh ways of understanding it.”This is the second time that Lucy’s love of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ has resulted in a new production.In 2024, loosely inspired by Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Lucy’s then new play called, ‘The Wild Tenant’ explored the complexity of a relationship overwhelmed by someone with addiction. (Julie McNicholls Vale)
Margot Robbie starrer R-rated romance drama collected $3.7 million at the domestic box office on its 4th three weekend. It lost 709 theaters in North America and is now running on only 2512 screens. On Monday, the film added another $332k at the box office in North America. It dropped by 46.5% from last Monday.According to Box Office Mojo‘s latest data, Wuthering Heights’ domestic total has hit $79.06 million cume in 25 days. After its 4th weekend, the film’s overseas total has reached $134.9 million, bringing the worldwide total to $213.9 million. It is the second-highest-grossing film worldwide in 2026.Worldwide collection breakdown
- Domestic – $79.0 million
- International – $134.9 million
- Worldwide – $213.9 million (Esita Mallik)
The movie Pegasus 3 has become the big box office phenomenon of 2026, accumulating a global total of 529.6 million dollars, making it the highest-grossing film of the year.Directed by Han Han, the film follows the story of Zhang Chi, a veteran car racer who leads a team in an international rally. Released in China on February 17 and in other markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia on February 23, Pegasus 3 has surpassed the previous leader, Wuthering Heights, which had achieved 192 million dollars. (Jesús Bosque)
La temática de la Feria del Libro de 2026 de San Fernando estará centrada en la literatura victoriana y de regencia, centrándose en personajes como Sherlock Holmes, Drácula, Jane Eyre, Dorian Gray, Doctor Jekyll y Mr. Hyde, entre otros. Se desarrollará del 15 al 20 de junio en la Plaza del Rey (José F. Cabeza) (Translation)
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Ivam Cada AlcoiCarrer Rigobert Albors, 6, 03801 Alcoi, Alicante13 Mar 2026 | 20:00Guiem Soldevila: voice, guitar and pianoClara Gorrias: voice and fluteNeus Ferri: voiceLluís Gener: double bassGêliah: dance and narrationEduard Florit: sound engineerBrontë is Guiem Soldevila's new album, a singular work that invites the listener to journey through the inner and literary landscape of the Brontë sisters — Charlotte, Emily and Anne — through their poetry, conveyed through music.Brontë has been conceived as an encounter between English literature and contemporary music, with a particular emphasis on the poetic depth of the authors and on vocal and instrumental sonic textures. The production incorporates cellos, harps, piano, synthesizers, double bass, guitars and percussion, seeking a balance between restraint and depth, between texture and minimalism.Guiem's voice is combined with those of Clara Gorrias and Neus Ferri, creating a rich vocal tapestry that guides the listener through the different registers of the Brontës: Charlotte's narrative power, Anne's emotional intensity and Emily's creative freedom. The album includes thirteen original poems — or poetic adaptations by the Brontë sisters — turning each track into a small literary and musical universe.
Jane Eyre, a musical by John Caird and Paul Gordon, based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë, will receive its UK Premiere at Southwark Playhouse Elephant for a strictly limited season from 28 August – 24 October.The show will be co-directed by RSC and National Theatre director John Caird, who previously adapted and co-directed the original production of Les Misérables in the West End, on Broadway and across the world. Most recently he directed the hugely successful and critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Spirited Away at the London Coliseum. Broadway’s Megan McGinnis, star of Beauty and the Beast, Little Women and Beetlejuice, will co-direct alongside John Caird. Casting and full creative team will be announced soon.John Caird said: “I’m so pleased to have the opportunity to explore a new version of Jane Eyre in the beautifully intimate Southwark Playhouse Elephant. It's always a pleasure to work on this timeless romance but all the more exciting to be collaborating with the brilliant and innovative Megan McGinnis as co-director.”Paul Gordon added: “I’m beyond thrilled to finally bring the musical of Jane Eyre to the UK. Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece is not only a landmark portrayal of a strong female protagonist, but a story that sends audiences out of the theatre feeling better about their own lives than when they walked in.”
It's Mother's Day in the UK this Sunday and so The Telegraph and Argus recommends a tour and afternoon tea at the Brontë Birthplace as a treat.Timed for Mother’s Day, the birthplace in Thornton is hosting a guided tour and afternoon tea in the house where the Brontë children were born.Thomas Haigh, marketing and IT lead at the Brontë Birthplace, said: "Visiting the historic house where the Brontë children were born is not just a unique gift but also meaningful for anyone with an interest in history or literature."It is the perfect way to honour mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures as well as being a thoughtful and memorable way to spend time together on Mother’s Day."The tour explores the rooms where the Brontë children spent their early years and highlights the influence of their mother, Maria Brontë.As part of a fundraising effort, the Brontë Birthplace is also selling limited edition framed beam segments taken from the house.Each piece comes with a certificate of authenticity and a brief history of its origin.The event includes a one-hour guided tour and a 90-minute afternoon tea in the birthplace’s tearoom.Funds raised from both the Mother’s Day event and beam sales will support the birthplace’s continued operation as a museum and education centre. (Harry Williams)
Wuthering Heights, by Emily BrontëLast month, after I saw Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Brontë’s Gothic tragedy, my fellow filmgoers all seemed to be asking one thing: So, how much of that appeared in the book? The answer is not much—Fennell makes explicit, via sadomasochism, the power differentials and emotional degradations that are so often ambiguous in the original. Brontë’s novel is much weirder and more subtle than virtually all of its screen adaptations, most of which ignore the book’s violent second half entirely in favor of the more straightforward, though doomed, love affair between Cathy and Heathcliff. Readers will soon discover that this is only part of the plot, as the book introduces their respective children; then, cycles of abuse repeated across generations become integral to the novel’s twisting story-within-a-story. Reading it offers the chance to confirm definitively to your group chat that, no, BDSM-style power plays do not show up in the original—but there are enough disinterments, shocking turns, and ghost sightings to make up for them. (Rhian Sasseen)
I should preface this with the fact I haven’t read Wuthering Heights yet. Thus, my experience of the characters is informed entirely by Emerald Fennell’s controversial movie adaptation. Criticism of the film focuses on the lack of chemistry between Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), casted as a white man to play an originally non-white character in the novel, the gross historical inaccuracies in the costuming and overall set decoration. However, no one seems to be discussing the characterization and treatment of Nelly Dean (Hong Chau). [...]I assume in the novel, Cathy and Nelly’s characterizations are treated with respect, showing how both women are flawed in different ways. However, Fennell’s adaptation treats neither character with the dignity of complexity, instead relegating Cathy to the constantly validated protagonist and Nelly to the villain.Although definitively not an angel, Nelly’s portrayal in the narrative as an almost Judas-level betrayer is incredibly unfair. Her status as an illegitimate lord’s daughter prevented her from both a childhood and a life, forcing her into a role she must remain in until Cathy dies. Additionally, Cathy's continual behavior as a spoiled and unlikable person who frequently looks down on Nelly leaves her justified in her resentment.Nelly is many things, but she is not the main villain. There is no villain. They all suck. (Kate LaGatta)
Although “Wuthering Heights” may stumble when it comes to substance, it never falters in craft. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren (returning from "Saltburn") delivers a number of wallpaper-worthy shots of the Yorkshire Dales, the sumptuous setpieces of Thrushcross Grange are undeniably breathtaking and Charli xcx's soundtrack contributions add considerable texture to the film’s Gothic atmosphere.“Wuthering Heights” looks and sounds wonderful — but peer beneath the floorboards, and you’ll find nothing there. (Albert Zhu)
Since it is a milestone of classic literature, the novel has inspired numerous film and television adaptations. These range from early English versions such as A. V. Bramble’s “Wuthering Heights” (1920), William Wyler’s Academy Award-winning 1939 adaptation, and Peter Kosminsky’s “Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights” (1992), to reinterpretations across many languages: the Hindi films “Hulchul” (1951) by S. K. Ojha and “Dil Diya Dard Liya” (1966) by Abdur Rashid Kardar and Dilip Kumar; Jacques Rivette’s French “Hurlevent” (1985); Luis Buñuel’s Spanish “Abismos de Pasión” (1954); Yoshishige Yoshida’s Japanese “Arashi ga Oka” (1988); and the Filipino film “The Promise” (2007), among many others.Each of them is an improvised version of how the director interpreted the novel. Somehow, it snatches the Brontean aura away. They either failed to reach the intensity of the original work or exaggerated the narrative. For example, in Wyler’s version, the story concludes after Catherine’s death and shows her ghost and Heathcliff roaming around the Moors. Both Andrea Arnold’s and Timothy Dalton’s movies end with Catherine’s death as well. “Arashi Ga Oka” or “Onimaru” succeded to portray the gruesomeness a little. The Japanese Jidaigeki film takes place in the Muromachi Period. The era setting does justice to Gothic Literature. It showed Onimaru (Heathcliff) played by Yusaku Matsuda, desecrating the grave of Kinu (Catherine) played by Yuko Tanaka, to be with her.The director portrays the second generation through Onimaru, whose cruelty toward Kinu (Cathy), played by Tomoko Takabe, carries an unsettling sexual undercurrent. Hence, the Japanese culture is sculpted into the novel’s essence. When anyone adapts this novel, they need to realise that the novel is not only about tragic love, but also about revenge. There is a role of fate that etches Catherine and Heathcliff as the star-crossed couple in the history of literature. from the abandoned boy of Liverpool to the owner of the estates, from the boy who kept track of being with Catherine, on almanack, to the boy who hanged Isabella’s dog, Fanny- it is a whole journey.Catherine is an impulsive character, but her character faces major twists twice in the plot: one when she stays at the Lintons’ and is bedazzled by their wealthy, lavish lifestyle; two, is when Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights. No wonder it is an extremely complex plot, where the characters, the generations, timelines, and narrators are intertwined. Even on the crust of the novel, the names of the characters can be confusing for the reader- there is Catherine, Cathy, Heathcliffs, Lintons, and Linton Heathcliff. [...]Everything is very extravagant; the actors did a great job. But following Theseus’s Paradox, if a director replaces the contents of a Novel to adapt it, does that remain the same work? Amidst censoring the main plot, characters, and changing the characters, where is Emily Brontë? Among many things that make “Wuthering Heights” (1847) unique is the yearning. The audience craved for the characters to be unified, but Brontë brutally sets them apart till they die.Fenell messed with this important part and united them physically. She laced the plot with sadomasochism, clandestine sex, and, as I mentioned before, sitophilia. Brontë provided two narrators, which made the plot even more intricate. Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean both narrate the story, and it is affected by their personal preferences. Fenell debarred Mr. Lockwood, which messes with the audience’s perspective.To conclude, I will repeat, as an admirer of “Wuthering Heights” (1847) and a movie buff, its adaptations do not do justice to it. While I discussed this point, referring to other works, the major focus here is on recent work by Emerald Fenell. The novel does not define hate, love, obsession, or revenge. It is totally upto the audience how they decide to fill the silence. In the future, maybe there will be more adaptations, and they’ll be the versions of the directors. As an audience member, I eagerly wait to see when someone actually portrays Emily Brontë’s version on screen. (Shivangi Thakur)
I’m not a canon truther. I do not believe that you need to be scholarly about the original anything in order to engage with its adaptations. But I do believe that the party who adapts it (Fennell and the LuckyChap team) should at least respect the original material. Since the Elordi casting, the whole film has left a sour taste in my mouth. (Sara Li)
After completing nearly a month in theaters worldwide, Oscar-winning writer-director Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights has passed what will likely be its final major box office milestone. The movie opened to divisive reviews around Valentine's Day, and rode a wave of controversy to bona fide blockbuster success. It has surpassed its reported break-even point after accounting for the exhibitor–studio revenue split. [...]With around $80 million domestically and another $130 million-plus from overseas markets, Wuthering Heights has grossed $213 million worldwide so far. (Rohan Naahar)
Other scholars cite the genre’s pedigree. Though canonized as literary classics, 19th century novels like “Pride and Prejudice,” “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights” can also be read as romances — stories written by women and centered on women’s emotional lives, courtship and desires. In a world circumscribed by the era’s narrow gender roles, these works featured clever, often headstrong women who exercised agency over their love lives and fates.In my view, this explains their popularity: 19th century readers may have found vicarious pleasure in Jane Eyre’s journey from timid governess to independent heiress and happy wife. Likewise, Catherine Earnshaw’s decision to marry the wealthy Edgar Linton, thus abandoning the penniless Heathcliff, may have struck the female fans of “Wuthering Heights” as an understandable choice.As readership grew and men penned their own novels, aiming to cash in on the expanding market, their perspectives dominated, pushing women’s fiction to the side. Changing social mores also made the once popular “woman’s novel” seem dated. (Diane Winston)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a literary mainstay today, but it sparked a bit of a scandal when it came out. The book was criticized for its perceived feminist themes and was considered “coarse” and uncouth by Victorians at the time of its publication. One particular review, published in the Quarterly Review, accused Brontë—then writing under the male pseudonym of Currer Bell—of “moral Jacobinism,” or essentially trying to spark a revolution. At the time of the review's publication, rumors that Bell was a woman had begun to swirl, and the critic claimed that if this was the case, Bell had “forfeited the society of her own sex.”The book was not actually formally banned in England, though it did face harsh criticism and attempts to censor it, particularly among young women. It was, however, censored by the Chinese Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution along with many other Western texts, when it was deemed to have the potential to influence and corrupt young people. (Eden Gordon)
Still, if anyone in pop music has come close to making a truly forlorn, misty, and gray soundtrack for Brontë’s work, it is not “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” nor is it Charli XCX’s accompanying album to Fennell’s film, nor is it even Kate Bush’s breakout hit. The closest anyone has come to capturing Wuthering Heights is an odd, middle-period Genesis album called Wind and Wuthering.Somehow, Genesis averted disaster. For years, the English prog-rock band was best known for the theatrics of its frontman Peter Gabriel, though the group’s music was written collaboratively. After Gabriel’s highly publicized departure from the band in 1975, the remaining members regrouped as a quartet and tapped drummer Phil Collins to be its lead vocalist. The band’s first post-Gabriel album, 1976’s A Trick of the Tail, was a surprise success, rebuking any doubt from fans and press that the band couldn’t survive without Gabriel. It landed in the top 3 on the UK album charts, and its tour was “their most successful tour of America ever,” according to contemporaneous press materials.Eager to follow up Trick, Genesis churned out another record in their first post-Gabriel year. Wind and Wuthering is A Trick of the Tail’s moody sister: it’s lush, dreary, and gloomy. The LP is also Genesis’ last with guitarist Steve Hackett, who felt his contributions were ignored in favor of keyboardist Tony Banks’s expansive, spacey arrangements. The result is a transitional moment in Genesis history, captured directly between the band’s two main eras. The group was not yet the sleek, drum machine-powered juggernauts penning pop hits in the ‘80s, nor were they the high-concept band donning costumes for multi-act live shows. Wind and Wuthering finds them trying to solidify what that new iteration of the band was capable of.There are explicit references on Wind and Wuthering to Brontë’s work. The album was named after the novel, and its two-part instrumental tracks “Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…” and “…In That Quiet Earth” directly quote its final line. Colin Elgie’s album artwork is monochromatic, misty, and empty, evocative of the wild moors Brontë’s book is famous for. Some fans consider album-closer “Afterglow” to be sung from the perspective of Heathcliff.But what makes Wind and Wuthering a surprisingly effective interpretation of Wuthering Heights is not its direct references to the text, but the way Genesis conjures the novel’s spectral setting—its cold winds, empty houses, and lonely rooms. Unintentionally, Genesis stumbled on the feeling of the place. When Gabriel departed the band, he left behind a colossal amount of space in their musical arrangements. His vocals employed accents and different intonations. No matter what he did, he had a magnetism that could be pompous, irritating, and entertaining, sometimes all at once.Collins was a more direct singer. Rather than try and fill the space that Gabriel left behind, Wind and Wuthering feels cavernous. Three of the nine tracks on the album are instrumentals, and songs like “One for the Vine” or “Eleventh Earl of Mar” contain long, meandering instrumental passages. Its lyrics—entirely absent of any Brontë-related details—are an afterthought. It’s prog-rock without any of the play-acting. The focus here is solely on atmosphere, one that is panoramic and eerie. Banks’ keyboards curl like smoke on “One for the Vine”; his layers of organ blanket “Eleventh Earl of Mar,” like the snow that locks its inhabitants into Wuthering Heights. As is the case for Brontë’s writing, Wind and Wuthering could be unexpectedly tender (“Your Own Special Way”) and violently unpredictable (“…In That Quiet Earth”).Every musical adaptation of Wuthering Heights falls into the same trap—artists recontextualize Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship into one of pop music’s favorite tropes: unrequited love. On her Wuthering Heights album, Charli adopts an overtly lyrical, metaphor-driven writing style, singing of the cruel “Chains of Love.” Apparently this is a necessity when adapting a Victorian literary classic, though the lyrical method doesn’t suit her nearly as well as BRAT’s directness. On “Wuthering Heights,” Kate Bush assumes Catherine’s perspective, pining for Heathcliff and escaping from the cold. It’s certainly the best song inspirel. This very English, very creaky, and very hollow album conveys well the central feeling of Wuthering Heights: isolation.Frankly, there’s no reason that Wind and Wuthering, an album made by four music nerds who showed little actual interest in Brontë’s novel, should receive the recognition of “Best Wuthering Heights Soundtrack.” Unlike other adaptations, the band had no intention of actually invoking d by Wuthering Heights, but it also reframes this novel as a story of tortured love. Genesis circumvents the problem of portraying Cathy and Heathcliff by not portraying them at al Wuthering Heights. It just felt right, considering the album’s windy, frozen tone. Perhaps the fact that a band like Genesis made a worthy Wuthering Heights interpretation isn’t a reflection on their robust engagement with the text but as a testament to Brontë’s un-adaptability. For all our fascination with Wuthering Heights, the novel’s incomprehensibility is what makes it so compelling. As text-purists criticize Fennell’s untethered reading of the novel, it begs the question: Can anyone really do this book justice? (Andy Steiner)
