Tue 5 May, 7:00pmOnline via ZoomThis 5 week course, delivered by Dr Sam Hirst, takes a deep dive into the world of the Brontë Juvenilia, exploring the fantastical worlds they created. Weekly topics are: Creating Worlds: An Introduction to the Juvenilia in context; Branwell's Angrian Imagination; Charlotte's Gothic Africa; Charlotte's 'Farewell to Angria' and Untangling Gondal: Emily and Anne's shared world in poetry. The course will explore what the Brontës' juvenilia reveals about their attitudes towards empire and desire and map how the sisters' writing develops across their juvenile work and lays the groundwork for their later fiction. After reading short stories and poems from the juvenilia, you may see the Brontës in a new light!
‘I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free’ – Emily and Anne Brontë Online Talk
Wed 6 May, 7:00pmOnline via ZoomElizabeth Gaskell’s famous biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, went a considerable way to creating the myth of the famous writer living up on the moors. But what of the image of Charlotte’s two groundbreaking literary sisters, Emily and Anne Brontë? How has our view of these trailblazing writers changed over the years?Emily Brontë’s enduring classic Wuthering Heights makes her the author of one of the finest novels in the English language and shows her to be a woman of great passion. What was she like as a person, and how was she depicted outside the family? Her sister Anne has been overshadowed by both siblings but her debut novel, Agnes Grey, and feminist masterpiece The Tenant of Wildfell Hall are now critically acclaimed. Compared with Charlotte, both sisters left little behind beyond their work, creating a vacuum others have been happy to fill with their own theories, and this has sometimes obscured our understanding further.So, what did Elizabeth Gaskell discover about Emily and Anne in her research? How have opinions on their trailblazing works changed over the years, and how has our image of them changed? Sue Newby, Education Officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, reveals all the answers.The last in the Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell mini-season, in partnership with Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi's R-rated Wuthering Heights dominated pop culture during its theatrical build-up and run in early 2026. Some audiences preemptively criticized the film as a wildly unfaithful adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel. Others waited until after the credits rolled to lambaste the film online. Either way, the movie wasn't exactly warmly received. But despite the initial backlash, Margot Robbie's Wuthering Heights adaptation has taken its new streaming home by storm. Wuthering Heights is now streaming on HBO Max. After less than a day, Wuthering Heights is the number one movie on streaming in the US and across the globe. (Archie Fenn)
3 'Wuthering Heights' (2026)Elordi's first-ever period-like drama...truly memorable. One of the most controversial movies of 2026, Wuthering Heights is an adaptation of the famous Emily Brontë book, directed by Emerald Fennell. This was the second project on which Fennell and Elordi worked together, and the messiest one, surely. Not because of the different casting per se, but, according to fans of the original material, because of the too-much erotic portrayal and grand lack of depth to the book's story.Now, I believe that Elordi and Margot Robbie did an outstanding job in this movie. Despite what critics and the general audience think, Elordi, thanks to his performance in Wuthering Heights, has the potential to be cast as a future Mr. Darcy, if the industry ever considers doing another version of the movie (without counting the Netflix series releasing this fall). Add the romantic value and depth of Elordi's acting...and you've got a great chance of winning an Oscar, just saying! This movie's aesthetic, scenery, and clothing were phenomenal, which added to the beauty of Elordi and Robbie's portrayal. An unforgettable film indeed. (Giulia Campora)
Do you remember the first book you read, or the book that made such an impression on you that you kept returning to it again and again?For me, it was Jane Eyre, the Charlotte Brontë classic that I discovered on our bookshelves at home when I was about 12. Orphaned Jane and the inscrutable Mr. Rochester certainly struck a chord with me and I still have that old copy and pick it up every couple of years. It’s interesting that although I’m totally familiar with the story, I always find something that surprises me: a scene I didn’t remember or a detail of an encounter or relationship that I had skipped over to get to the juicier bits.The story seems to have resonated with filmmakers as well. I’ve lost count of how many versions have made it to the screen, big or small. Move over, Jane Austen. (Margaret Tessman)
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Hurlevent
Une création collective de la Phenomena
d'après le roman et la vie d'Emily Brontë
Mise en scène Maëlle DequiedtDu 5 au 7 mai 2026, 19h30L'Idéal, 19 Rue des Champs, 59200 Tourcoing, FranceCatherine aime Heathcliff, un enfant abandonné et élevé comme son frère. Mais elle épouse un autre homme, riche, plus convenable. Humilié, Heathcliff imagine une terrible vengeance.Les Hauts de Hurlevent est une œuvre brutale, sombre, hantée par la violence sociale, les fantômes et la rage d’exister. Maëlle Dequiedt revisite cette œuvre mythique d’Emily Brontë en rompant avec les clichés romantiques au profit d'un théâtre iconoclaste, à la recherche de l'humanité profonde de ces personnages. Mêlant librement au roman, des poèmes et des éléments de la vie d'Emily Brontë, la metteuse en scène dialogue avec cette autrice aux prises avec la morale de son temps et compose un spectacle très personnel qui pose des questions essentielles : que faire des histoires qui nous ont façonné·es adolescent·es ?Sur scène, les interprètes se confrontent à ce roman-monstre, porté par la musique live de la compositrice et performeuse Nadia Ratsimandresy. Le plateau devient un champ de tensions, où les passions s’incarnent dans la voix, le souffle, les corps, pour mieux révéler ce que cachent les mots : la captivité mais aussi les outils pour s’en libérer.► RENCONTRE AVEC L'ÉQUIPE ARTISTIQUEmercredi 6 mai | à l'issue du spectacle | l'Idéal - Tourcoing
Haworth is a picturesque market town which was once the home of the famous Brontë sisters, a trio of 19th Century authors known for such classics as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, along with a multitude of classic works with gothic themes and emotional resonance.It’s a lovely town, boasting narrow cobbled streets and a hodgepodge of old-fashioned shops, charming cafes and pubs, and surrounded by rugged moorland. I had a great time simply walking through the centre for the very first time and discovering all it had to offer.I was sent out to check out a restaurant called Haworth Old Post Office, located in the town’s converted old post office – the place where the famous sisters would have sent off their unpublished manuscripts. The post office dates all the way back to 1829, when the first penny post was used. (Samuel Port)
Imagine wandering through the desolate Yorkshire moors of Jane Eyre, or confronting the deadly Count in Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's one thing to imagine characters in these settings; it's another thing entirely to imagine yourself in them.Thanks to a new AI tool developed by chatbot program Character.ai, however, you can step into your favourite public domain novels with ease. The platform's latest "Books" feature enables users to literally insert themselves into some of the most beloved works of literature, from Pride and Prejudice to Frankenstein.Not only can you place yourself within the story, you can also embody existing characters, tinker with storylines, switch up settings and even change endings.Put simply, you can rewrite the classics.But should we? Interactive storytelling is nothing new – Netflix has released several "choose your own adventure" films since 2017, and video games have been playing with the concept for decades. These texts exist to be reinterpreted. The same can't necessarily be said for centuries-old novels. (Nell Geraets and Karl Quinn)
When I was 10, I walked into Duncraig Library as I'd done every week of my life thus far. I'd already worked my way through all the Enid Blytons, all the horse books, all the Chalet School series and all the Nancy Drews. The librarian wouldn't let me into the adult section of the library until I was 12. So I had to find something else in the children's section to occupy me. I decided to start reading the classics. Yes, I was a nerdy, bookish 10-year-old.I started with the "A" section, but some other nerdy, bookish 10-year-old must have visited the library that day because there were no Jane Austens left. I continued onto "B", and found a book called Jane Eyre. More than half the front cover featured a large image of Rochester on his rearing horse. In the bottom left-hand corner, taking up only about one-eighth of the cover space, was a woman. Yes, the woman whose name was on the front cover of the book was the smallest thing on that cover. That didn't strike me as particularly odd at the time — feminism hadn't quite found its way to Warwick, where I lived.I took the book home and started to read. Within a couple of chapters, I was lost forever to the magic of Charlotte Bronte's story. In an interview with Emerald Fennell about her Wuthering Heights adaptation, she said that her movie reflected the impression the book made on her when she first read it as a 14-year-old. That resonated with me. Back when I read Jane Eyre, what stayed with me was the so-called madwoman in the attic and Jane's best friend dying of consumption. Mysterious fires in bedrooms, men stabbed and bitten, an entire house burned down by the madwoman. It was only much later that I realised the main character of Jane had left hardly a mark on my consciousness.But when I reread the book as an adult, I couldn't believe that I'd been so seduced by the darkness and that I'd entirely overlooked the best part of the book — its heroine. (...)It was time to find a different era and setting for my next book, meaning I'd have to brainstorm an idea from nothing for the first time in years. (....)What if I reimagined Jane Eyre in some way? Immediately I could see Rochester's gothic Thornfield Hall transformed into the gothic Chateau Marmont. I had my book idea. I'd write The Chateau On Sunset, a reimagining of Jane Eyre, set at Hollywood's infamous Chateau Marmont during its 1950s and 1960s heyday. And I would tackle the sense of dissatisfaction I'd had with Jane's story since rereading it as an adult.What was I dissatisfied about? Well, there are many occasions in the book when Jane looks out at the hills that form a barricade between her and the rest of the world. She longs to cross those hills. She yearns to see the world, to have adventures. On the very first page of Bronte's novel, Jane's reading a book about birds and she imagines what it would be like to travel to the same places those birds do — the Arctic, Siberia. Does she? No. There's just one occasion in the book when she escapes beyond those hills. She runs across the moors and finds herself in a house with a man who's probably even more obsessive than Rochester. She promptly escapes back to Thornfield and her true love, Edward Rochester. It's no spoiler to say that, reader, she marries him. It's a romantically satisfying ending. As a child, I was completely happy with it. But as an adult I wondered — did Jane ever regret not having seen the wider world that she so longed to experience? Was there a way to give Jane Eyre an ending that was both romantically satisfying and personally satisfying?That's what's so wonderful about literary reimaginings. Jane Eyre is one of the first feminist heroines of literature. Who can forget her declaring to Rochester, in an era when the word feminism was foreign to most, that she was his equal? (Read more)
Favorite fictional literary character: Jane Eyre. There’s something powerful about a young woman of little social standing deciding she cares enough about herself to stick by her principles.
Poppy Nash: What are your favourite three movies of all time?JCG: Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jane Eyre (2011) and Marie Antoinette.
And this year’s Wuthering Heights film saw a tourism spike at Haworth and the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Haworth’s cobbles are well trodden by influencers wandering, wistfully, with a Brontë book. (Emma Clayton)
by Shatha Ghazi Alajmi, Department of English Language and Literature, College of Languages and Translation, Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia.(M.A.Thesis)Arab World English Journal (ID Number: 322) January, 2026: 1-84This study examines the cross-cultural adaptation of classic English novels into mid-twentieth-century Egyptian film, specifically analyzing Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as reinterpreted in Hatha Al-Rajol Ohebboh (1962) and Al-Ghareeb (1956), respectively. This study, rooted in adaptation theory, film criticism, and reception studies, examines the transformation of these literary materials to embody Egyptian cultural values, religious sensibilities, and cinematic norms. This study examines the narrative, thematic, and ideological transformations that transpire in the transition from text to film, utilizing Linda Hutcheon’s theory of adaptation as both a product and a process, Dudley Andrew’s notions of cinematic metamorphosis, and Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model. It also integrates Hans Robert Jauss’s concept of the “horizon of expectations” as a supporting reference for the primary theoretical framework, analyzing how Egyptian audiences interpreted and responded to these adaptations from the 1940s to the 1960s. The study employs meticulous textual and visual study to illustrate how the films diverge from their British origins to express regionally relevant issues, including familial honor, moral decency, and emotional restraint. These adaptations are not simple replicas but rather efforts of cultural adaptation that contextualize Western narratives inside Arab social and moral contexts. The study emphasizes adaptation as a dynamic, dialogic process co-created by filmmakers and audiences through an examination of production and reception. This work enhances global adaptation discourse, especially in non-Western contexts, and promotes increased academic focus on Arab film as a venue for cultural negotiation, reinterpretation, and narrative agency.
So are we drinking the Wuthering Heights (now streaming on HBO Max, in addition to VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video) bathwater, or are we scowling at it in disgust? That’s the question of the day, my friends. Hot-button filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s third provocative outing after Saltburn and Promising Young Woman is a version of Emily Bronte’s 1847 all-timer of an English novel, albeit stripped down to bare bones covered in sweaty goosepimples. Fennell famously turned down $150 million from Netflix and took $80 million from Warner Bros. so the film could enjoy theatrical release, and the gamble worked – it was a $250-plus million worldwide hit, and its damp, soupy atmospherics (I’m guessing about $60 million of that budget went towards fog machines) and lush photography look even more stunning on a big screen. Oh, and so do its stars, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, who lick each other up and down more than I remember from the novel. Not that I remember much. It’s been a while. And that’s probably for the better in this case. [...]What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Different Brontë sister, but Cary Fukunaga’s spooky, horror-coded 2011 take on Jane Eyre is highly memroable. And Sophia Coppola is a clear influence – see the many brilliantly styled anachronisms in Marie Antionette.Performance Worth Watching: Of course Elordi and Robbie are magnetic, even in underwritten roles. But what a movie like this needs, and gets, is a weird little wacko supporting character who steals scenes like Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road, and we get one in Oliver’s hilarious, screw-loose characterization of Isabella, whose every display of lovely decoupage inevitably looks like engorged human genitalia. Crafty girl, this one.Sex And Skin: Buckets of it, although we see no bits, butts or boobs.Our Take: So: Are we slurping up Wuthering Heights or not? A little. Not heartily mind you, but Fennell heats up a frothy concoction that’s worth some sips, especially if you’re not a traditionalist potentially upset by significant alterations of the source material. Personally, I care not for authenticity of adaptation, and admire the audacity of Fennell’s interpretation, which indulges sloppy pig slaughter, big oozy snails leaving trails on windows, the slapping-flesh sounds of bread dough being kneaded, a pile of pink hairless pig’s feet that look like dicks, a couple instances of BDSM, a soundtrack heavy with Charli XCX, and the walls of Cathy’s bedroom at the Linton mansion, which are pink with freckles and delicately veiny, modeled after her luminescent skin. Fennell has never been afraid of getting fetishy with her films, but Wuthering Heights takes the cake and smashes it on everybody’s tits. So to speak.This is Fennell feeding Masterpiece Theatre or Merchant-Ivory into the meat grinder. This is no stodgy period piece bursting with repressed yearning. Its throb ‘n’ heave is considerable, even if its horniness is somewhat restrained at times, a few hairs shy of going over the top. Of course, it’s still ridiculous, a story set in a universe where logic is less than nil and passion is all, and narrative and thematic sloppiness is a byproduct most of us can deal with, in the context of the director’s robust and sensual visual aesthetic. (What’s the movie “about”? Death, sex and weather, in the broadest terms.) This is absolutely gorgeous trash, Fennell roping us in with meticulous and rigorously conceptualized eye candy and rubbing our face in egg yolks, pig’s blood and assorted varieties of mucus or mucus-adjacent substances.You likely know the basic what-happens of the Wuthering plot, but not the how, and within that margin Fennell gets playful, gross, lusty and funny. There’s absolutely no way you’ll take a single second of this seriously; it’s sexual obsession transformed into a sort of deranged comedy, intentional or otherwise, and Elordi and Robbie, faced with sketchy and uninspired renderings of their characters, lean heavily into their ability to explode screens with concupiscence. Try as I might, I can’t argue against that.The punkish lack of respect for classical English lit means you won’t likely feel emotionally involved enough to sense the depths of Cathy and Heathcliff’s pain, considering how much thematic barley this movie harvests from skin. Just skin. Skin everywhere – beading up, blushing pink, scarred and bleeding, on faces and bosoms and backs, even the damn walls around this joint. (You might actually wish it went a little farther here in the era of best picture Oscar nominee The Substance.) Wuthering Heights is all blood, sweat and tears, but unlike Saltburn, no semen, surprisingly. Progress? Or regression? Yeah, no. Sure? Maybe. You tell me. Inevitably, the liquids run low, and the film doesn’t end, it just slowly bleeds out, like a hog with its throat slashed. Come to think of it, maybe that’s what Fennell does to the source material. But so fucking what?Our Call: Wuthering Heights, wuthering blights on traditional literature. Approach it like it’s a very expensive soap opera and you’ll have a pretty damn good time. STREAM IT. (John Serba)
Con Cumbres Borrascosas, Emerald Fennell deja de lado la reverencia al texto original para ofrecer una adaptación que responde más a su propia sensibilidad autoral que a la tradición literaria. Es una propuesta arriesgada y, por momentos, irregular, pero también apasionada y visualmente potente. Si en Saltburn la obsesión se expresaba a través del exceso, aquí se canaliza mediante la estilización y la emotividad. El resultado es una versión distinta, provocadora y decididamente contemporánea de un clásico eterno. (Laia Cabuli) (Translation)
Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights has landed a new UK streaming home in time for the Bank Holiday weekend. Whether you're going in for a rewatch or a first watch, it's available to watch right now.Warner Bros has now added Wuthering Heights to HBO Max, but there is an important caveat if you're a subscriber in the UK. The Basic with Ads plan – which is included in the Sky Ultimate subscription or automatically given to existing NOW Entertainment subscribers – doesn't include brand-new Warner Bros movies.You'll need either the Standard with Ads plan (£5.99/month), Standard without ads (£9.99/month) or the 4K-enabled Premium tier (£14.99/month) to be able to watch the movie today, (...) However, HBO Max is not the only way to stream the movie tonight as Wuthering Heights has also now been added to Sky Cinema and NOW (with a Cinema membership). (Joe Anderton)
“Wuthering” is a Northern English term for a strong, roaring wind or a storm-lashed place, which is highly appropriate for Emily Brönte’s only novel – Cathy and Healthcliff’s tempestuous story of passion and revenge. It’s a harder sell for a holiday.That hasn’t stopped ‘Moorcore’ from becoming the latest trend in UK breaks. And what is Moorcore? It's a move-on from the cutesy cottagecore vibe (all roses round the windows, thatched roofs and cats curled by the fire). It’s wild and free. The feeling of standing atop a gritstone edge, a heathery moorland vista stretching to the horizon, tumbling waterfalls, fairy glens, fresh air in your lungs.There’s no better place to channel moorcore than on Haworth Moor – whose wild, heather-strews footpaths were well-traipsed by the Brontës. Two miles from their parsonage, Royds Hall Cottage is marked on maps from 1847, the very year Wuthering Heights published, and it’s likely it was a familiar sight for the sisters on their rambles. As we arrive, the breeze tusseling daffodils along the embankment and a buzzard hovering above, it feels magical. [...]On an energetic five-and-a-half mile loop from the cottage front door, we took in the waterfall at Lumb Beck (detailed in Charlotte’s letters to her friend, Ellen) and the desolate farmhouse at Top Withens – said to be the setting for Cathy and Healthcliff’s home. From there, across the moorland paths we discovered the Fairy Kirk at Ponden Clough (‘Penistone Crags’ in the novel), and beautiful Ponden Hall, which Emily Brontë used as Edgar Linton’s Thrushcross Grange and where her sister Anne set The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.Around Top Withens and the waterfall, there were scores of walkers admiring the famous views but, only a crow-call beyond, we saw barely a soul – just swooping curlews with their strange warbling cries and a roe deer bouncing off into the distance. It’s easy to find both wild inspiration and, afterwards, scones and clotted cream at Ponden Mill.In the other direction, Haworth village was less than an hour’s stroll. It's the focal point of Brontë pilgrimage, so it was busy – yet still so beguiling, with a sense of the sisters at every turn. Visiting on foot meant we could skip the car park and enter the village – just as they would have – from the footpath at the end of Church Street.Their house (now an unmissable museum) is the first you come to on the cobbled street. From the parlour table, the one Emily and her sisters worked at, you can still look out at the graveyard with its overcrowded, flat-lying gravestones. (Octavia Lillywhite)
Before dinner, I would usually mindlessly watch television but instead I lay a cotton cloth on the floor and enjoy an 1897 edition of Jane Eyre lent by a colleague.I have hundreds of books but didn’t realise most paperbacks made after 1900 use adhesives and plastic laminate, unlike the good old days of animal-based glue and wheat starch paste. (Caitlin Cassidy)
In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, who does Jane Eyre marry? (James Walton)
The Everygirl recommends Gothic books to binge, including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The Brontë Sisters UK explores in her latest video What Charlotte Brontë Though Was Worth Reading.
No Coward Soul is a modern reinterpretation of the emotional and philosophical world of Emily Brontë.Blending indie rock, dark alternative, and atmospheric production, the album explores resilience, grief, identity, and quiet defiance.Inspired by 19th-century poetry but rooted in a contemporary sound, this project reimagines the Brontë voice as something immediate, raw, and alive.2 · Nothing Lovely Here - Stanzas - Emily Bronte3 · Still I Remain4 · Cold in the Earth5 ·The Old Stoic6 · I Will Not Bend7 · Shadowed Grave8 · No Coward Soul in Mine9 · I Am Not Yours to Bury
Originally broadcast in 1996, this TV period drama deserves recognition amongst the finest examples within the genre - at least according to enthusiastic fans..Drawing from Anne Brontë's 1848 novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a British production made for the BBC under Mike Barker's direction.Spanning three episodes broadcast in 1996, the series presents the novel's narrative in a manner many devotees consider faithful to the source material. (Emily Malia)
This autumn, a powerful reimagining of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre will be staged at Storyhouse in Chester from November 10 to 21, 2026.Helen Redcliffe, Head of Producing at Storyhouse, said: "One of the key themes of Jane Eyre is personal discovery and development, which feels especially fitting as we celebrate the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and its commitment to championing the next generation of theatre-makers."At Storyhouse, we are thrilled to be part of this partnership and to support Lily as she takes this exciting step in her career."From the moment we encountered her work, we were struck by her bold, imaginative style and her instinctive understanding of our venues and audiences."Her Jane Eyre promises to be a heightened, deeply theatrical experience, using the very best of storytelling to bring this beloved classic to life — and we are proud to play a part in what we’re certain will be an extraordinary journey for her and a memorable production for our community."Jane Eyre is a co-production between Storyhouse, the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and Rose Theatre Kingston. (...)Lily Dyble, director, said: "What I see at the heart of this story is courage in the face of the unknown."Jane Eyre reminds us of the risk and enormity of love, but also how uncertainty can breed hope as well as fear; that we can choose to fiercely love each other and ourselves, even within chaos, and even when our old lives have been lost to the fire."I’m thrilled to be bringing Jane’s story to audiences across England this autumn, with the support of four wonderful venues and the RTST." (Josh Price)
Però lo Yorkshire della Emily Brontë e delle sue blande cime vince sul Wessex, sui Cotswolds, sul Somerset e Dorset perché è davvero ruvido, gotico e più selvaggio suscitando introflessioni talvolta dilanianti. Così, come non dire dell'ultima versione hot di "Woundering Heights" girata da Emerald Fennel con Jacob Elordi e Margot Robbie (una Cathy troppo adulta rispetto a Heathcliff) e trasformata in un fiaba nera, piena di sangue, sesso e sospironi? Un adattamento sicuramente meno sognato, rispetto alle storiche precedenti, ma pur sempre infarcito di dimore fatiscenti e scorci strazianti. Non solo cuori infranti ma pure danza amorose, macabre o salvifiche e ad alto tasso erotico. Per cui di grande successo anche in quel pubblico giovane che la Brontë manco sapeva chi fosse. (Andrea Battaglini) (Translation)
Wuthering HeightsSky Cinema Premiere/Now, 8pmEmerald Fennell isn’t mucking about with her adaptation of the Emily Brontë classic. As well as ravishing Aussies in the lead roles (Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliffe), we get eye-popping cinematography, songs courtesy of the hyperpop princess Charli XCX, Martin Clunes as Cathy’s cruel alcoholic father and the young Heathcliff played by Owen Cooper. (2026)
Ellen Sayuri Okido Matsumoto, Giovanne Gabriel Ramos André, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" - UNESPIntercom – Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação ,48º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação – Faesa – Vitória – ES, September 2025Este artigo analisa como a racialização do personagem Heathcliff nas adaptações cinematográficas de O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (1939 e 2011) impacta a recepção e a interpretação da obra literária de Emily Brontë. Dialogando com os estudos de representação (Hall, 2003), outridade (Carneiro, 2005) e necropolítica (Mbembe, 2019), a pesquisa realiza uma análise comparativa entre as duas produções, observando como o apagamento ou a evidência da negritude de Heathcliff se inscreve na linguagem cinematográfica e nas leituras críticas da narrativa original. A pesquisa utiliza metodologia qualitativa de caráter bibliográfico e fílmico, com suporte teórico nas abordagens de adaptação (Stam, 2000; Andrew, 2000).
Fans of period dramas - particularly those inspired by the brilliant Brontë sisters - are in for a real treat, as there's a little-known film being praised as the 'most authentic and real' portrayal of their lives.Available to stream at no charge on BBC iPlayer, this underappreciated treasure has received rave reviews from all corners, with audiences left captivated by how accurate and genuine the narrative and its settings appear.The majority of the film's shooting occurred on location in Haworth, West Yorkshire (where the sisters actually spent their childhood), and a three-storey, wooden life-size recreation of the Brontë Parsonage and its rooms was built with meticulous precision on Penistone Hill in Penistone Country Park, relatively near to the actual building's site.To Walk Invisible initially aired in the UK on BBC One in December 2016 and in the US on PBS as part of the broadcaster's Masterpiece series in March 2017. Since its transmission, the film has received outstanding reviews, though it has remained somewhat of a hidden and underrated treasure. [...]The drama's title derives from a letter that Charlotte Brontë penned to her publisher about an encounter with a clergyman who failed to recognise that she was the renowned Currer Bell.Charlotte believed it served her and her sisters well that they remained unknown, as she expressed in her correspondence: "What author would be without the advantage of being able to walk invisible?" (Parul Sharma)
The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha LesterNatasha Lester returns with another sweeping historical novel, blending Old Hollywood glamour with literary intrigue. Moving between continents and timelines, the story draws inspiration from Jane Eyre while carving out its own identity through strong, determined female characters navigating ambition, secrecy and reinvention. Lester’s strength lies in her ability to balance historical detail with emotional storytelling, and here she builds a world that feels both immersive and accessible. There is enough drama to keep the pages turning, but also a deeper exploration of identity and legacy that lingers long after the story ends. (Emily Darlow)
A new Brontë-relatedd paper.
Megan Serfontein, Agnes Scott College I n England,LURe: Literary Undergraduate Research, Volume 15 (Fall 2025), pp 82-91Catholicism was the predominant religious tradition and the established state church from 597 AD until 1534 when King Henry the VIII established the Church of England. This ushered in a new era of dominant Protestantism, marked by the aggressive conversion of Catholics and the re-education of priests to Protestant Christianity. As a newly Protestant country surrounded by Catholic nations, a nationalistic pride emerged in England connected to Protestantism. By the Victorian era, the anti-Catholicism sentiment in England was less intense, but still a prevalent part of society. Particularly, it was noted “as un-English and idolatrous” (Herringer 1). Therefore, this hatred of Catholics as well as fear of the papacy was spouted through sermons, pamphlets, newspapers, and literature. One such author of anti-Catholic literature was Charlotte Brontë. This paper will explore the anti-Catholic sentiment in her works, particularly focusing on Brontë’s use of the ideological and cultural views of Victorian England, and likely her own, to deepen the understanding of her characters and propel plot development; this ultimately contributes to broader questions concerning religion and moral rigidity in the Victorian era.
Both Emily Brontë and her only novel Wuthering Heights have been called “deranged”, “crazed” or (especially online, in the wake of the recent film) “unhinged”. So it’s a relief to read a biography where she comes across, instead, as more grounded, steady, sane. Deborah Lutz, whose 2015 book The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects made such an impression, anchors her narrative in solid things: the too-short bed Emily squeezed herself into; the pockets she stuffed with paper, pencils and moorland treasures; the laundry she looked after, including stockings with “AB5” sewn into them to indicate they were her sister Anne’s fifth pair. Lutz’s Emily is an eminently practical woman who wrote “while baking, in front of a peat fire perched on a little stool, or while walking” and who “used the tactile keeping of order as a prop and prompt to lose herself in the sublimity of art-making and moor-haunting”.For Lutz, Emily’s writing is also “tactile”. She counts the sampler Emily made at 10 as one of her “earliest extant writings”, and while other scholars have dismissed it as a collection of copied platitudes, Lutz notices that one line Emily stitched, from Proverbs – “Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?” – suggests that maybe she was already thinking about wuthering. She lovingly describes the little books the Brontë children made as “delightful, tiny objects to match their toys and still-small selves, texts holding secretive and insular qualities”. She calls the one-page diaries Emily made with Anne “a new writing practice, one that feels distinctly modern, even avant garde”, as they crammed in descriptions of their cooking, their chatter, their animals, their made-up heroines; stream of consciousness nearly a century before Virginia Woolf.The wilder stories get an airing too, but Lutz doesn’t sensationalise them, or make them the key to everything; she doesn’t seem to see Emily as an impossible riddle, as most biographers have. Did Emily get bitten by a rabid dog and rush into the kitchen, seize an iron from the fire and cauterise the wound herself? Yes, but in doing so she was following the medical advice of the day. Did she cultivate “inwardness”? Yes, but there are no posthumous armchair diagnoses here, more an understanding that a writer managing a busy house might want to get good at preserving her own imaginative space. Did Emily get into some kind of romantic trouble with a working-class man (or woman) at 16? Possibly – but her fine writing about love across class divides could also have been inspired by her parents’ marriage. Did she have an affair with another female teacher in her job at Law Hill school? Maybe, but Lutz is more interested in the idea that Emily might have learned from Anne Lister, the real-life Gentleman Jack who lived nearby, to develop “androgyny and boldness”. I only found it a slight shame that Lutz included the story of Emily beating up her dog Keeper, which I suspect was invented by Charlotte’s first biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell.Lutz has previously written about Victorian mourning ritual, and she is excellent on the intimacy of Emily’s writing about grief. She wonders if watching her mother spend seven months “in a liminal state – almost dead but still with the living” is why Emily’s work teemed with graves, and with “the terrible passion of the gloomy aggrieved still above earth”. She calls Wuthering Heights “one of the greatest haunted-house stories ever written”. She feelingly describes how a vault was built to bury Emily’s mother inside the church, and how Emily saw it reopened for one sister, then another, and then her brother – which makes Heathcliff’s obsessive desire to dig up Catherine’s grave and, later, to merge with her under the earth, seem less bizarre.By locating Emily firmly in what she calls the texture of her everyday, Lutz reads Wuthering Heights not as (per the film) a crazed bodice-ripper, drunk on its own style, but a virtuoso debut novel from an author who had honed her craft since childhood and developed her own idiosyncratic creative process. This biography is, also, a wonderful book for writers on how to write the stories only you can, in snatched pockets of time if you have to, and against impossible odds. Lutz uses Charlotte’s correspondence with potential publishers to try to trace the way Emily wrote and rewrote her novel, speculating that she began with an “inner core of drama” after which “a backstory [was] built out” and then finally a frame was added, “ensnaring the narrative”. This attention to process is a refreshing change from the idea that she simply blurted it on to the page and had no idea what she had done.On the billion dollar question of whether there is a lost second novel, Lutz seems pretty certain Emily was writing one, perhaps inspired by political upheaval in Europe. She even lets us dream that Emily might have stashed it in a wall at her house (as Lister did with her scandalous diary) or buried it on the moors from where – perhaps – it might one day be disinterred.
Life behind the scenes at a world-famous museum will be the focus of a presentation in Keighley.Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, is guest speaker at the next meeting of Keighley and District Local History Society.Anyone is welcome to attend the event, at the civic centre on Wednesday, May 13.The museum, dedicated to the lives and works of the Brontë family, was set up within the parsonage in 1928.It was founded – and continues to be administered – by the Brontë Society, and as the collection grows there are plans for expansion.Ann says: "My talk looks at the fascinating story of how the collection at the Brontë Parsonage Museum came together, and how it continues to grow as exciting new discoveries come to light."I’ll explore the development of the museum, the work that goes on behind the scenes, and some of the film and TV adaptations of the Brontës’ lives and works – which have played an important role in the museum’s history. I will also talk about some of the exciting plans we have for the parsonage and our presence in Haworth."Keighley and District Local History Society committee member, Tim Neal, says: "Around 20 members of the history society visited the parsonage last year and were given an exclusive peek into the inner sanctum of the museum by Ann. We are delighted that she has agreed to come along to talk to a much wider audience at our May meeting."The meeting is being held upstairs in the main hall of the civic centre, in North Street.A lift is available at the front of the building, and inside, for anyone who needs it.Doors open at 7.15pm.The meeting starts at about 7.20pm, and should finish around 8.30pm.Admission is £3.50 – or free for history society members, who also have the option of joining the meeting via Zoom. (Alistair Shand)
Pamela Howorth, 59, bought a building in 2003 on Main Street in Haworth which she originally set up as a lingerie store called Oh La La.By 2020, the business evolved into a vintage shop, rebranding it ‘The Original Bronte Stationery’.The recent Wuthering Heights film produced, written and directed by Emerald Fennel was filmed at Haworth.Ms Howorth told the Yorkshire Post she has since noticed a surge of young people visiting the village.“We’ve noticed it’s a lot busier in Haworth now,” Ms Howorth said.“It’s a different crowd that is coming, it’s a younger audience, the TikTok generation that seems to be coming.“We noticed it last year; a younger audience was [visiting]. It was a big change.”Ms Howorth and a group of businesswomen watched the recent film adaptation of Wuthering Heights.“Haworth has got a lot of strong female business owners - we have a little group called The Main Street Ladies,” she said.“We all went together to Hebden Bridge Picture House to watch [Wuthering Heights] which was really good. We all really enjoyed it.“I mean it’s not true to Wuthering Heights, it’s not representative of the book as such, it’s an interpretation of it but as a film in its own right I thought the cinematography of it, the way it was filmed, it was very powerful. It was very gripping. You could have heard a pin drop [at the cinema]; it was so quiet during the whole film.”Ms Howorth was captivated by the lives of the Bronte sisters since she moved to Haworth.“When I first came to Haworth, I didn’t know very much about the Brontes really, they were things I’ve learned as I’ve gone along,” she said.“How strong they were for women in that time to do what they did, to write the books that they wrote, having to write under the names of men because women weren’t recognised as being able to write things like that and it wasn’t accepted that they did.“It just makes you realise what strong women they must have been. The fact that they all died so young, late 20s and early 30s, they’d not even lived a life.“In that short period of time they lived a long life. They were very well read, they were part of the Romantic Era. I think their father did a good job educating them, a lot more so than people recognise.” (Liana Jacob)
Paired reading draws on the central role that making connections takes in CPM. By reading two books at once throuugh the lens that they are related to each other, a reader draws connections to the real-word influences on the plot. An example of a book pairing is reading Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” alongside Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s “The Madwoman in the Attic.” While the connection between this pairing is rather direct — as Gilbert and Gubar’s book discusses the feminist implications of the character Bertha in “Jane Eyre” — the two books don’t have to be explicitly related. The goal is to critically engage with a piece of fiction by supplementing it with theoretical learning. (Cadence Merker)
by Alyson BaughDigital Literature Review, 13(1), 130–140 (2026)The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë, was published in the Victorian period, and Netflix’s TV series Maid was released in 2021. Despite being from different time periods, both stories explore domestic abuse, particularly through the significance of space and environment. Both texts use their individual stories to explore the double meaning of space and the reclamation of domestic spaces, and to redefine what makes a home a home.
And though the response to Emerald Fennell’s 2026 film version of Wuthering Heights has been pretty mixed, there’s no denying it’s brought about a bit of a Brontë boom; sales of the book have skyrocketed.(If you ask us, that’s a good reason to adapt the two Brontë novels that have never had a TV or movie version made).To me, that also means we’re long overdue for an Elizabeth Gaskell revival. After all, the author is said to have been influenced by Austen’s Pride & Prejudice when writing North & South (to great success, IMO).She also wrote the world’s first controversial Brontë biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë; she had been friends with the subject. (Amy Glover)
Unlike Welles, however, Herrmann was able to stay relatively prolific in the industry, as his distinctive style and endless well of ideas made him equally suited to epic dramas like Jane Eyre and The Snows of Kilimanjaro and genre classics of the sci-fi and fantasy realms, including The Day the Earth Stood Still and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. What really separated him from his contemporaries, though, was an understanding of how to build suspense in the still relatively young medium of sound film, shedding the melodramatic swells of old Hollywood for something much fresher, more contemporary, and often experimental, including an embrace of electronic instruments. (Andrew Clayman)
Honor the heroine in your life with napkins that celebrate four female-centric literary classics: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women. Handmade and full of character, they’re sure to be the life of any party, whether a book club gathering or happy hour at home. (Holly Carter and Rae Ann Herman)
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by Libby Tempest, Vice-Chair of the Gaskell SocietyWed 29 Apr, 7:00pmOnline via ZoomThis introductory talk explores the relationship between two giants of nineteenth century literature. Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell were opposites in many ways. Yet they were profoundly interested in each other’s work and lives. Their first meeting in the Lake District in 1850 led to a real friendship. Charlotte had written the instant classic Jane Eyre and then Shirley, while Elizabeth’s astounding debut novel, Mary Barton had been well-received.This talk uses letters, writing and contemporary accounts to try and discover what held the friendship between these two extraordinary women together. With speaker Libby Tempest, Vice-Chair of the Gaskell Society.The second in the Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell mini-season, in partnership with Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.
I loved literature, but nothing I read had prepared me for life after birth. What came after marriage was glossed over by the Victorian fiction I adored: Jane Eyre’s Mr Rochester has recovered his sight enough to see the child she puts in his arms and, unlike her author, she does not die a pregnancy-related death.
Adriana Trigiani recommendsJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë“Every summer, I reread Jane Eyre. I love that story. Because it's about a poor girl who's shunned by her family, thrown out, has no reason ever, at any point in her life, to do the right thing. But she's got a moral code. And she cannot be deterred from her path of being a decent human being. So that's the kind of historical fiction I like.” —Adriana Trigiani (Sarah Vincent)
Wed 4 Feb – Thu 31 DecCharlotte Brontë's bracelet is currently on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum alongside other examples of mourning jewellery. The intricate, delicate bracelet features hair from two people, believed to be Charlotte's sisters, Emily and Anne. During the Victorian era, hair jewellery was fashionable and widely worn and it was common practice to make mourning jewellery incorporating the hair of a deceased relative.In February 2026, Oscar-nominated actress and producer Margot Robbie wore a replica of this bracelet with a custom Dilara Findikoglu dress inspired by it.
Mon 23 Feb – Thu 31 Dec'A Book of Friendship' is now on display in the Museum. This prop from Emerald Fennell's new film "Wuthering Heights" is the scrapbook Isabella (Alison Oliver) makes for Catherine (Margot Robbie) as a Christmas present.On loan from LuckyChap Entertainment. Display dates are subject to change.
Gone Like Dreams - with Leeds Arts University
Sat 25 – Sun 26 AprHow can we reframe and illuminate history?'Gone Like Dreams' is an exhibition of publications by Level 5 BA(Hons) Illustration students from Leeds Arts University. The students have been dreaming and speculating on the Brontës’ experiences, taking inspiration from the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the surrounding moors. Through their research, they have pieced together fragments of the Brontës' lives to create their own archive.The Brontës are the most famous literary family of all time. They were complex, challenging individuals, each with their own outlook and experiences. But they were also siblings arguing by the fire, stepping from rock to rock, writing about the world they knew and wishing others into existence.We invite you to walk in their footsteps and step into their worlds, even for a moment.Location: Brontë Event Space in the Old School Room, HaworthPoster by: @livditchburn_art @yasmin.illustrates @aaaangel_gy
A Musical tribute by Michael and Christine O'Dowd to the celebrated 19th-century Brontë family of Yorkshire was hosted by the Banagher Bronte Group last weekend to mark Charlotte Brontë's birthday.The tribute was a melodic cycle of ten original studio-recorded songs. 40 people attended the event in Crank House. James Scully introduced the world premiere programme of nine songs and lyrics.He also requested a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Kieran Keenaghan, his great friend, historical colleague and good friend of Banagher Brontë Group.Michael and Christine delivered the relevant historical Brontë information for each of the songs, thus enhancing and informing the audience’s experience. A stunning projected film complemented the songs and music and raised the show to a very sophisticated level.Thornton, Yorkshire was the birthplace of the Brontës. Queen Camilla visited in 2025 and learned about the famous literary family. The first song was Brontë Birthplace, Maker of Dreams. Next was Maria, the mother of the family, singing a lullaby to Charlotte. Then, We are the Brontës by the youthful Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne. Followed by Emily, I am a woman.Branwell’s Lament, showed him as lovelorn and melancholic. Anne’s Evensong is a nightly prayer. The Reverend Patrick’s Blessing, prays for divine favour. Charlotte and Arthur's Waltz was a prelude to romance. Charlotte's Way represented the happy couple in Banagher. Charlotte died in 1854. Arthur Bell Nicholls lived in Banagher for 66 of his 80 years. In Forever Free, a schooner represents Freedom floating on a friendly sea to the divine underworld.Frances Browner did a workshop on the Brontës for 6th class in the National School. The fruits of that, were readings of their own poems by Caoimhe Teehan, Maddie Mahon and Diarmuid Boylan to the very appreciative adult audience. Well done to them and their teacher Michaela Keenaghan. Adult readers were James Scully, Courtney Caitlin Phillips, Caleb Phillips, Eileen Casey, Francis Browner. Courtney and Caleb from Alabama also duetted and entertained as singer and musician. Jeannenn and Greg Eastway from Australia and Betsy Pearson from Ohio enjoyed the welcome. Well, That Beats Banagher!Thanks to the Banagher Bronte Group committee, James Scully, Maebh O’Regan, Nicola Daly, Sean O’Regan, Sean Corrigan, Donie Hogan, Frances Browner, and Cora Stronge Smith provided a memorable day and thank Amanda Pedlow and Karen Gray for their support, encouragement and direction for the project. Also Maebh O’Reagan for the art on the back cover of the memorable programme by Brosna Press, Nicola Daly for flower bouquets and the yellow Arthur Bell Rose.Finally, Sean Corrigan who mastered the intricate electronics and the film screen donated by the very generous late Kieran Keenaghan. (Eddie Alford)
Ideas of time pervade the arrangement of the exhibition and its title, ‘I Set Out, I Walked Fast’, which is drawn from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Re-reading the novel while working in her New Zealand studio, Grosse was struck by Jane’s continuous movement and action as a woman of her time, noting that merely by walking she propels the story forward. Similarly, the exhibition brings together paintings from different periods of Grosse’s practice into a single, interconnected environment, allowing her to traverse swathes of time and register change: an effect that ‘almost repaints’ the works. Across the three spaces of the gallery, each work functions as a ‘plot’ point or ‘node within a spider’s web’ that constantly ‘generates new strands of activity’. In some cases, this process is made literal: canvases painted in previous in-situ installations are brought into the exhibition, carrying ‘the structure and thought of that past show’ with them.
A stormy, emotionally charged literary classic is having a major moment in 2026. According to Goodreads’ latest data on the most-read classics in the last few months, readers have been gravitating toward one famously debated novel above all others so far this year: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.It’s probably no surprise that the 19th-century novel is topping the list. A new film adaptation released in February has reintroduced the story to audiences, sparking fresh discussion around its famously polarizing characters and bleak emotional landscape. (Devon Forward)
La Cadera de Eva (in Spanish) suggests a reading guide to know the Brontës (using a very questionable image without warning or context).
El arco se extenderá hasta que, tres décadas después, Esther dará a luz a un niño, Jimmy, o el auténtico protagonista, siguiendo el modelo de madre subrogada (y tatuada con un extracto de Jane Eyre que sirve de lema existencial) tras un pacto con la mujer asexual para la que antes ha ejercido de au pair (el territorio irvingniano), ya que su proyecto vital estará en la construcción del futuro Estado de Israel. (Antonio Lozano) (Translation)
"When I wrote this book, I was just being all the characters," Micallef says. "To get into their heads, I had to know how they sounded and how they thought."But Micallef did need to change his methods slightly. He couldn't get a laugh with a funny face, voice or act-out — but he could make oblique references to everything from ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. (Hannah Story and Claire Nichols)
“Wuthering Heights”If you love “Running Up That Hill”, it’s likely you’ll also be fond of this song, which Bush wrote when she was just 18. “Wuthering Heights” was Bush’s debut single and made her the first female to reach No. 1 with an entirely self-written song. It’s also sung from the perspective of Catherine Earnshaw, a character in Emily Brontë’s novel.“It was a subject matter that had been going around in my head for a long time,” Bush shared in an interview. “I’d originally seen the end of a TV series in England, and it had really stuck in my head. And, uh, I read the book last year, and after reading that I just had to write [Wuthering Heights].” (Kat Caudill)
Driving Amazing TrainsC4, 8pmPaul Merton goes from Ravenglass to Dalegarth in the Lake District and then, after Windermere and Brontë country visits, travels from Pickering to Whitby. It’s pleasing stuff, and his journey sheds light on an intractable problem of rail travel: leaves on the line. “A classic railway issue,” he says as the train driver uses a mechanical dropper to put sand in front of the wheels to add traction and stop them slipping down the hill. (Helen Stewart)
3. Lakeside Lodge, Damems, West YorkshirePerhaps not suitable for younger children because of its waterside location, this smart lodge nonetheless has real wow factor. Glass doors and a panoramic deck provide views over the water, beckoning you for a spin in the rowing boat or a spot of fishing. Families can enjoy wildlife watching, as well as train spotting — with steam engines passing by on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. It’s handy for the Brontë sisters’ home town of Haworth too, which can be reached from nearby Damems station (a request stop) for an excellent family outing. (Oliver Berry)
The Heights, published by Calder Valley Poetry in 2026 and launched at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, is the work that comes out of that position. It is a pamphlet rooted in a specific place, a specific family history, and a specific literary inheritance
by Lydia MacPhersonCalder Valley PressApril 2026
Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell‘s take on the classic Emily Brontë novel starring Margot Robbie an d Jacob Elordi, is set to premere on HBO Max on Friday, May 1, debuting on HBO linear the following day at 8:00 p.m. ET.A version with American Sign Language will also stream exclusively on HBO Max, performed by ASL Dubbers Leila Hanaumi and Giovanni Maucere, and directed by Justin Jackerson. (Kennedy French)
As I climbed into the four-poster bed of my regency-styled bedroom, I had to remind myself this was real. Tonight, I was sleeping in a room where members of the Brontë family had slept some 200 years ago, in the building where Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—the literary sisters who gave the world Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall respectively—were born. As a travel writer, I’ve slept in many wonderful places, but this felt particularly surreal.Having joined a new wave of Brontë-curious readers in the wake of Emerald Fennell’s recent Wuthering Heights film adaptation, my stay at the Brontë Birthplace—a museum that offers overnight board—in the small English village of Thornton was one part of a literary tour readers can string together to explore the homes, landscapes, and inspirations behind the sisters’ novels. The county of Yorkshire in northern England is both their, and my, childhood home. I wanted to delve deeper into the lives they led and explore their connection to this familiar moorland scenery.My drive to the Brontë Birthplace, which sits on the outskirts of the city of Bradford (the United Kingdom’s city of culture in 2025), seemed unremarkable until I reached Thornton’s historic center. Here, lanes became narrower and buildings noticeably older, dating from the late Georgian to the early Victorian eras. Tiny “snickets” (lanes) ran between them. Faded shop facades echoed the former community where the Brontë siblings’ father, Patrick, worked as a perpetual curate (a type of parish priest in the 19th-century Anglican church).A short walk from their Market Street home led me to the ruined Chapel of St. James—or the Bell Chapel—where the famous siblings were baptized. Beside an ivy-strewn bell tower, a section of the original church wall was etched with the words: “Thornton: my happiest years 1815–1820” followed by Patrick’s name.One of the most distinctive Brontë-themed walks in the area is a nine-mile route marked by four “Brontë Stones.” Created by novelist and poet Michael Stewart, the trail links Thornton with Haworth, where the family spent most of their lives.Three of the commemorative stones are dedicated to each sister and one is dedicated to the three siblings collectively. Each is inscribed with a bespoke verse from famous writers such as poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and singer Kate Bush.Traveling to Haworth by car from Thornton will take you less than 20 minutes and, once you’re there, the village’s streets are well worth exploring if you’re not put off by their steep inclines. The soot-blackened gritstone buildings and mélange of converted mills speak to the region’s textile manufacturing past. When the Brontë sisters were alive, Haworth’s cobbled Main Street would have had everything from blacksmiths and joiners to stone masons and grocers.I passed a former tea merchant that once sold writing paper to Charlotte, plus the Barraclough clockmakers (now the Hawthorn restaurant) who crafted the family’s grandfather clock. The Haworth Old Post Office, now a curio-filled café with an original Victorian counter, was where the sisters sent off their manuscripts to London under the pen names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell.The parsonage where the Brontës lived from 1825, was among the most enthralling stops I made. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey were all written in the home, which is now a museum. Seeing the sofa on which Emily Brontë died was a somber moment.The parsonage’s rooms showcase writing desks, clothing, and jewelry owned by the sisters, plus sketches by brother Branwell. Beside their creativity—encouraged by their enthusiastic, story-telling father—there was much darkness in the Brontës’ lives. Branwell fell into alcohol and opium addiction, and this once poorly sanitized village brimmed with reminders of death. One museum member told me that Haworth’s water supply “passed through the graves of 42,000 bodies.”Rambling across Haworth’s surrounding heather moorland brought me close to the sentiment of Wuthering Heights. The popular 4.5-mile Brontë Connection route starts in the village of Stanbury, reachable via the “Brontë Bus.” It follows the outskirts of the disused quarry site of Penistone Country Park and follows the rocky path that leads to the frothing Brontë waterfall, named after the family, which descends into Sladen Beck.Keen walkers might want to go as far as Ponden Kirk, the gritstone outcrop that inspired Emily’s depiction of Penistone Crags in the novel, before rejoining the road that leads back to Stanbury to pass Ponden Hall (the farmhouse that may have inspired her Thrushcross Grange).The description in the original Wuthering Heights novel by housekeeper Nelly Dean of “temporary brooks [crossing] our path, gurgling from the uplands” couldn’t be more fitting of the sodden, peaty bogs I’d experienced. Yet now, as I paused to take in the panoramic views, the clouds parted to reveal a bright blue sky. (Lucy McGuire)
Ordinarily, I’d object to the howling, bone-chilling wind on Haworth Moor. It turns a refreshing country walk into a test of tenacity. On the hike to the ruined Top Withens farmhouse, however, that icy wind feels fittingly atmospheric. A sunny idyll wouldn’t be very Wuthering Heights – the moody, weather-beaten setting is a key part of what makes Emily Bronte’s only published novel.This unforgiving but handsome slice of West Yorkshire moorland is likely to get many more boots trudging across it in 2026. The Emerald Fennell-directed movie, Wuthering Heights, starring Aussies Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is likely to have a whole new generation setting off in search of Heathcliff’s windswept, isolated home.Bronte fans have long since adopted Top Withens as the real-life location, even though a plaque on the wall of the ruined farmhouse wall admits it may not be. “The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described,” it reads. “But the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.”Architectural layouts be damned. Top Withens embodies the spirit of Wuthering Heights. It is bleakly beautiful, built on one floor into the hillside and guarded by a pair of spindly sycamore trees. The moorland landscape hasn’t changed much since Bronté’s only novel was published in 1847, with the reservoir and wind turbines being very much on the horizon, rather than disturbing the lonely, heather-swathed foreground. Crucially, Top Withens stands apart and alone. There is no building in sight that could pass muster as a neighbour.There is little doubt that the author would have walked here. She was born in the outer Bradford suburb of Thornton – where the Brontë Birthplace reopened as a small museum in 2025 – but lived for the vast majority of her life at the parsonage in Haworth.Her father, Patrick, was the perpetual curate at St Michael’s Church, on the other side of the graveyard from the Bronte family’s honey-stoned home. The sheep paddocks and moors start at the back of the parsonage, and Top Withens is nearly six kilometres away on foot. The most popular route also passes Brontë Falls, a small waterfall that was given its name post-literary fame.While the moorland is the best place to get a sense of Wuthering Heights’ setting, the Brontë Parsonage Museum gives much more insight into the author’s life.Emily Bronte’s personal tale is lapped by great waves of tragedy. Her mother, Maria, died within 18 months of moving to Haworth. Two of her elder sisters died of tuberculosis while away at school, and her brother, Branwell – a mildly talented painter – was a troubled alcoholic and opium addict. Branwell died in September 1848, three months before Emily died of tuberculosis, aged 30.Patrick Bronëe outlived all six of his children, and his character is most pervasive throughout the museum. An Irish immigrant, he was unusually well-educated, having studied at Cambridge. His poems were published, and the children grew up surrounded by books bearing their family name.The most memorable room of the parsonage is the dining room, and not just because Emily is widely believed to have died on its couch. This is the room where the three Bronte sisters would write, regularly flitting around the table to check on their siblings’ progress. Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Anne’s Agnes Grey were put together at the same time, around the same wooden table.Haworth village is no longer quite as the Brontes would have remembered it, although Branwell’s old haunts, the Old White Lion and the Black Bull, still stand. The hilly, pedestrianised main street is now lined with restaurants and literary-leaning gift shops, the result of an overnight success that was sustained long after the sisters died. The moorland, however, is still the same wild, brooding place that inspired Emily’s masterpiece. (David Whitley)
For many, classic English novels are regarded as untouchable works of literature, and adaptations can often face considerable scrutiny - yet this particular TV series appears to capture the 19th century with remarkable authenticity.Originally broadcast in 2006, this rendition of Jane Eyre brings Charlotte Brontë's beloved novel to life, chronicling the journey of its titular character as she navigates orphanhood while striving to carve out a better existence for herself.Spanning four episodes, the series delivers a breathtaking retelling of this timeless tale, with Ruth Wilson taking on the lead role alongside Toby Stephens as Edward Rochester. (Emily Malia)
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