by Emily BrontëBritish Library PublishingISBN: 9780712369015September 17, 2026Wuthering Heights First Edition Facsimile (1847) in a two-volume edition, with Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846)Step into the wild, windswept world of the Yorkshire moors with this exquisite first edition facsimile of Wuthering Heights, faithfully reproduced from the British Library’s original 1847 copy of Emily Brontë’s enduring masterpiece.Published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights is one of the most powerful and unconventional novels in English literature — a haunting tale of passion, obsession and revenge that has captivated readers for nearly two centuries. This sumptuous facsimile captures the novel as it was first presented to Victorian readers, preserving the typography, layout and character of the historic two-volume edition.Housed in a luxurious foiled cloth-bound clamshell presentation box, this collector’s set brings together:
- A two-volume first edition facsimile of Wuthering Heights (1847), with covers typical of the era
- A first edition facsimile of Emily Brontë’s own copy of Poems (1846), the ground-breaking poetry collection she published alongside her sisters Charlotte and Anne, prior to the success of Wuthering Heights, reproduced with handwritten notes and signed and dated by her on the title page. Emily’s copy was rebound by a later owner and bears the date of 1864 on the spine. As this edition is intended to be a faithful facsimile, we have reproduced the book exactly as it survives today, including this historical peculiarity.
- Facsimile looseleaf pages from Emily’s two manuscript poetry notebooks (also held in the Library collections) that show earlier versions of a couple of poems that appear in Poems.
- The set is completed with an introductory booklet by two lead curators at the British Library.
Brontë fans will now be able to own facsimile first editions of the two creative works Emily published during her short life – in effect her complete works – presented together in a gorgeous box with gold foil details. Each element has been created directly from the originals held in the British Library’s collections, ensuring exceptional fidelity to the source material.An essential acquisition for Brontë enthusiasts, collectors of classic literature, scholars, and lovers of fine bookmaking, this facsimile set is as striking on the shelf as it is moving to read.
Southwark Playhouse has posted a trailer for its production of Jane Eyre, offering a first glimpse of the musical currently running at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. The clip previews the atmosphere of the staging, which brings Charlotte Brontë's novel to the stage through what the theatre describes as a lush and sweeping score. [...]The staging marks the UK premiere of the musical, running at Southwark Playhouse Elephant through 24 October. The trailer was shot by videographer Adam Nightingale. (Michael Major)
The show by Sarah Gordon, which premiered in 2024 at The National Theatre London, will be performed at Theatre@41 on Monkgate from the 13th to the 17th October. It tells the story of the rivalry between the Brontë sisters from Charlotte’s perspective, and reveals some truths behind why we only know Anne as the ‘third sister’, or the Other Other Brontë.Director Claire Morley, who last directed for YSCP in 2014 with Brecht’s Drums in the Night says:“Directing Underdog really appealed to me because whilst it tells the story of this incredible literary family who are so entwined in the national (and Yorkshire!) cultural fabric, it doesn’t put them on a pedestal. We see them as flawed human beings. The dialogue and stagecraft is also very contemporary, which I love. I am looking forward to reflecting that further in aspects like the soundtrack. Expect current chart hits rather than choral music!”Lara Stafford (last seen as the title character in Anne Boleyn with Black Treacle Theatre at Theatre@41), YSCP regular Jess Murray, and University of York MA Theatre-Making student Millie Rhodes lead the cast as Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. They are joined by a multi-rolling ensemble made up of local actors Nick Patrick Jones, Jon Cook, Maggie Smales, and Pamela Gourley.“We’re so thrilled to bring this very Yorkshire literary play to Theatre@41 this October,” says YSCP Chair, Natalie Roe, “We went on a cast and crew trip to the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, which helped everyone get into the world of the play. There’s such a great energy in the team already, we can’t wait to share Underdog with you.”
Ce livre d'une journaliste et chroniqueuse déjà connue du prix Goncourt se dessine comme un des favoris du concours. [...]Il s'appelle Je, mais ce n'est pas une autobiographie. Même si on ne connait pas la vie personnelle de l'autrice, il ne peut pas s'agir de cela car le roman se passe en 1831. On lit : "Île de la Jamaïque, 1831. Antoinette Cosway, créole de bonne famille, s'éprend d'Edward Rochester, un Anglais aussi impénétrable que fascinant. Mais à la séduction enflammée succèdent rapidement des scènes vénéneuses, où les baisers sont des blessures, où toute une société livre la jeune femme à son bourreau.Des années plus tard, Antoinette tente de conquérir sa propre histoire. "JE" se situe à mi-chemin entre roman victorien et thriller intimiste contemporain. Lilia Hassaine s'est inspirée du personnage de la première femme de Rochester dans Jane Eyre, le roman culte de Charlotte Brontë. Elle a choisi de lui donner une voix, un corps, une destinée." [...]Avec déjà une sélection par le passé, Lilia Hassaine devient déjà une habituée de ce concours. Cela pourrait l'avantager. Avec toutes les autres distinctions que le livre a déjà, il a vraiment ses chances. Enfin, la référence à un classique de la littérature peut aussi l'avantager. Outre cela, il n'est pas pour autant premier des ventes. Pour l'instant, C'était ça ou mourir D'Orélien Thélyson est numéro un des ventes, considéré comme le phénomène littéraire de l'année, il s'apparente comme le favori qui au final perd. Alors que "Je" est dixième du classement Datalib.En tout cas, les lecteurs semblent adorer. Babelio lui donne la belle note de 4,25/5. On peut lire entre autres : Livre de la rentrée littéraire 2026 et ce fut un coup de cœur ! Un livre magnifique, une plume efficace, un récit captivant. (…) Le roman met en lumière une autre vision de cette femme, victime de son temps, du patriarcat, de son époux, et des machinations l'ayant conduite à être enfermée et considérée comme "folle". Je ne pouvais pas lâcher ce livre." (Paul Mocka) (Translation)
HaworthA town near Bradford, Haworth is surrounded by stunning autumn walking trails. Whether you want to see the Brontë Waterfall or just the town itsel, the Victorian style of the town never fails to give off a great autumnal feel. (Sebastian McCormick)
"Iconic" must be the most used and abused word in the reviewer’s lexicon - a single in the Top Ten and a slot down the bill at a wannabee Glastonbury festival is enough to secure that sobriquet these days. But Jane Eyre, the novel and the character, is certainly worthy of the descriptor, a lodestar for teenage girls (and, perhaps more quietly, teenage boys) seeking to find their identity and their space in a confusing and hostile world.What sets Charlotte Brontë’s work apart from the countless coming-of-age stories that followed in its wake, is its date of publication (1847, earlier than both David Copperfield and Great Expectations) and the deep psychological insight it provides into a girl’s transformation into a woman. Readers had seen some of that with Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and in Jane Austen’s Emma, but they had much more going for them than this impoverished, damaged, plain Jane. But our girl has a resilience and resourcefulness that leaps across time and fortifies the spirit.That’s the very stuff of musical theatre of course, Jane continually delivering "I Want" songs, so it’s a surprise to learn that this is the first London production of Paul Gordon and John Caird’s show, its roots put down in Bill Clinton’s USA. It then went through various iterations, scaling up for Broadway and down for Cleveland, before fetching up on Southwark Playhouse’s Elephant stage, a house that works perfectly in sustaining its romance and its tension with a reduced cast.Charlie Burn’s Jane is anything but plain, and Ashley Gilmour (both pictured above) goes full unkempt hair, black eyes and heroically unbuttoned shirt as Rochester, the troubled but sexy Lord of the Manor. That’s all a tad unfortunate coming so soon after Margot and Jacob’s Wuthering Heights (social hierarchy albeit gender reversed), but at least Burn looks within a decade of the right age for the role.She is very good indeed, and she needs to be because Emily-Rose Samuel is fantastic as the tween Jane being bullied at school, and proves equally impressive doubling as Adèle, the ward for whom Jane is employed as a governess. It’s not often that you see a child-actor deliver both crucial emotional development and later find laugh after laugh in a wholly new role. Emily-Rose is a name to look out for.Burn and Gilmour also need to be excellent, as the score is somewhat anodyne, lacking a really big 11 o’clock number with most songs sounding like Stephen Sondheim had set them aside for another day.Now there’s plenty of tunes that might not make Sondheim’s cut but will work perfectly well in a musical and we do feel Ben Kubiak’s unseen seven piece orchestra driving the pace of the narrative, especially in a second half that moves more swiftly than the first. “Painting Her Portrait” is a standout. as Jane sits at her desk to paint herself ugly and Rochester’s intended, Blanche (Eve Shanu-Wilson) pretty. She’d need the skills of Picasso to pull off that trick convincingly, but never mind, she’s really only trying to fool herself to ameliorate her (presumed) inevitable rejection.The ensemble cast double and triple parts, and sometimes sing as a chorus, articulating Jane’s thoughts as she is pulled this way and that by love, by duty, by her own insecurity. Hannah Lindsey impresses as Rochester’s mad wife, locked away on the upper floor, catching the pathos as well as the madness in a character that takes Miss Havisham up to 11.The somewhat bare stage, supplemented by a few black and white projections, catches a gothic atmosphere, but our imagination has to do a lot of work on creating the cold rooms, the mysterious staircases and the noises off. So too the fire that is so intrinsic to the plot - a red glow and a smoke machine leaves us somewhat shortchanged.But the heart of the show is the romance between Jane and Rochester and that depends on the burning hot chemistry between the leads. And there is more than enough of that to light up the two hours plus runtime. You’re never in any doubt that they’ll be together, so it’s all very warming watching it happen.Ultimately, I suspect one’s judgement of the evening will depend on whether one has read the novel and is invested in its iconic status. I confess that I haven’t, but its story is strong (the book so often the weak point of a musical). It took me no time at all to be pulling for Jane and her emotional-intelligence stunted paramour, helped, perhaps, by the absence of any casting gimmicks and the old-school fidelity to the source material.Treat it as an opera (it’s largely sung through) and grant to it the allowances we do for that oft-overwrought genre and the show works very well indeed, flaws and all. (Gary Naylor)
This musical adaptation of Jane Eyre (music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, book by John Caird) makes its long-awaited British premiere 30 years after it was first staged. Its Broadway production led to five Tony nominations in 2001. Since then it has been revised, with this chamber version now being produced at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. The show adds a spiritual and operatic layer to Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic romance. [...]Using the cast as narrator/chorus throughout the proceedings adds a warmth that the story may otherwise lack, and the use of the floor space in this venue, with only projections to indicate a change of scene, allows effective blocking and interesting movement from the cast. Choreographer Georgina Lamb, lighting designer James Whiteside, and set/costume designer Morgan Large all add value to the atmosphere.The story is much stronger in the second half, with Jane’s “Painting Her Portrait” adding drama. As the interval comes at a curious point in the narrative, there is a lot of ground to cover thereafter, including “My Hope of Heaven” (the proposal), what really is on the upper floor (a sweet moment between Jane and the mysterious woman lost in her insanity), and the ending, which “tempers judgement with mercy”.With direction by Caird and Megan McGinnis, this production opens out the spiritual themes of the story from the start, opening with the mysterious connection between Rochester and Jane, miles apart. Themes of forgiveness, love, and loss thread through from the death of Jane’s parents through to the eventual reconciliation of the two lovers, joined forever by that string from his rib to hers.Brontë purists will notice a few changes, but they are sympathetic to the original story, while a generous runtime allows scenes often excised in adaptations to be fully explored, such as the fortune-teller. This is not the only musical treatment of Jane Eyre – there have been operas, and even a ballet of the story – but it is perhaps the most sweeping, sentimental, and symbolic. Above the stage, quotations from the novel speak to Jane’s independence, faith, and state of mind, and tree branches suggest the oppressive and mysterious nature of Thornfield.I might question the pacing of the first half, but the performances are uniformly excellent, especially the lead pair and young Samuel, who has a lot of emotionally charged moments as young Jane. This is a fine adaptation that is well worth your time. (Louise Penn)
A Victorian-era, feminist, romantic, and gothic musical set in the moors of Yorkshire. How haunting and intriguing! But… can gothic romance and feminism really coexist in that era? And then, how do you sing about it?Jane Eyre, the musical written by John Caird and Paul Gordon, is based on Charlotte Brontë’s well-known novel, published in 1847. This groundbreaking work, which follows Jane’s life, was at the time one of the first novels to feature a first-person narration, told from a woman’s perspective. In this adaptation, directed by Caird and Megan McGinnis, Jane Eyre’s life story is told with the help of a cast of 12. In it, 10 ensemble members take on various roles throughout the performance to embody over 20 characters, all while sharing the first-person narration and speaking from Jane’s perspective, thus carrying the two leads, Jane (Charlie Burn) and Mr Rochester (Ashley Gilmour), through their romance.Act 1 is a fast-paced medley of short ballads, alternating between full choir formation and short solos. This follows Jane from her childhood (with young Jane played by the brilliantly captivating Emily-Rose Samuel) through a whirlwind of events: losing her parents, being mistreated by her aunt, and being forced to attend an impoverished girls’ school. There, she meets Helen (played with beautiful purity by Isabelle Methven), whose untimely death is a harsh lesson, before she takes on her role as governess at Thornfield Hall for a young Adèle (again played with sassy joy by Samuel) and meets her romantic interest Edward Rochester – a strange, brooding and secretive man.The speed is constant, songs are wordy, and, though the orchestration (Larry Hochman and Brad Haak) is wonderfully nuanced. It leaves little space for spoken text and for full musical numbers, with only Gilmour and Burn’s duet Sirens standing out from the rest.In contrast, Act 2 changes pace completely, and the audience is regaled with a number of fully developed songs, as well as musical reprises from the first act which give the piece more unity. We finally get a chance to savour Burn’s beautiful voice, notably in Painting her Portrait, and enjoy Gilmour’s comically masterful rendition of Dear Sister. Heartfelt scenes of pain and reconciliation between Jane’s family members and Rochester are poignant, yet the contrast in storytelling is almost a disappointment as we lose the narration so present in Act 1.The lack of emphasis on this first-person narration, so key to Brontë’s implicit act of feminism, is unfortunate, and the piece lacks an obvious female voice, making some of the social commentary shallow rather than timeless. This is not helped by the embodiment of the gothic horror through various lacy black costumes, which limit character differentiation, and the use of a background screen, whose images clash with the sombre tone of the piece.Yet, Jane Eyre remains a beautifully poignant and entertaining story with fitting musicality and a playful gothic sobriety reminiscent of other well-loved musicals. It is enjoyable, though not quite yet on par with the greats. (A. Tran Ngoc)
The songs consist of soaring ballads with some lovely orchestrations played by the band, led by Ben Kubiak, which conjure images of the rugged landscape of the North Yorkshire Moors that surround Thornfield Hall. Gordon’s lyrics are inspired by the novel’s themes of longing for love and independence, and the presence of the Christian faith and its role in providing moral conundrums for the characters. However, as the show progresses the songs begin to lose their individuality and their lyrics lack anything especially revelatory. There are a few standouts: ‘Sweet Liberty’; Jane’s “I want” song, beautifully sung by Charlie Burn with clear and bright vocals which portray Jane’s hope for something greater, and ‘Brave Enough to Love’; a rousing conclusion to the show.The cast is wonderfully led by Charlie Burn and Ashley Gilmour as Jane and Rochester. There are certainly a few chuckles when the pair are described as plain when they could be better compared to a Disney Prince and Princess with intense and emotive vocals to match. Gilmour is a suitably broody and enigmatic Rochester and has great chemistry with Burn’s charismatic portrayal of the feminist literary icon. They are supported by an excellent multi-rolling ensemble, however the casting choice for Bertha is perplexing. The ensemble narrates much of Jane’s story, although we do find it a little odd that they do so in first person. There are brief moments of choreography which could have been utilised further to bring additional drama to the piece but there is no shortage of emotion in the ensemble’s harmonious vocals.Jane Eyre is a classic story that has captured generations. Fans of the novel are sure to enjoy this musical production but those looking for a more modern retelling may leave yearning for more. (Sophie Luck)
Jane in adulthood is in the very capable hands of Charlie Burn. She has a very attractive singing voice in the lower part of its register, even if the tone is inclined to spread on higher notes.Ashley Gilmour has terrific stage presence as Rochester and easily commands the stage; he also looks suitably dashing and is a strong singer, even if he is inclined to sound too American. Burn and Gilmour work seamlessly together and almost make one forget that the dialogue they are given seems nothing like as poetic as Brontë’s original!The rest of the hard-working ensemble also impresses, especially Claire Greenway as Grace Poole and Jonathan Andrew Hume in the role of Mason, Rochester’s brother-in-law, demonstrating a very pleasing singing voice. Hannah Lindsey is powerful in the role of Bertha, but is given hardly anything to do; for example, we are barely allowed to see her when she sets Rochester’s bed aflame.There are some strange directorial decisions. For example, although Southwark Elephant has a thrust stage, with the audience on three sides, it seems to have been directed for a proscenium-style auditorium. I was given a seat on one side for Act One but managed to move to one that was forward-facing for the second half and found that I could both see and hear much better! This comment certainly applies to Morgan Large’s set, obviously designed to a limited budget, which does make sense when seen from “straight on” rather than at an angle! It is a shame that grey is the prominent colour as it is inclined to make the whole show quite depressing, especially as nearly everyone wears black!In addition, Brontë’s novel is set in Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Derbyshire Peak District where everyone, rich and poor, would have spoken using regional accents. In the production under review, everyone speaks in what is almost BBC ‘Received Pronunciation’, apart from one or two of the servants occasionally.Some of the elements of the original plot are changed or glossed over but, on the whole, John Caird has done well to reduce the playing time to two and a quarter hours: it does certainly not overstay its welcome! Paul Gordon’s music is a cross between the style of Les Misérables and Sondheim. Much of it seems very slow and lacking in energy, but the whole ensemble gives it the best possible chance, as does the excellent seven-piece orchestra under Ben Kubiak. It is a shame that none of Gordon’s melodies even begin to stick in the memory. By the way, full marks for a change to the excellent sound design of Andrew Johnson who has ensured that the result of his efforts always sounds natural and never too loud: perfect – many thanks!Although I am not sure that a musical about Jane Eyre was really needed, and there is already an opera by Michael Berkeley, I am pleased to have encountered this particular production. (John Groves)
Much like Emerald Fennell’s film of Wuthering Heights, this musical version of another Brontë sister’s literary masterpiece is lovely to look at. Designer Morgan Large’s monochrome palette fashions the women in black corseted dresses with attractive ruffles and delicate mesh detailing. Behind them on a screen, a mist appears to roll over sketches of moorland, graves and barren trees. It’s winningly atmospheric. But also like Fennell’s film, there’s too little beneath the frills in an adaptation (music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, book and additional lyrics by John Caird) that struggles to tap into the substance of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel.Though smart-mouthed and bolshie as a child (played commendably on press night by Emily-Rose Samuel), there’s scant sense of a strong-willed, independent thinker in Charlie Burn’s adult Jane, who under Caird and Megan McGinnis’s direction is as pure and polite as a fairytale princess. Nor is there anything dark or dangerous about Ashley Gilmour’s courteous, too-charming Rochester.The songs dilute the story’s grit and hardship with syrupy sentiment. The overuse of twinkly wind chimes and pop-style scoop notes become musical tics, shifting the dial closer to Disney romance than Victorian gothic. Early numbers The Governess and Forgiveness are particularly cloying. But the better songs – including Jane’s Sweet Liberty and Rochester’s As Good As You – contain hints of Schönberg and Boublil’s Les Misérables (the original UK production of which Caird co-directed). And if the material itself is broadly one-note, this is still a fine-tuned production that runs like clockwork.The cast of 11 – about half the size of the musical’s original Broadway run in 2000 – is packed with West End talent for this long-awaited London premiere. It’s just a shame they’re working with such flimsy material. (Holly O'Mahony)
Yes, yet another adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel. They’re like number 11 buses at the moment.This musical version is imaginatively staged with an ensemble of nine from which most of the roles emerge. They form some interestingly choreographed group shapes when physical theatre takes over at, for example, the moment when Mr Rochester (Ashley Gilmour – fine tenor voice) falls off his horse.Charlie Burn is suitably passionate and feistily determined as the adult Jane and it’s a strong idea to have her and her child self sometimes on stage at the same time because it adds a multidimensional nuance to the characterisation. [...]Otherwise the production founders for the oddest of reasons. It tries to adhere too closely to the novel. A surprising amount of the dialogue is pure Charlotte Brontë. Normally I’d applaud that, but here it feels like a constraint as if John Caird (book, additional lyrics, co-director with Megan McGinnis) can’t quite bring himself to reinvent it. It is, though, a good idea to conflate Mrs Reed’s death scene with Jane’s meeting with St John Rivers. It enables the plot to cut to the chase more seamlessly than usual.There is a problem too with the ensemble concept. Between them they take so many roles that I suspect if you didn’t know the novel intimately you could easily lose track of who is who and what’s going on – which is not to say that each of them isn’t doing a decently competent job as whichever character they are presenting at any given moment.Brontë wrote Jane Eyre as a first person narrative and this production attempts to retain that but gets it jarringly wrong. From time to time the ensemble becomes a quasi Greek chorus voicing Jane’s memories in statements, spoken in turn. It doesn’t work at all if Burn and/or Emily-Rose is on stage and silent. Jane Eyre almost more than any other character in fiction can, and should, speak for herself. If she doesn’t the whole point is lost. (Susan Elkin)
La cara europea de las Jornadas del Cómic “Villa de Avilés” la completaron ayer, por un lado, la francoargentina Paulina Spucches y, por otro, el español Rubén Fdez. La primera es la autora de “Bronteäna” y también de “Vivian Maier. En la superficie de un espejo”: por un lado, la historia de la tercera de las Brontë -la primera fue Charlotte, después vino Emily y, al final, llegó Anne- [...]Spucches, cuando tuvo que explicar por qué eligió a Maier y a la pequeña de las Brontë, responde que Maier “ahora sí que es reconocida”, pero que eso no sucedió siempre. “Ella trabajó, digamos, entre las sombras, sin mostrarlo a nadie”, señaló la francoargentina. Lo de Anne Brontë, lo admitió la creadora, viene de un empeño por promover “una visibilización” de una escritora envuelta en los siglos victorianos. “Vi a Maier en un mundo blanco y negro, Anne Brontë en algo muy victoriano, muy cerrado, con poca emoción, y me gusta la idea de poner movimientos y colores a esas vidas: tener un diálogo a través de la historia con esos personajes y me emociona mucho poder compartirlo con los lectores para quizás despertar un deseo en ellos y ellas de aprender más sobre esas historias”. [...]Spucches, cuando tuvo que explicar por qué eligió a Maier y a la pequeña de las Brontë, responde que Maier “ahora sí que es reconocida”, pero que eso no sucedió siempre. “Ella trabajó, digamos, entre las sombras, sin mostrarlo a nadie”, señaló la francoargentina. Lo de Anne Brontë, lo admitió la creadora, viene de un empeño por promover “una visibilización” de una escritora envuelta en los siglos victorianos. “Vi a Maier en un mundo blanco y negro, Anne Brontë en algo muy victoriano, muy cerrado, con poca emoción, y me gusta la idea de poner movimientos y colores a esas vidas: tener un diálogo a través de la historia con esos personajes y me emociona mucho poder compartirlo con los lectores para quizás despertar un deseo en ellos y ellas de aprender más sobre esas historias”. (Saúl Fernández) (Translation)
by Kate GreenwoodHarperNorthISBN:August 27, 2026A beautiful collection of daily quotes from the Brontës.From the wild, windswept moors of Yorkshire emerged three sisters whose writing would change the literary world: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. Fearless in their vision, they gave us some of the most passionately feminist and deliciously gothic literature ever written – works that continue to captivate, challenge and inspire.This charming collection gathers their most enduring words across novels, poems and letters, offering 365 daily reflections on love, life and literature.Complete with an illustration for each month, this is the perfect gift to add a touch of Brontë brilliance to each day.
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Eine Sammlung der schönsten Gedichte, Geschichten, Zitate und Briefauszüge zum Herbst – Die perfekte Lektüre für gemütliche StundenReclam Verlag, DitzingenISBN: 978315014922513 Jul 2026»Und dieser Wind, der in den Kiefern vor den Fenstern heult. Lass mich ihn bitte spüren, er kommt direkt vom Moor herunter. Lass mich nur einen Atemzug tun!«Sturmumwehte Anwesen und nebelbedeckte Moore bilden die ikonischen Schauplätze der Romane der Schwestern Charlotte, Emily und Anne Brontë. Ob in Jane Eyre, Sturmhöhe oder Agnes Grey – mit ihrem aufmerksamen wie auch verträumten Blick gelingt es jeder Schwester, die herbstliche Melancholie auf ganz eigene Weise literarisch einzufangen.
by Paloma Ríos PrietoAdvisor: Ana Isabel Zamorano RuedaUNED, 2026La tesis doctoral que se presenta en este documento pretende ofrecer una panorámica completa de la producción literaria de la escritora del siglo XIX Anne Brontë para demostrar que el tipo de voz, discurso y los enunciados que la autora va empleando progresivamente a lo largo de la vida. Su trayectoria literaria comenzó como escritora de composiciones poéticas contextualizadas en un universo de ficción denominado Gondal y continuó con una poesía confesional que le sirvió como instrumento para expresar todo tipo de sentimientos, ilustrando una proyección autobiográfica de la interioridad, de su yo más íntimo y personal. Mientras que la voz y el discurso inicial de la escritora se focaliza en una atracción por el mundo de la fantasía, la aventura, la sensibilidad por el paisaje y la naturaleza que la rodeaba, su crecimiento personal se corresponde con la evolución o maduración en su discurso, presentando en la poesía que no pertenece a su universo de ficción un discurso aún más intimista, introspectivo y de autoexploración confesional en el que destaca el análisis de la fe o el sentido general de la vida. La escritura de Anne Brontë también comprende un ensayo dialogado entre dos personajes no identificados conocido como Brotherton Manuscript en el que la autora presenta el debate entre la razón y la fe en relación con el origen de la Tierra. Por otro lado, en las dos novelas, Agnes Grey y The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, publicadas con menos de un año de diferencia, predomina el discurso moral y social, pero fundamentalmente didáctico para reformar situaciones de desventaja social y legal para las mujeres y los niños del siglo XIX. Si la voz de la escritora Anne Brontë comenzó con una predilección por la fantasía, terminará sus últimas líneas con un discurso de realismo social con dimensión feminista que la convierte en una figura pionera en el pensamiento de reforma social que resuena incluso hoy en día. La problemática en torno a la figura y obra de Anne Brontë reside en la escasez de documentos de primera mano que se conservan de ella, en la abundancia de leyendas que la han situado en una posición periférica en relación con sus hermanas, además del proceso de censura e incluso silenciamiento que su obra ha tenido hasta el último tercio del siglo XX. Esta investigación aspira a recuperar la voz de Anne Brontë tanto en su producción poética como en la narrativa, revisando de igual manera, la evolución que ha habido en la crítica literaria con el objetivo final de contribuir en el proceso de reconocimiento literario que su obra merece. La difusión y visibilidad independiente de Anne Brontë como pensadora adelantada a su tiempo se hace necesaria para reconocer y valorar su contribución en la mejora de las condiciones sociales, económicas y legales para las personas pero de manera más específica para los niños y las mujeres. Este estudio espera ser una contribución relevante en el conocimiento científico en el campo de los estudios de género en España, al no existir ninguna tesis doctoral centrada de manera exclusiva en la obra y figura de la escritora Anne Brontë.
Lucia plays Anne Brontë, alongside Laura Del Papa and Hilary Scott as sisters Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Told over five days spanning three years, the play unfolds entirely within the Brontë family home, and offers an intimate and unflinching account of the sisters’ artistic ambitions, their pseudonymous path to publication, and the sisterhood that carried them through both. The play illuminates how their experiences echo those of the heroines who live on in their beloved and much interpreted literary classics, including Jane Eyre, Villette, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Wuthering Heights, not to mention the mythology surrounding the sisters themselves.Lucia came to the material with little prior knowledge of the Brontës. “I did all of that research over my audition” — but was quickly won over. What drew her in was not the sisters’ literary genius, so much as [Jordi] Mand’s insistence on their humanity. “They are geniuses. Of course they are. But they’re also real human people, with real human thoughts and struggles and doubts,” she says. That balance is especially pointed for Anne, who is usually overlooked because she lacks a towering masterwork like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights to her credit. Lucia found in the role of Anne a portrait richer than the historical record allows: “Jordi does such a beautiful job at bringing her dimension,” she says. “Even though she is the forgotten Brontë sister, she is anything but forgotten in this play.” (Arpita Ghosal)
As England’s largest county, you can expect Yorkshire to be a bit exceptional. It is England in miniature: high fells and moorland for wild walking; soft green valleys for timeless villages and sparkling rivers (waterfalls, too); a bracing coastline for family beaches and fossil-hunting; and rolling farmland dotted with romantic ruined abbeys and sprawling stately homes.Add to the mix a lively dollop of culture – a 500-acre sculpture park, David Hockney, moody Brontë country, museums covering everything from the quaint (toys) to the spectacular (trains) – plus one-off Yorkshire experiences such as steaming across the moors in vintage railway carriages, and everyone should be happy. (Helen Pickles)
But really she was Boudica. Issy had walked out into the fields in those kitten heels and that full look in some kind of Brontë-esque suicide attempt in the rolling hills of Hilles
Stepping inside Haworth feels like turning a page from a classic English novel. Not long ago, digital creator and travel vlogger Farida dropped a video on Instagram, offering glimpses of the charming village. Cobbled streets, stone cottages, rustic bookshops, hazy lamposts and cosy tea rooms dominate the region, where every nook and corner feels like you have stepped back in time. One can also enter the Gothic churches that feel hauntingly beautiful.Literary enthusiasts can visit the famous Brontë Parsonage Museum, where one can witness Emily's mahogany writing desk and Charlotte’s rare miniature books, original manuscripts, and personal letters. Visitors can stand in the dining room where Wuthering Heights was penned, surrounded by the family’s original furniture, clothes, and hauntingly preserved Victorian rooms.Those looking for some adventure can hike through the wild moorlands to the atmospheric ruins of Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse widely believed to be the setting that inspired the desolate Earnshaw home in Emily Brontë's novel. Continuing with the vintage journey, you can board an authentic steam train on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. This 5-mile heritage line winds directly through Brontë country, stopping at Haworth’s beautifully restored Edwardian station. (Trisha Dey)
Kelly Creagh named one of her dogs Annabel, after the dead girl in Poe’s last great poem, which tells you roughly everything about where her imagination has spent the last fifteen years. The Nevermore trilogy dragged a cheerleader into Poe’s dreamworld. Phantom Heart rebuilt Leroux’s opera house as a teenage nightmare. Strange Unearthly Things sent three psychics into a Jane Eyre that bled. Across all of it, Creagh borrowed dead authors’ scaffolding to write about grief, duality, and the self we keep in shadow. (Jim McLeod)
There’s a pivotal scene in Wuthering Heights where Heathcliff overhears part of a conversation – the bad part – between his beloved Cathy and the servant Nelly Dean, but has fled in a rage by the time she’s saying the good part.Luckily, some of us are not so hot-headed. Last Sunday morning, after buying my copy of the Sunday Independent, I sat into my car and turned on The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk just as Kenny was introducing the items on his show. These were the first words I heard him saying: “President Trump has died suddenly.”Now, if I had done a Heathcliff on it, I would of course have been devastated to hear this news, given what a great job Donald Trump is doing. I would have been inconsolable at the loss of his enlightened leadership. I might even have switched off the radio and wept.For about five seconds, my head was spinning at the incalculable significance of this news. Forget about a clunky plot device in Wuthering Heights. Whole movies have been made about such moments, as a character’s life flashes in front of him – a process that spins out for about two hours in the cinema.But something told me that I had only heard the “bad” part, as it were. That there was perhaps more to this than the statement I’d heard from Kenny.Indeed, given the president’s many enemies, one might have expected that the celebrations of his sudden death would have started already. That cars would already be tearing down the street with their horns blaring at the “good” of it all.Sure enough, the Newstalk “listen back” facility revealed that Kenny’s full sentence went like this: “Lindsey Graham, sometime foe but then staunch ally of President Trump, has died suddenly.” (Declan Lynch)
Poets and artists, living and dead, populate the trilogy. Bianchi is not settling scores so much as searching for her place among them. What is poetry in the face of violence, not violence as metaphor, but violence as lived experience? Some figures, particularly the grand metteurs en scène who occupy the pantheon of the Festival d'Avignon, are treated with satirical irreverence while remaining, despite everything, aspirational. Others (Sarah Kane, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson) become something like secular saints. Bianchi inhabits their characters, weeps before their portraits as though before religious icons, and clings to their writings like relics. (Wesley Doucette)
Nevertheless, some readers may still be tempted to pick up a copy of “Indiana”, “Lélia” or “Mauprat” after they have finished “Becoming George”. For Ms Sampson lays out just how many admirers Sand had, including the Brontë sisters, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Marcel Proust. Gustave Flaubert, who exchanged letters with Sand for many years, addressed his fellow writer as chère maître (dear master).
Friday, Jul 17 2026, 2:00pm - 4:00pmCommunity Room (2nd Floor), NoBo LibraryDo you love the Brontës? Would you like to learn more about them and discuss them with fellow enthusiasts? Come celebrate our favorite literary sisters with light refreshments, trivia, crafts, and more! Period dress and/or fantastic hats encouraged but optional.
A first edition of Wuthering Heights together with Agnes Grey has sold at Christie’s London for £1,206,500 in its live The Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures auction setting a new world auction record by Emily Brontë.The set is one of the finest examples in private hands, and no textually complete copy has appeared at auction in publisher’s cloth since 1908. It survives in its original 1847 publisher’s cloth binding and retains the distinctive textual and printing irregularities of the first edition. It is also the highest price ever achieved for 19th century literature and for any printed book by a woman.Only 250 copies of the first edition of Wuthering Heights were printed and examples in their original full-cloth binding are scarce with only five other examples known (The Blavatnik-Honresfield copy at Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; University of Oxford; British Library; Charlotte Brontë's annotated copy with pages missing sold at Christie’s New York in 2009; and Anne Brontë's annotated copy at Princeton University Library).This copy bound in diagonally ribbed green-grey cloth with floral patterns and arabesques stamped on the cover has been kept in the same historic house library in England since just after its publication in 1847.
‘The Brontës’ by Juliet Barker (1994)A giant, door stopping account of an entire literary family, Barker’s book is a monumental achievement. But it is also riveting and tragic, telling of the passions, failures, and early deaths of the four Brontë siblings, with a specific focus on Emily and Charlotte, the authors of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
7 "Wuthering Heights" by Kate BushInspired by 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily BrontëEmily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" follows the turbulent romance between the orphan Heathcliff and the affluent Catherine Earnshaw. Having been adopted by the Earnshaw family, Heathcliff develops a close bond with Catherine — only to have his heart broken when she marries the wealthy Edgar Linton. Years later, Heathcliff returns to society, this time as a man of status and eager to exact revenge.Kate Bush puts the novel to music with "Wuthering Heights," written from Catherine's perspective after her death. From direct references to the Yorkshire moors — "Out on the wily, windy moors" — to self-confessional lyrics reflecting the couple's passionate yet emotionally draining romance, "Wuthering Heights" reflects the same volatile nature of Brontë's seminal work. (Dyah Ayu Larasati)
Thursday, 18 JuneIn-person, 2pm, Free with entry to the Museum and for residents in BD20, BD21 and BD22Brontë Space at the Old School RoomOnline, 7:30pmDuring her lifetime and through the subsequent years, Anne has been seen as the baby of the family, and her legacy has too often been overlooked and in the shadow of her siblings. However, her qualities are now increasingly appreciated by new generations of Brontë fans. This talk will explore those qualities and her courage to shine attention on often controversial subjects through her work, no matter the consequences to herself.
As a reviewer, it doesn’t pay to make overly quick judgments. However, within minutes of Jane Eyre Convention opening, I had come to the firm conclusion that the team behind the show had picked a difficult book for a comedy parody. Jane Austen lends herself to the amusing because she is often a quick-witted, funny writer herself. In comparison, getting laughs from Charlotte Brontë’s doom-laden gothic romance feels peculiarly like hard labour.However, the valiant cast of four (Eleanor Zeal, Ben Everett Riley, Georgia Jackson and Rachel Overd) throw themselves into the task with unfazed, drama-school-level enthusiasm. This isn’t a criticism. I love drama school energy. It certainly carried the room in this case, on an otherwise quiet Tuesday night in Clapham. Playing guileless attendees at a Jane Eyre reenactment society meeting, the foursome tackle everything fearlessly, including occasional clumsy hints at a Gen Z world beyond a safe literary space. Controlling, violent boyfriends, ADHD, absent dad trauma, race, and post-colonial reflection all pop up briefly. Some references seem flippant. Others unnecessary. This only becomes a real problem with gender politics. Riley, as the only guy in the cast, is sometimes asked to embody misogyny and decry it at the same time. It’s just a bit of a mess that fails to land, either as humour or serious commentary. Not everything needs a contemporary eyebrow raise, and, perhaps, Rochester is allowed to just be a sexy older man.Clunky missteps aside, it is all a jolly romp with plenty of good gags. I enjoyed, at various times, the embodiment of the moon, Rochester’s slightly camp horse, running (or walking fast) across the moors, and death by tuberculosis. I warned you, all very doom-laden and gothic. The team gets through the novel that many of us recognise from school curricula at a pace. It’s a book that Zeal, who writes as well as stars, obviously loves in detail. The most effective moments are undoubtedly when Brontë’s words are quoted directly, unadorned. Passages are surprisingly theatrical. It left me a bigger fan of the Haworth writer’s work than I was before. Job done, then I guess.For me, Jane Eyre is best represented by the 1943 film starring Orson Welles. Others will love the 2011 film with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Many might turn to director Sally Cookson’s mighty version that landed at the National Theatre in 2015. Realistically, Jane Eyre Convention is not going to trouble anyone’s list of definitive versions. But if you enjoy the book, there is probably sufficient fun to be had among fellow fans here. Knowing that classic works of literature catch the eye in a festival programme, I reckon this is a show with an exciting future at Edinburgh, where, fortunately, it appears it is heading after this Clapham run. (Mike Carter)
Coming off Fall 2026 fashion month this past March, we were left with a lingering, wistful feeling of romance. The Wuthering Heights press tour was in full swing, and there seemed to be a startling overlap between the subverted feminine tropes playing out onscreen and those walking down the runways. [...]And, of course, Wuthering Heights ties a bow around it all: a romance novel turned film with a fashion-forward press tour in which lead actress Margot Robbie, styled by Andrew Mukamal, took to international red carpets in Dilara Findikoglu corsets cinched up tight. [...]In Forbidden Fruits, the four main characters host a séance in frilly Rodarte dresses embellished with lace and ribbons. The costumes may conduct a romantic feel, but the plot does not—someone's about to get initiated into a cult. Wuthering Heights may look romantic but it doesn't really feel romantic. Each is provocative in its plotline, heart-wrenching, scary, even gross, at times despite the overt presence of ribbon and corsetry. Whereas releases like Office Romance or People We Meet on Vacation (based on a romance novel) feel more like romance in substance if not costume. Is something romantic purely because it has a Victorian element? Or because it takes place on the moors of England? "I got an Instagram ad for these dresses that literally looked cut-and-paste from the set of Wuthering Heights, and I think that's when people miss the mark," Biga posits. "Can you imagine somebody wearing a whalebone corset in Prospect Park? They would look like they were in a play." (Camille Freestone)
Wuthering HeightsBy Emily Brontë (1847)2. In her story of ill-starred lovers and class divisions set on the bleak moors of Yorkshire, England, Emily Brontë creates two contrasting visions of home. Catherine Earnshaw, raised in the “disorderly, comfortless” gothic abode of Wuthering Heights, is seduced by the refinement of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange, “a splendid place carpeted with crimson.” She transforms herself from “a wild, hatless little savage” into a lady, which estranges her from her childhood companion and besotted admirer, Heathcliff, a foundling who lives with her family. Losing Catherine to Edgar, the heir of Thrushcross Grange, prompts Heathcliff, the perpetual outsider, to vow vengeance; he maneuvers to gain financial control of both houses with the aim of destroying each one’s inhabitants. “The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails.” Brontë subjects her characters to the competing influences of the two houses; those who venture too close to the Heights—such as Catherine’s daughter, years later—get sucked into the abject darkness within. Heathcliff is unable to find solace in either mansion. For him, home can only be one shared with Catherine, and he must escape his earthly bonds to unite with her spirit. (Manil Suri)
When people talk about reading classical literature, they often talk about it as if it were a kind of cultural passport, a document you must get stamped with Dickens, Austen, the Brontës and Hardy before you’re allowed to pass through the gates of polite society. Admit that you haven’t read Bleak House or that you stalled halfway through Jane Eyre, and you can watch their expressions shift from surprise to a faint, pitying amusement.Yet the same people who treat nineteenth-century fiction as a universal benchmark will, without hesitation, dismiss the great scientific works of the same era as unreadable, irrelevant or impossibly dense. They will recoil at the idea of opening Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle or The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, even though these books were written for general readers and sold in their thousands to ordinary Victorians who had less scientific training than most of us today. (James Williams)
Deborah Lutz’s new biography of Emily Brontë — the first such work in over two decades — offers a considerably more nuanced portrait of this individual woman and idiosyncratic writer. Bronte is in good hands: Lutz, an English professor at Penn State University, excelled with her innovative 2015 book, The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects. Now, with This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, A Life, Lutz has sharpened her gaze and drawn on previously unavailable manuscripts and notebooks to produce what is arguably the most comprehensive study to date of the enigmatic author of Wuthering Heights. [...]Some of Lutz’s standout chapters are on Wuthering Heights. [...]This Dark Night will appeal to all sorts, from the Brontë lay reader to the Brontë aficionado. It should be required reading for those who cast doubt on Brontë’s genius after having only experienced (or endured) Emerald Fennell’s recent overwrought and underwhelming film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, a textbook example of style over substance. Along with her analysis of Bronté’s “weird, witchy” masterpiece, Lutz provides insight into her mesmerizing poetry. At regular junctures, she reveals how Brontë’s life informed her art. The loss of her mother at a young age engendered a question that Brontë would grapple with throughout her career: “Where did life end and death begin?”Lutz makes clear at the outset that certain chapters of Brontë’s story remain a mystery. At the age of 16, she got into trouble. About this incident, Lutz speculates that she may have become romantically entangled with a young man, “or a young woman.” Most of Brontë’s papers were lost, possibly destroyed, after her death, which prompts Lutz to wonder if she had started a second novel and stashed this unfinished work behind a wall panel in the parsonage or even secreted it out on the moors.Despite the gaps, Lutz utilizes a range of sources to convincingly flesh her subject out. We come away from this riveting biography with the awareness that a prodigious talent was snuffed out prematurely. We might wince as certain traits and themes are described as “Emilian,” but otherwise it is hard not to be captivated by the Brontë that emerges. She may have been that “untameable spirit”: We see instances where she doesn’t suffer fools — or, in one jaw-dropping case, disobedient animals. But she was also fiercely intelligent, independent, principled, and driven. Martha, the Brontës’ servant, conceded she was “self-willed … but devoted and kind.” As a woman, she was out of step with her own time, but as a novelist, she was way ahead of it. (Malcolm Forbes)
On the Death of Anne BrontëBy Charlotte BrontëThere's little joy in life for me,And little terror in the grave;I 've lived the parting hour to seeOf one I would have died to save.Calmly to watch the failing breath,Wishing each sigh might be the last;Longing to see the shade of deathO'er those belovèd features cast.The cloud, the stillness that must partThe darling of my life from me;And then to thank God from my heart,To thank Him well and fervently;Although I knew that we had lostThe hope and glory of our life;And now, benighted, tempest-tossed,Must bear alone the weary strife.
A Charlotte Brontë biography is tipped for a prestigious international book award.The debut book by Graham Watson, titled The Invention of Charlotte Brontë, was shortlisted from more than 200 international titles.It is among only two UK nominees for the Plutarch Award, which recognises the best English-language biography of the past year.The award is judged by a panel of historians and biographers in the Biographers International Organisation.The book, which focuses on the last five years of Charlotte Brontë's life and the first Brontë biography, Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, has also been named a Book of the Year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.The biography has received high praise from reviews across the USA and was awarded the coveted Kirkus Reviews star for excellence. The New York Review of Books described the biography as "immersive", whilst the Wall Street Journal called it "a gripping testimony into the twists and turns, revelations and silences, and endless revisions by which literary legends endure".The Plutarch Award winner will be announced at the Biographers International Conference in New York City on May 29.Graham Watson said: "My book is the result of a life-long passion I’ve had for the Brontës and Yorkshire."Being nominated for such a prestigious award is an incredible honour." (Harry Williams)
Classic literary heroines are having a moment. With Margot Robbie starring as Cathy in February’s much-talked-about Wuthering Heights adaptation, Emma Corrin taking on the role of Lizzie Bennett in Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice series, Daisy Edgar-Jones headlining a new Sense and Sensibility flick out this fall, and Aimee Lou Wood starring as Jane Eyre in a television adaptation of the novel, the classics — particularly those written by women — are no longer solely the domain of high school English syllabuses and libraries. Even the hosts of the New York Times podcast The Book Review declared their resolution to read more classics this year, rather than dedicating their reading time to new releases. [...]Hot take? The popularity of romantasy books — set in a fantastical world, where a love story is central to the plot — including such blockbusters as Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses and Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing, has something to do with it. It might seem like the two genres couldn’t be more different, but romantasy has trained us, for one, to root for the morally gray hero. In the classics, that might look like Heathcliff imprisoning a young woman in his home in a fit of selfish passion. What’s more, Wuthering Heights is the epitome of a story centered around the fated mates trope, where two people are destined to be together because of a bond that defies even the finality of death, a trope revitalized by the romantasy genre. [...]In The Chateau on Sunset, readers can live vicariously through Aria, the Jane Eyre character, who sets fire to the Hollywood casting couch, igniting an inferno that burns down all Weinstein-like men in its path. If only!Romantasy novels have reminded us how much we love fierce heroines. Yes, there are strong women to be found in other genres, but fierceness is different — fierceness is strength buttressed by wild fury, and it’s almost compulsory in the romantic-fantasy mash-ups crafted by the likes of Maas and Yarros. The women in both Austen’s and the Brontë sisters’ classic novels don’t swoop into battle on the back of a dragon with a knife in hand as they do in Yarros’s stories; instead, they use their ferocious voices when it matters most. Who can forget Lizzie Bennett telling Darcy that he’s the “last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry”? Who didn’t cheer aloud at the bravery it took for her to do that at a time when women were supposed to just nod and say yes?And what about poor, penniless Jane Eyre, in an era when feminism was at least a century away from gaining any traction, declaring to Rochester that she was his equal, that “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me”? Who didn’t love the unapologetic, almost relentless, ambition of Kat Shaw in Fargo’s novel The Favorites? Haven’t we all wanted to declare our independence or our dislike of a man in our past, or to chase after what we desire without being made to feel unwomanly?All these books could only have been written by women because only a woman can understand the fierce desire in our hearts to speak up, to take action, to stop apologizing. The power in these novels and screen adaptations is all woman, and we’re here for it.So, for those who think the resurgence in interest in the classics is simply because, in their known plotlines and characters, we find comfort and familiarity, I say: that’s not the whole story. These new adaptations offer us access to fantasy, and who doesn’t want to escape from this world and into another realm from time to time? They remind us to speak out. And they also show us that we can dream and we can hope — and, more importantly, if we use our own ferocious voices, we have the power to make our dreams and our hopes come true.
With all that said, it’s hard to imagine an easier ‘yes’ than when Willis was approached to complete a trilogy of Fennell collaborations for one of 2026’s biggest films thus far, Wuthering Heights. It sees him scoring another Elordi performance, who takes on the timeless Heathcliff character from the beloved Emily Brontë novel, with extra star power coming from Margot Robbie.Little surprise that Willis says, “I was so thrilled to come back. Emerald was gracious that she wanted to bring a lot of the team from Saltburn back. Margot Robbie had been a producer on Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, but this time, her coming to star in it was really exciting. I was determined to go to the Wuthering Heights set to start that creative process and get an eye for what Emerald was thinking. I went over when they were filming the downstairs scenes for Thrushcross Grange. Really, it was the sorrow and the sadness that the early conversations about the music wanted to capture. The kissing montage sequence is absolutely gorgeous; the first version was about six or seven minutes long.”As with Saltburn, Willis went for a very elegant, classical sound in this film that also has a fragile sheen of opulence, with the true intent being on the darkness and emotional toil bubbling beneath it. One of his standout cues is Isabella’s Dollhouse, in which he uses a felted piano that sounds almost like a toy, amidst gorgeous swells of flutes, harp, and strings.“You could almost say it’s a kind of prepared piano, because we would put different things into it to change the tone. Gavin Greenaway came and played that for us. We also use that same sound in the more emotional piano cues, almost like a folk piano, because you’re muting the typical resonances you might hear in a modern upright. It gives it some history, some character, and some age. It takes out the clean part and gives it that folk element. The doll’s house is how Cathy wants to be seen; all dressed up with frills and lace. But tracks like Again and Again, You’re Not Enough for Her, and Be With Me Always have that folk piano tune that represents Cathy’s true heart and her soul.”Music formed a significant part of the film’s marketing campaign; as well as Willis writing the full orchestral score, a certain person behind the Brat Summer phenomenon also released a new album of songs for, and inspired by, the movie. Charli XCX played a key part in the hype machine, releasing the first single House featuring John Cale of the Velvet Underground, ahead of Wuthering Heights hitting cinemas. The film’s main trailer prominently used the ‘Fall in love again and again’ refrain from Everything is romantic, one of many behemoth tracks from her ultra-successful record Brat.“Charli made an incredible album for this film as a companion experience. I’ve loved her music as long as I’ve known about it, and I really think this is her most interesting work. Her producer, Finn Keane, did a great job. What Finn and I both latched onto early on was the relationship of placing strings near the bridge — sul ponticello. You get this overtone that lives in a sweet spot between being dark and ethereal. It’s both enticing and a little bleak. Especially for Cathy and Heathcliff, that’s what their relationship is: is it desperately sad, or is it actually beautiful? That was where Emerald wanted to live for a lot of the music, and it became the bridge between the Charli album and the score.”As he travelled between the Yorkshire Dales filming locations and back to London to work, Willis curated a minimalist set-up with the power to create a film score on the go. He says, “I was able to work on this film with one rig that I could take back and forth to London and have in the edit, thanks to the power of the new chips in the MacBook Pro. I use Vienna Ensemble Pro, Logic, and a lot of Cinematic Studio Strings. I also use Spitfire libraries and the Una Corda sample from Native Instruments, which was useful for the original version of the music box piano. I loved working with the LCO (London Contemporary Orchestra) in London and the incredible team at AIR Studios. While I have a lot of tools to help me write, the score itself really comes to life in the final chapter when we go into the recording sessions.“It’s a nerve-wracking thing because you’ve been living with this sample-based music, and then you replace 98 per cent of it sonically in a single week. I get very involved with that process. Emerald and I chose the takes in the recording together. I’d play her an edit of the recording before we mix it so that she’s on board and feels it captures the way she felt during the recording session. It takes a lot of people to put these scores together; it really is a huge job.” (Adam Protz)
Kinship is likewise revealed in other documents on view: A letter from Charlotte Brontë to her most frequent correspondent, Ellen Nussey, demonstrates their bond. . . (Hannah Benson)
One of my favorite episodes is The Other Brontë Girl: Anne Bronte's Tenant of Wildfell Hall from February 24, 2025. The hosts tell us: "With all the fuss and fanfare around Wuthering Heights, we’re worried Emily Bronte is getting more than her fair share of attention. So today we shift the SLOB-light to her younger sister Anne, author of the remarkable The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, published in 1848. Anne wrote it in a whirlwind after the successes of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, determined to prove herself a Bronte in talent and spirit.The hosts continue: "And though Anne is now the least celebrated of the Brontë trio, Tenant at the time of its publication, it was considered the most shocking in the Brontë collective oeuvre. Anne had fearlessly pulled back the veil on marital infidelity, domestic violence, alcoholism, and the systemic torments of Victorian masculinity and marriage laws." (Frank Racioppi)
In the latest Hollywood adaptation of “‘Wuthering Heights,’” Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are tortured soulmates, the moors are wide and barren, everyone is brooding, and the story is reduced to sex, violence, and revenge. The critical points about class, racial otherness, inheritance, and generational destruction Emily Brontë made in her 1847 novel are pushed aside to create a gothic romance film for a date night.Lately, Hollywood’s approach to classic literature feels less like reinterpretation and more like reduction. From “‘Wuthering Heights’” to “Frankenstein” to “Animal Farm,” film studios keep coming back to classic literature, and in theory, this should be a good thing. Adaptations can reintroduce older pieces of literature to new audiences and expand on the themes that remain prevalent in society today.But this doesn’t always seem to work in practice. Hollywood’s problem is using the ethos of classic literature without doing the work of actually engaging with its content. Adaptations don’t need to transcribe the original text, but they do need to understand what the original source material is actually doing to faithfully interpret it. [...]In recent adaptations, studios rely too much on the marketability of recognizable names, characters, and titles. Instead of considering why the book is important, producers often focus on the parts of the book that can sell the fastest, which is how a complicated, nuanced novel is reduced to a gothic romance with elaborate costumes.Emerald Fennell’s “‘Wuthering Heights’” demonstrates how easily this flattening can happen. Fennell described how the novel captivated her when she was 14 years old and how she wanted her adaptation to capture the “primal and sexual” feelings she had when she first read it. But when an adaptation is based on a first impression instead of a deeper reading, it runs the risk of presenting an inaccurate version of the original text.Devin Garofalo, a professor in UCSD’s literature department, explained in an interview with The Guardian that Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is not just a romance; it is about “the horror of romance.” Treating violence as passion due to a teenager’s misreading of a novel is what Brontë was critiquing in the first place. [...]In other words, bad adaptations don’t just make audiences misunderstand a book — they can make audiences misunderstand history as a whole. They offer what Garofalo called an “amnesic account of the past”: one that airbrushes historical violence from a present-day vantage point and makes the past seem distant and decorative. Classic literature matters because, as Lu explained, the past is always “infiltrating the present.” These texts help readers understand the current world by showing how language can be manipulated, how class and race shape relationships, how violence gets justified, and how these old systems of power still shape the present. When Hollywood trims these texts down to their most marketable hook, it undermines the reason why these stories mattered in the first place.Hollywood does this because these hooks are easier to sell and produce than a complicated, uncomfortable argument. Sex sells. Jacob Elordi sells. Topical references sell. But a serious critique of power, class, race, and gender? Those are often much harder to package and convince viewers to watch.And that’s where the problem becomes bigger than just the adaptation. Lu described how adaptation debates often focus too much on whether a film is a good or bad rendition of the original source. But the better question, she argues, is: “What does it say about us that this is the adaptation?”The answer is not flattering. These recent adaptations suggest that Hollywood thinks audiences want classics in their easiest, most comfortable versions: recognizable enough to market but not complicated or nuanced enough to encourage thought. They keep the title, the aesthetic, and the basic premise while watering down the harder ideas about power, class, race and violence that made these books important in the first place.When Hollywood strips that away, it isn’t keeping the classics alive: It’s just turning them into marketable content. Brontë is probably rolling over in her grave — because if this is Hollywood’s idea of preserving literature, the classics were better off on the shelf. (Anu Venkatesh)
Fans of Outlander will recognize familiar elements immediately: a passionate romance, gothic atmosphere, and a fiercely independent heroine. Jane Eyre even contains a subtle supernatural element: Jane and Rochester’s bond, despite being at times problematic and tragic, is tightly woven by a mysterious power–typical of gothic novels–difficult to detect, but impossible to ignore.Jane’s unwavering emotional and moral equality in her relationships feels very modern and close to Claire’s worldview. Both women are passionate, loyal, steadfast in their beliefs, and possess an inner strength that makes them remarkable. If you empathize with Claire, you almost certainly will love Jane, one of literature’s great heroines. (Noelle Mazzoni)
The show is set at the world's first ever Jane Eyre Convention, where we find a group of slightly neurotic Bronte-aficinados gathered to reenact scenes from their favourite novel.As the group share their passion for all things Jane Eyre, they squabble and fight over the best bits, and conflict over authentic interpretations; also experiencing real emotions as they follow the character of Jane on her journey, including wailing running across the moors! More memorable scenes from the book are relived, as the group attempt to rescue shackled Bertha from the attic. (...)Jane Eyre Convention is performing June 9-13 at The Bread and Roses Theatre, Clapham and will have another engagement from July 24-25 at the Hope Theatre, Islington. Tickets are available to purchase online from venue websites or box offices. (Marissa Faith Curley)
AnneBrontë.org posts about Anne's Last Journey to York.
English author Emily Brontë is best known for her novel “Wuthering Heights,” a multigenerational story of obsession, revenge and love set in the Yorkshire moors. “This Dark Night,” the first full-length biography of Brontë in over 20 years and written by Penn State Professor of English Deborah Lutz, draws on Brontë’s formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts to bring new light to the author’s tragic and fiercely independent life.Lutz, the George and Barbara Kelly Professor in Nineteenth-Century English and American Literature, discussed in the following Q&A her new biography of Brontë and why readers still obsess over her novel nearly 200 years later.Q: Who was Emily Brontë?Lutz: Brontë grew up in a family of writers, and she collaborated with her siblings on all of her work. Both “Wuthering Heights” and her sister Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre” grew out of this shared writing space. While she composed her great, gothic novel, with its gloomy passions, she did chores around the house — sewing her own clothing, making bread and cleaning the parlor. In “This Dark Night,” I evoke her as an embodied self; I ask, what was it like to be in a woman’s body in 1830s and 1840s West Yorkshire? What were the sounds, smells, the feelings along the skin?Q: Why continue to study her almost 200 years after her death?Lutz: New lovers of her novel “Wuthering Heights” appear every day, it seems! And so much new research over the past 30 years changes the way we see her. She knew queer people, like Anne Lister — called Gentleman Jack and recently was the subject of her own HBO series — a local lesbian. And the character Heathcliff was likely based on a person of color, possibly the child of an enslaved person passing through Liverpool — a major stop for ships involved in the slave trade. When he first arrives in the novel, after being found on the streets of Liverpool, he is speaking a foreign language and is described as “black,” a “gypsy” and with the appearance of an Indian sailor. Brontë also witnessed the beginnings of the climate crisis. Textile mills and mining in her area polluted the air and streams, and some of the birds she so loved were going extinct.Q: What new insights did you discover in your research? Any surprises?Lutz: I was surprised at how much she revised “Wuthering Heights,” since it’s easy to imagine it coming from her fully formed. But it went through distinct versions, and she really labored over it.But also how quickly she wrote it! She finished it in about two years. And then, after her death, Charlotte revised it again, when it was reprinted. Charlotte had always been ashamed of the novel, finding it coarse, violent and immature. She made it more conventional by stringing together short paragraphs and smoothing out the local speech. This seemed like a real betrayal of her sister, given that Emily had her own eccentric voice and Charlotte tried to tame it.Q: The new “Wuthering Heights” movie starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi recently hit streaming. Any thoughts about the film or why we keep returning to it two centuries later?Lutz: The new film is a visual feast and the costumes and interiors are amazing. It seemed a shame, though, that only about 5% of the dialogue comes from the novel. The novel is mainly oral — it's a tale full of people talking to one another — so it’s a missed opportunity to ignore most of Brontë’s text. It was also a shame to have Heathcliff played by a white actor. It’s fairly unusual for a great Victorian novel to have a major character who is a person of color, and I think today filmmakers should run with that. (Francisco Tutella)
Speaking to Sandgren first, he detailed the creative process behind the film’s visual language, the use of weather as an emotional tool, and the technical decision to shoot on VistaVision and Sandgren details the creative process behind the film’s visual language, the use of weather as an emotional tool, and the technical decision to shoot on VistaVision and 35mm film.When asked about Fennell’s approach to the film, Sandgren stated, “We were about to design a film from scratch from her sort of mind… everything—and you will talk maybe with Suzie about it—but how she built sets just from a fantasy version of how she basically saw it.”With the movie notably shot on film, that choice also had a key reason. Sandgren explained it, “Emerald really felt that the grain was needed for the emotional story… in my opinion, 16 millimeter is the most poetic emotional of all of those usually because… there’s some nostalgia or something that is helping you feel the texture of the skin.”Of course, with this film, Sandgren had to work with VistaVision cameras. For that format, as he stated, “What’s good with VistaVision for us was that we could have the same film stock and the same format and then just have a VistaVision camera. To me, like everything you—every decision you make should have a reason… usually in emotional stories I think it always helps with film so far… to create that sort of—that you’re actually watching an impression of reality and not reality.”Sandgren had plenty more to say about the production, including how the film’s visual style was built around “heightened realism,” using a stage-bound environment to create a “magical” and “surreal” atmosphere. Key emotional beats were emphasized through weather motifs. Production designer Susie Davies further expanded this. For Davies, the key was the process of building the film’s “heightened, surreal” world on a soundstage, her meticulous approach to designing the contrasting environments of the Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and the close-knit collaboration between herself, the cinematographer, and the set decorator.Again, commenting on that “heightened realism,” Davies noted, “We were aiming for that sliver between reality and unreality. And when you’re on a soundstage, we aimed to make it feel real. We didn’t want anyone really to know, but ultimately… You end up with this weird sliver between reality and unreality.”Davies also recognized that this was something Fennell had wanted to do since her younger days. With that in mind, “This whole world building, you know, this teenage lens that we were going to show this story through, bringing to life her imagination was extraordinary.”As a great way to set things up for production designer Charlotte Dirickx, Davies talks about this continued collaboration. As she states, “She’s a real perfectionist, whereas I might cut corners for speed. She knows when to hold fast or, you know, her wealth of knowledge is like nothing else… yeah, she’s extraordinary and so talented with her eye.”For Dirckix, the experience did have its challenges. As she states, “The production involved highly unusual props and set details, spanning from real fish accented with lipstick set in resin jellies to massive fake strawberries crafted from cake. For the outdoor sets, the team referenced the stagey atmosphere of Florence Yoch’s gardens from Gone with the Wind and Fragonard’s painting The Swing, adding 12-foot weaves of dried gypsophila to construct a dreamlike background.This also spoke to the anachronistic take that was key to Fennell’s vision. “…We would take like a period shape, say for the furniture, but then upholster it in a kind of different or more modern fabric. So you’ve always got that slight jarring going on.”It’s this wide variety of choices that allows for the movie to stand out as much as it did in theaters. I was quite the fan and would have been happy spending so much more time with each of these three to dive even further into what the process of making so many exciting choices to realize this fully realized version of the world, originating with Emily Brontë and reimagined here by Fennell, was like. Given that all of these craftspeople worked on Saltburn as well, I’ll certainly be curious to see what they all tackle next. (Aaron Neuwirth)
I finally caught the latest film adaptation of Wuthering Heights last week and even though I knew it had been divisive I was still disappointed in a way I hadn’t imagined. I was prepared for the film to be tacky and over the top and too much, and that didn’t faze me at all. I welcomed it. The source material demands it, in fact. But I cannot forgive the fact that in the 2026 version of Wuthering Heights there is absolutely no haunting.What is Wuthering Heights without ghosts? It becomes a mildly sordid tale of the romance between two very beautiful people that ends when one of them dies, and it also makes Kate Bush’s song of the same name make no sense at all. A non-Gothic Wuthering Heights is a particularly odd choice because I’d assumed the auteur Emerald Fennell would have jumped at the chance to explore Heathcliff’s despair for dead Cathy throughout his troubled life and use his pain as an opportunity to get really weird. I still can’t believe Saltburn is still the only Emerald Fennell film with a very dirty graveside wanking scene.Ending Wuthering Heights at Cathy’s death is like ending The Great Gatsby after the big party, or ending The Secret History at the bacchanal. There is so much more that happens afterward—and it’s the uglier, messier parts that make great fiction great. As it stands the latest movie version is simply too pretty, with all of its rougher edges flattened out. I suppose I should have expected this, given that the role of Catherine is played by Barbie herself (Margot Robbie), after all.Fennell’s film is just one example of a phenomenon adjacent to whitewashing in film that I’ll call hot-washing. There’s nothing new about Hollywood adaptations featuring profoundly good-looking people, but film stars used to be made to look a bit more… regular, particularly before plastic surgery made the faces of so many A-list actresses look eerily similar.Hot-washing is when source material that’s complicated has its edges smoothed out by the casting of conventionally hot people who are made to look conventionally hot in a way that clashes with the source material, and it’s ruining a bunch of recent literary adaptations whose characters are meant to seem a little more real. Imagine if Bridget Jones’s Diary were remade in 2026 with Sydney Sweeney as the title character. (Maris Kreizman)
A contributor to Los Angeles Times writes about her 'bucket-list trip to Yorkshire'.This film is everything the book is not. It doesn’t adapt the novel so much as it uses it almost loosely as a starting point, and then turns the entire material upside down. Emily Brontë never imagined that her Cathy would be played by a Barbie-era actress, with a Charli XCX score blaring in the background, accompanied by an Australian Heathcliff and a boudoir-esque Isabella. In fact, there is reason to speculate that she would not be fond of any of these twists of events. Naturally, fans of her work aren’t either.The biggest disconnect comes from how the film markets itself: “the greatest love story ever told”. Yet, that’s never what the original story was. “Wuthering Heights” is not a romance in the traditional sense. It’s a cautionary tale about obsessive love, cycles of abuse, domination, vengeance, and the way toxicity echoes across generations. It’s about how that kind of love doesn’t just destroy the people involved, but everyone around them as well. The only sense of peace comes when those patterns are finally partially broken.Catherine and Heathcliff are often mistaken for the ultimate romantic ideal, but their connection is rooted in possession, mutual destruction, and something almost brutally confusing. It’s about the faint possibility of redemption through the next generation. The novel focuses on class difference, racism and discrimination, and deteriorating mental health. It never romanticises the eventual psychosis.However, the movie barely explores these dynamics. Instead, it leans heavily into the intensity that comes with yearning. And yes, there is a lot of it, particularly crafted for the female gaze.I would actually argue that there is too much of it. The cast is perfectly capable of adapting their lines, but on screen, their chemistry is reduced to just playing dialogue. It pushes a narrative of forbidden love that is absent because of the plot lines that the movie doesn’t adapt.There is an interesting, unexpected positive note, though, which is the visuals. The direction is unapologetically bold. Emerald Fennell rejects the muted minimalism that a lot of modern films lean into and instead embraces a loud, saturated, and almost overwhelming aesthetic. The use of colour is striking: Cathy’s skin against her crimson outfits that represent her inner turmoil, the deliberate clashing tones, and the heightened tone of the palette that turns every frame into something picturesque.There isn’t a single scene or outfit that wasn’t carefully placed or thought out. The film uses vast, evocative backdrops to conjure a kind of sentimentality that feels aptly grand. A few instances that come to mind are the colder scenery changes during the lowest pivots, as well as Cathy’s room, which resembles the veins beneath our skin. The latter, in particular, perfectly articulates her eventual descent. Even the stylistic choices, like the almost anachronistic elements and the unexpected costume influences, add to the film’s identity, allowing it to go beyond the boundaries of traditional period drama.At times, it feels like the film is more interested in being seen than being understood and strangely, that’s where it succeeds the most. Even when the narrative falters, the imagery carries it. You could honestly watch this film purely for its cinematography and walk away satisfied.“Wuthering Heights”— intentionally titled with quotation marks—exists here as more of an idea than an adaptation. A reinterpretation, a reimagining that prioritises emotion, aesthetics, and atmosphere over fidelity. Emerald Fennel said her goal was to capture the experience of a teenage girl reading a romance book for the first time. She clarified several times that she has no intention of adapting the book but rather depicting her own interpretation of it. Watching the movie with that in mind might leave less shock and bitterness, and could even satisfy a cinephile who prefers the visuals. (Tinath Zaeba)
Brontë CountryIt is difficult to imagine a fictional tale more gothic, inspirational and remarkable than that of three brilliant sisters who lived in relative isolation on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, secretly battling their socially conscripted futures by writing poems and novels that they dared not publish under their own names.Two of those novels — ”Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, are still considered masterworks, influencing subsequent generations and endlessly adapted for film and television. (In the ultimate Yorkshire crossover, Wainwright wrote the breathtaking two-part Brontë biopic “To Walk Invisible,” which everyone should see.)The Brontë Parsonage Museum, and the town of Haworth which it overlooks, is very much a tourist attraction. An information annex, gift shop and public restroom have been added behind it, but once you enter the small garden that stands between the parsonage’s front door and St. Michael and All Angels’ Church, you are in another world.In 1820, Patrick Brontë, recently appointed incumbent of St. Michael, moved his wife, Maria, and their six children into the parsonage where they all lived for the rest of their natural (albeit in most cases, short) lives. Maria died in 1821; the two older children, Maria and Elizabeth, died four years later after being sent to a typhoid-plagued school Charlotte would pillory as Lowood in “Jane Eyre.”The museum is meticulously restored to reflect the years that the surviving children — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, the only son — were young adults. The dining room table, where the sisters wrote, is strewn with manuscripts, quill pens and tea cups; a bonnet and shawl bedeck a chair in the small kitchen. Patrick had his own study but it is difficult to imagine three women being able to write separate works, never mind classics, in such close quarters. Ironically, only Branwell’s room, papered with sketches and poems, looks like an artist’s refuge.Unlike his three sisters, Branwell, his artistic career stunted by alcoholism and an opium addiction, never published. He died of tuberculosis in 1848 at 31.If any place should be haunted, it is the Brontë parsonage. Shortly after Branwell’s funeral (and just a year after “Wuthering Heights” was published), 30-year-old Emily also died of tuberculosis, expiring on the sofa that stands beside the dining room table. A few months later, after the publication of her second novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Anne, 29, succumbed to the disease in nearby Scarborough, just south of Whitby.Charlotte, who wrote two more novels after “Jane Eyre,” was the only sister to be celebrated during her lifetime. She married and then died at the parsonage in 1855 at 38 of complications from her first pregnancy. Only Patrick lived to old age — 84 — dying in 1861 in the home where he had served for 41 years.But it is not a sad house; instead visitors are left to wonder at the genius, resolution and audacity that roiled the quiet rooms and halls where the sisters secretly wrote and sent out their manuscripts, all initially under the the names of Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.The steeply descending main street of Haworth is filled with tea shops, pubs and stores clearly dedicated to pleasing Brontë pilgrims, but its basic form, including the original stationery store where the sisters once bought their paper, remains the same.As do the moors that stretch behind the parsonage. On a walk to the Brontë Waterfall (more like a small but still lovely rill) and Top Withens, the ruin of a 16th century farmhouse believed to have inspired “Wuthering Heights,” the wild silence and sweeping vistas are even more transporting than the parsonage. One imagines not the ghost of Cathy or Heathcliff, but a trio of women, very much alive and striding through the heather, their minds alight with the stories they would tell, set among similar terrain. (Mary McNamara)
Unless explicitly said
