It has been a busy year for Emily Brontë’s admirers, with Deborah Lutz’s new biography This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, a Life appearing alongside a rather different sort of Brontë revival on-screen. Though Brontë has never lacked interpreters, she presents them with a special problem: there is so very little to recover of her life and so very much that has been made of what remains. Brontë began writing Wuthering Heights (1847) at 27 and died three years later, having produced no other novel. The disproportion between the brevity of her life and the scale of that great, unfathomable work has made her one of literature’s most beguiling apparitions.Emily Dickinson called Wuthering Heights “electric” and its author “gigantic,” requesting that Brontë’s 1846 poem “No Coward Soul Is Mine” be read at her funeral. Virginia Woolf, too, treated Brontë as a writer of almost supernatural force. The mystique surrounding the latter extends beyond her writing to her person, earning her the dubious honor of “patron saint of difficult women.” Lutz’s new biography attempts to bring the reality of Emily Brontë into view without quite dimming that mythical shine, a tricky needle to thread and one she executes admirably.Lutz fleshes out the author’s life through manuscripts, marginalia, drawings, and diaries, building her chapters around a chronology of Brontë family life and crowning each with an epigraph from Emily Brontë’s poems. Lutz’s is a tactile approach, in keeping with her previous work The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects (2015). She gives us Brontë in all her strangeness, appearing mostly uninterested in turning her subject into a proto-anything: “Above all,” she declares, “I treat Emily Brontë as a masterful writer […] a consummate artist who developed her genius quickly.” Lutz accepts that Brontë emerges in her pages as a “mythic figure” but hopes that readers will also glimpse her “sewing, peeling potatoes, sitting at an open window, and picking up her pencil.” [...]The biography, inevitably, is a family portrait. There is a tendency in popular accounts of Emily and Charlotte to cast the sisters as opposites: Charlotte practical and conventional, intent on taming Emily’s wild genius or otherwise standing in for the ordinary world against which she rebelled. Lutz occasionally invokes this contrast but for the most part offers a useful corrective. The Brontë children, seen from another angle, were more alike than not: they shared literary ambitions, reading habits, imaginary worlds, and an almost unimaginable work ethic. And they shared a lifelong habit of returning always to their childhood. [...]That Wuthering Heights has become synonymous with epic romance is a strange quirk of literary history. Dante Gabriel Rossetti came close to the truth when he labeled it “a fiend of a book—an incredible monster,” musing that “the action is laid in Hell—only it seems places & people have English names there.” Charlotte seemed unnerved by the novel’s raw power. She performed a canny act of PR in her preface to its later editions, seeking to account for the sheer amorality of the work: “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is,” she concedes. “But this I know: the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master—something that, at times, strangely wills and works for itself.” Charlotte goes on to mythologize her late sister, who had died of tuberculosis almost exactly a year after the book’s publication, as a kind of noble savage not entirely in control of her own artistic daemon: “Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, [Emily’s] nature stood alone.”It is easy to see why one might wish to distance oneself from the novel. Wuthering Heights is not a love story in any conventional sense. Cathy and Heathcliff are not star-crossed lovers so much as twin souls locked in spiritual warfare, seeking almost to annihilate themselves in a bid for impossible unity. (Recall Cathy’s famous line, “I am Heathcliff!”) Their passion is quasi-religious, existing outside of ordinary time and flesh, defying death; explicit sex barely features in the novel. Elizabeth Hardwick dubbed it “a virgin’s story” for its spectral and not-entirely-of-this-world quality.The novel’s baffling singularity—its frankly unchristian sensibility—left many of its early readers at a loss. The Spectator called it “coarse,” while it was deemed “too gloomy, savage, and eccentric” by other critics. “How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery” pronounced Graham’s Magazine. A reviewer for Britannia, in contrast, commended the novel’s “considerable power” and “savage grandeur.” These reviews were later found in Emily’s desk, evidence that she had read them, though what she made of the judgments is another matter. [...]Biography usually promises to demystify its subjects, but Lutz shows how contexts can accumulate around a mysterious figure without quite explaining her subject away. We can learn what Emily Brontë read, where she walked, and which animals she loved; we can reconstruct with cautious confidence the world from which Wuthering Heights emerged. And yet the novel remains: no less strange for all we can know of its making, no less an “incredible monster” for all we now know of its maker. (Anna Ballan)
After that I had quite a long period of unemployment. I sat around and got impatient. Then I went back to Guildhall to be part of someone’s final‑year production. My agent wasn’t very pleased – he thought it was a bad look for a new actor to go back to university to work free of charge. I said, “Well, you’ve not got me anything. And I want to do something.” I was right because, to return the favour, the Guildhall told me about a director who was looking for people for their production of Jane Eyre. They said they’d make sure I got an audition. I got the part. That was the start of everything. (Harriet Gibsone)
A lifelong Brontë reader, I received the book eagerly, but did not take its editor’s words literally. Having read it, I realize she meant them that way. There are biographers desperate to know a life from the outside in and the inside out, and there are biographers aware that their subject is fundamentally unknowable. Lutz is the latter, and she works instead to produce a social and domestic history of those closest to Emily, a natural history of the West Yorkshire moors Brontë immortalized in Wuthering Heights, and a material history of Emily’s writing practice which, in the hands of Lutz’s meditative attention, approaches the mystical. “Expertise,” dry and academic, is the wrong word to characterize Lutz’s understanding of the Brontës. Victorianists tend to work exclusively with the established texts of their subjects, but Lutz spent several years immersed in Emily Brontë’s hand-written manuscripts (detailed photographs of these are included in the book) and inhabiting Brontë’s hometown of Haworth, West Yorkshire, and Brussels, where she studied alongside her older sister Charlotte at the Pensionnat Héger. Lutz pored over the local weather reports of Emily’s lifetime and learned the flora and fauna of the moors so integral to Brontë’s life and work (Emily could identify local birds by their song and kept a collection of their feathers she found on her daily walks). In This Dark Night, Lutz’s deep knowledge of Emily Brontë transcends biography and—appropriate for her subject, who wrote one of the most famous ghost stories in Western literature—approaches a haunting. (Emily Van Duyne)
Jane Eyre, the classic novel by acclaimed author Charlotte Brontë, has been beautifully reimagined by director Lily Dyble, as it tours across England, where it made its second stop at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, from 13th - 24th October 2026.What captured the imagination of its spellbound audience, was the accuracy to the timeless storyline, which is what makes it one of the most read novels of our age, whilst also portraying Jane in an incredibly genuine and down to earth way, which could perhaps be argued is missed by the countless movie adaptations of the book.When asked about her thoughts on the play, actress Aamira Challenger, who played both Grace Poole and Diana in this production, commented, "There are so many angles that a director could choose to explore and, in our production, director Lily Dyble wanted to highlight Jane’s capacity for emotion and self-determination. Jane has big feelings, strong will, and the tenacity to challenge the society she is within".Moreover, the staging and special effects utilised in the play, while at first appearing quite modern for such a classic, allow for thought-provoking ideas on dynamics between various characters, as well as showcasing Jane's internal struggle throughout the play. (Ava Sims)
Nella scrittura di Brontë, il paesaggio non accompagna i personaggi: li determina. Il vento, l’isolamento e la natura ostile costituiscono un’estensione delle loro contraddizioni. Evocare la brughiera non basta; occorrerebbe farne una presenza drammatica. Altrimenti lo Yorkshire diventa una cartolina piuttosto malinconica, con il vantaggio di non richiedere neppure un viaggio. Il limite maggiore dell’operazione rimane tuttavia l’incapacità di distinguere la passione dalla sua rappresentazione esteriore. Il tragico nasce dalla tensione fra ciò che viene espresso e ciò che resta impronunciabile. Quando ogni sentimento pretende immediatamente il proprio culmine, la progressione drammatica si annulla. Persino Wagner, che aveva una certa familiarità con gli amori impossibili, sapeva alternare il fortissimo al silenzio. Qui l’intensità rischia di diventare una condizione permanente, con il prevedibile risultato di non impressionare più nessuno. Cime tempestose richiederebbe una regia capace di interrogare l’ambiguità morale dei protagonisti, anziché illustrarne incessantemente le sofferenze. Brontë non aveva scritto un manuale di educazione sentimentale, ma un romanzo nel quale l’amore diventa una forma di sopraffazione. La differenza è sostanziale. Quando il tormento si trasforma in maniera e la crudeltà in convenzione melodrammatica, anche la più feroce delle passioni perde la propria capacità di inquietare. Heathcliff, in fondo, non ha bisogno di gridare per essere terribile. Gli basta esistere. Il resto è meteorologia. (Davide Oliviero) (Translation)
With its dramatic landscapes and links to the Brontë sisters, Haworth has long been a popular destination for tourists.But recently, the West Yorkshire village has been busier than ever, according to some residents and business owners, and is now attracting a new type of visitor - one brought in by how picturesque the place looks on social media, particularly during autumn.A quick search on platforms like TikTok or Instagram shows a whole host of content promoting Haworth as a must-visit this October.Posts also highlight the queues that can form outside shops, especially during the weekend. (...)Karen Roberts has worked at The Cabinet of Curiosities for nearly 20 years and says the shop has been especially busy this year."It suddenly started about six weeks ago to the point where we've had queues outside every weekend waiting to come in," she says."This week, with it being half-term, we've literally had people outside every day."An old-fashioned shop front with large windows showing a Halloween display, with pumpkins and autumn leaves. A queue of people can be seen standing outside the door.Although the business previously had a social media presence, she thinks the reason it "all blew up like this" is due to the sheer amount of people posting independently about the shop, and the village, on their own accounts."We've always let people film, we've never had a problem with that, but definitely people are asking me now, can they come in and film?," she explains."Then they share it, and every day you turn on Facebook and you go, 'oh my God, there is more'."Many customers know about the connection to the Brontë family, and the parsonage where they lived is now a museum.Emerald Fennell's 2026 adaption of Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, also sparked an interest in Brontë country. (...)Enjoying a day off work, Ella and Brian Thomas travelled from Greater Manchester to visit Haworth, inspired by a friend's Instagram post."With Wuthering Heights coming out, I think a lot of people have been seeing it on TikTok and making videos, so it was me who suggested to come here," Ella says.The couple wanted to find somewhere "nice and autumnal" for a walk, and say they've previously visited York and Edinburgh for a "similar vibe"."I knew it was the home of the Brontës, but I didn't know much more of the history than that," Brian explains. (Fiona Callow)
Haworth has been hailed as one of Britain's prettiest villages, drawing visitors with 70 independent shops, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and stunning autumn countryside walks to the Brontë Waterfall. (...)Haworth is inextricably linked with literary heritage, having been home to the Brontë sisters, whose celebrated works including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have left an indelible mark on English literature. The village is currently adorned in its autumnal finery, though visitors keen to soak up its seasonal splendour are fast running out of time. (Jamie Barlow and Alycia McNamara)
Wandering through the Birthplace, one can imagine the young Brontës scurrying around, conjuring up stories. Their move to Haworth, then a poverty-stricken town on the edge of the moors, helped to inspire some of the greatest works in literature – but also brought huge tragedy as death and disease destroyed the family. So it’s no wonder their father, Patrick, always associated Thornton with joy.The recent paranormal occurrences may be a figment of people’s overactive imaginations – a trait abundant in the magnificent Brontë brains. But perhaps the property’s ambitious restoration has inadvertently disturbed the spirits of the country’s most famous literary dynasty, desperate to return to the place where they were happiest and where the spark of genius was first lit. (Lisa Byrne)
Well, if you know us for some time, you probably know what we think about all this hogwash. It makes for some nice nonsense laughs, but the moment people take it too seriously, we don't play the game. Sorry. No.
Indeed, Janusz Majewski’s 1970 classic Lokis is widely credited as Poland’s first color horror film and a cornerstone of Polish genre cinema after World War II. (...)In a Jane Eyre-esque scenario, the Count’s mother (Zofia Mrozowska) has been locked away for decades, having suffered a mental breakdown after being mauled by a bear on her wedding night. (Maria Kamińska)
La nueva Cumbres borrascosas ha transformado la novela de Emily Brontë en una fantasía gótica-pop de vestuario deliberadamente anacrónico, erotismo exacerbado y banda sonora de Charli xcx. Ya no se trata únicamente de encontrar nuevas lecturas de los clásicos, sino de remodelarlos abiertamente según los códigos estéticos y emocionales del presente. (Carlos Jonic) (Translation)
En prêtant sa voix à Antoinette, enfermée et présentée pour folle dans "Jane Eyre" de Charlotte Brontë, Lilia Hassaine signe avec "JE" un roman subtil, sombre et contemporain. (...)Quelle est la genèse de "JE" ?C'est suite à une situation vécue que j'ai repensé à ce personnage féminin et que j'ai relu le livre parce que je me suis demandé pourquoi elle se rappelait à mon bon souvenir. Je me suis rendu compte des correspondances et des liens qui m'attachaient à elle. (...)Et pour faire du personnage d'Antoinette la porte d'entrée pour évoquer ces drames dont sont toujours victimes les femmes et de montrer que, finalement aujourd'hui, rien n'a vraiment changé ?Effectivement, ça existe encore aujourd'hui. Il y a des choses qui ont évolué, mais encore une fois, dans la mécanique, dans ce système d'horlogerie qui permet de mettre une femme sous cloche, il y a des mécanismes communs. Comment s'y prend-on pour isoler une femme ? Je voulais vraiment comprendre comment on s'y prenait de manière très concrète.Vous avez eu l'occasion de répéter à plusieurs reprises que vous détestiez les appellations "pervers narcissique" et "emprise" pour décrire ces mécanismes. Pourquoi ?Parce que la littérature n'a rien à faire avec ces mots et ces concepts. On n'a pas besoin de mettre une étiquette. En littérature, je trouve qu'ils n'ont pas nécessairement leur place. Cet homme, Rochester, c'est un manipulateur, un homme dangereux et un minable. C'est pour cela que la littérature est utile. Elle universalise. Quand on se rend compte à quel point c'est banal, on se rend compte aussi à quel point c'est grave, paradoxalement. Ce n'est pas parce que ça ne touche qu'une personne que c'est plus grave. C'est précisément parce que ça se reproduit, parce qu'il y a tout un système qui rend ça possible, que c'est très grave. (Philippe Manche) (Translation)
Stærkt understøttet er balletten af dens musikalske underlag i form af en mesterlig og respektfuld behandling af Mendelssohn-søskendeparret Fanny og Felix’ klaverkompositioner og strygekvartetter, der yderligere perspektiveres af Schubert-værker for samme besætninger. Ikke blot er disse musikalske kilder vævet tæt sammen af komponisten Philip Feeney med stemningsfulde og kontrastfyldte effekter, men samtidig sætter det hele samtiden, hvori dramaet udfolder sig, ind i et sitrende musikalsk lydrum, som løfter både sindet og opmærksomheden.Der er således mange gode takter, musikalsk såvel som koreografisk, i denne ballet. Alligevel reduceres indtrykket noget af den lidt for store trinmæssige monotoni i bevægelsessproget, som med sit forcerede ekspressionistiske udtrykstempo i begge timelange akter fortegner de stærke underliggende følelser. Sikker dans og godt scenisk håndværk er der dog til stede fra først til sidst i dette voldsomme sjælsdrama. (Knud Arne Jürgensen) (Translation)
The first version came from the girl group Pandora’s Box, assembled by Steinman, and was followed by Dion’s version, with Meat Loaf releasing the final recorded version in 2006 for Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. For its story, Steinman parsed Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, imagining the characters in an alternate universe dominated by morbid obsession.“Heathcliff digging up Cathy’s corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight,” as he described. Dion’s version is a modified rendition of Pandora’s Box’s recording, and leaves the presence of Roy Bittan’s grand piano; elevated with her signature, soaring vocals and overarching theatrics, as Steinman’s productions typically captured, ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ hears her transform the song into a proper rock opera. (Paulina Subia)
Spine-tinglingly eerie, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) is a masterpiece of slow-burn storytelling, and the scariest non-horror novel.çHeavily inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (itself pretty spooky at times), Rebecca is a mystery and Gothic romance wrapped up in one, with first-person narration – by a never-named narrator, no less – which expertly draws readers into its finely drawn world of creaky mansions, forgotten boathouses, and whispers in the night. (Steven Lantier)
Drawing inspiration from lovelorn Wuthering Heights character Catherine Earnshaw, Helen, 36, commanded attention in a cleave-enhancing corset and red skirt as she let her hair down at Soho venue The Box. (Jason Chester)
Finally, The Eyre Guide reviews Marian Yee's 4 Janes, "a fascinating read".
“Glass, Irony & God”The six pieces in Carson’s second collection are clear, sharp, splintered, and luminous. It includes her single most arresting poem, “The Glass Essay,” a chilly, desolate account of the end of a love affair, told by a speaker who believes that she is “turning into Emily Brontë / my lonely life around me like a moor, / my ungainly body stumping over the mud flats with a look of transformation / that dies when I come in the kitchen door.” The poem’s anguished meditations on love’s savagery and isolation are designed to draw blood. (Merve Emre)
Brontë Parsonage in HaworthLiterary types, you need to head to Haworth. Here, with stunning views of the Yorkshire moors, is the home where the Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne – wrote their novels including Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It’s now a museum displaying the world’s largest collection of bits and bobs from their lives. Think: handwritten manuscripts and first drafts of novels, but also the more delightfully mundane, such as pebbles collected by Anne, locks of the family’s hair, and Emily’s christening mug.The chance to journey back in time and pretend that you, too, are a Brontë sister, doesn’t end with the house and museum. The Brontë Society, which looks after the parsonage, will happily hand over maps for walks among the moors, so you can quite literally follow in their footsteps. Walk into Haworth town to find the Brontës’ birthplace and the church where the family, except for Anne, is buried. (Ellen C Scott)
One of the most memorable moments from my senior semester of college was seeing Emerald Fennel’s “Wuthering Heights.” I watched it on Valentine’s Day at Silverspot Cinema with my sister and six of her friends, and I liked it way more than I should have.Ever since I was little, I remember hearing, “The book is always better than the movie.” Up until I saw “Wuthering Heights,” I used to believe it too.When I read Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” my sophomore summer, I remember feeling underwhelmed. In my Apple Books review, I gave it three stars; I had hoped that book would shake my soul, and it did not. That was really sad for me, given how much I had enjoyed her sisters’ works — Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and Anne Brontë’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”The week after watching the newest adaptation of Wuthering Heights was really stressful for me. It pained me to admit to all my friends that I had enjoyed the 2026 film more than the 19th century tome. I mean, I really loved it. I was sobbing so hard that people were turning around and pointing. I wasn’t the only one — a couple other girls in my row were similarly shaken. I won’t name names, but you know who you are.When it came out, the “Wuthering Heights” adaptation was very controversial. Some described it as “hollow,” while others said it was worse for Emily Brontë than tuberculosis. Most critics had at least one thing to say: it’s nothing like the book.The thing is, definitives are hard. Saying a book is “always” better than the movie is both false and highly unproductive. It’s a kind of snobbery; people who say this either want to feel smart, or they want to make you feel stupid. To me, preferences and absolutes should not be allowed in the same room. [...]After watching “Wuthering Heights,” I went around to all my friends saying it was probably the best movie I’d ever watched and I really believed it at the time. Now, I see that my reaction had a lot to do with how my life looked last spring. I’m putting off rewatching it, because I’m scared I won’t like it as much the second time.Knowing our preferences aren’t fixed or absolute, it can be hard to make choices. How can you know what you’ll want in three months? 10 years? You’re asked to decide things now which are permanent — even when you know your preferences are fleeting. (Anna Garziera)
Cathy and Heathcliff from Wuthering HeightsMargot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have made doomed romance look extraordinarily glamorous in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Think extravagant period gowns, romantic corsetry, dark tailoring and a suitably brooding expression. The perfect couples costume for those who appreciate a little gothic drama, and a thoroughly dysfunctional love story.
Fielding's eclectic collection of jumpers has become a staple of the beloved Channel 4 baking show, and in Tuesday night's episode (October 20) he rocked a blue knit depicting a series of women in red dresses dancing around the moors.The design is by Australian-based label Wah-Wah, as part of its collaboration with award-winning artist Tara Booth, in homage to musical icon Kate Bush.Noel has a history of paying tribute to the British singer, whose debut single 'Wuthering Heights' – inspired by the Emily Brontë novel of the same name, which was of course also adapted for the big screen this year – topped the UK chart in 1978, when the song-writer was just 19 years old.As part of the BBC's Let's Dance for Comic Relief, which aired back in 2011, Noel Fielding took to the stage to perform his own rendition of Kate Bush's hit song, referencing her iconic music video – more specifically, the second version, which saw the singer wearing the floaty red dress, dancing among woodland. (Laura Jane Turner)
De La Bête aux Fauvettes, l’album dessine un cheminement très personnel. Il débute dans un monde qui heurte le poète, traverse la mélancolie et le temps, avant de trouver dans la poésie une forme de refuge. Éric Cazorla y évoque également Emily Brontë et pose, avec Le Dogme, les valeurs qui nourrissent son écriture. "Cet album de poésies est un dogme où je liste les valeurs que j’épouse et celles que je délaisse", explique-t-il. (Translation)
In her new biography of the unknowable Emily, This Dark Night, Deborah Lutz doesn’t commit the prime biographical sin of trying to make Brontë too easy to understand or relate to. Instead, she asks more questions than she answers.For this reason, while some readers may be frustrated by the paucity of new facts or explanations for why Emily was the way she was, for others (including this reader) this vagueness is the very reason for the book’s success. Weighing in at a mere 264 pages (before notes), This Dark Night is not the door-stopper that habitual readers of biography might be used to. The fact of the matter is that Brontë didn’t live very long (she died of tuberculosis at age 30), and very few traces of her short life remain. Much of what we “learn” here is speculation, gleaned from the poetry, prose, and fragments of writing—sometimes literal scraps as well as minuscule productions that Lutz calls “paper crafts”—that she left behind. [...]Hedging language (such as would and may) predominates here, as Lutz tells us what life in the parsonage was like and describes Emily’s day-to-day tasks, which included “turning” clothes (reversing and restitching them so the less-worn sides faced outward), peeling potatoes, and feeding the dogs, as well as her role in the famous imaginative worlds of the Brontë siblings.Lutz also has to rely on this hedging language when exploring Emily’s intellectual formation in these years. She makes the assumption that the Brontës’ mother, Maria, had “bluestocking ways” and likely read Mary Wollstonecraft based on her membership in various lending libraries, including the Penzance Ladies Book Club, which seems a little too easy, but otherwise sticks to what we can reasonably know or assume. She tells us about Emily’s attendance at church; her time spent in Keighley, where she borrowed books; and her famous wanderings on the moors with her siblings and her mastiff mix, Keeper.To that end, Lutz wisely keeps out of the debate surrounding what Emily may or may not have done to get sent away to school at age 17. Emily and the other Brontës, Lutz reminds us, had a social existence in Haworth and in Yorkshire more generally. They weren’t, as is often depicted, merely hermits living alone on the heath.The mythology of Emily as a free-range “moor nymph” was partly started by Charlotte in her editor’s preface to the posthumous second edition of Wuthering Heights. In her grief, and perhaps also because of an inability to communicate what Emily was really like, Charlotte depicted her genius sister as a kind of feral savant—a “native and nursling of the moors,” as she put it—who was somehow otherworldly.Lutz seeks to remind us that this was not the case by returning Emily to the domestic sphere as well as the “wild workshop” of West Yorkshire that she loved so much. Her Emily is not some weird sprite haunting the landscape, but something even stranger: a real woman. [...]The point is not to bring Emily Brontë down to earth by claiming (as the 2019 show Dickinson did to that later Emily) that she was just like us, all anachronistic feelings and hidden Sapphic longings, but to bring her down to an earth that was uniquely hers. Lutz’s book does just that. Her Emily is a thrillingly earthbound creature, as individual and ultimately as inaccessible as we all are. To think we know her or understand her would be reductive. But to realize that we don’t fully know or understand her is to realize that she is just like us.After reading This Dark Night, I don’t feel like I really know Emily Brontë any better, but I do think I understand her world a bit better—her terroir, the environment she was steeped in and that infuses her verse and prose. Lutz does not try to explain Emily—rather, she leaves her where she wanted to be, on her own. Lutz doesn’t make her do anything; instead, she wonders often about how Emily might have found her eventual role as the keeper of the Haworth parsonage, but she is careful not to put words in her subject’s mouth.We don’t learn much that’s new about Emily herself, but we do learn what it would have been like to be in her world. Anyone looking for easy answers to Wuthering Heights, a brutal and confusing book, or its strange author will be disappointed—but those readers for whom the mystery is the point will certainly be pleased. (Sarah Chihaya)
It is undeniably easy to frown upon adaptations, especially when considering the strange sense of protectiveness that can come with well-loved texts. But acknowledging this personal adoration is exactly where a fairer perspective lies. It's as Fennell justified with her use of quotation marks in “Wuthering Heights”, these interpretations often never claim to be replicas-they are intimate responses. When speaking with The Guardian, Fennell admitted: “I know that if somebody else made it, I’d be furious. It’s very personal material for everyone.” It was this raw and honest confession that could make one more inclined to celebrate Fennell’s ability to share her own interpretation with so many people. And it would be unfair to say that it hasn’t done the novel’s legacy good, despite tainting some fans' feelings. Sales of Wuthering Heights have surged dramatically amidst the controversial film release, with The Guardian reporting in February of this year that there had been a 496% rise in sales in the UK. Surely, one of the most alluring elements about truly great literature is its ability to spark conversation. Wuthering Heights’ refusal to be read the same way by any two people is exactly what makes it so long-lasting. As Fennell said: “I can't make something for everyone”. (Delilah Salway-Roberts)
As cosy season creeps in, my personal recommendation would be Haworth. Known as the home of the Brontë’s, and the backdrop of the iconic film Wild Child, Haworth is the perfect place for a breath of fresh air. Here you can explore the history of the Brontës, stop for a hot chocolate at The Old Post Office, mooch around the independent shops, and go for a countryside hike at golden hour. (Evie Bettison)
Heathcliff and Catherine from ‘Wuthering Heights’Of all the classic romance novels, Wuthering Heights has the most distinctly gothic feel. What’s more romantic than a character who’s so in love, he (spoiler alert!) begs his lover’s ghost to haunt him? Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi took on the roles of Cathy and Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s steamy 2026 adaptation of Brontë’s novel. Their divisive costumes proved you don’t have to go period-accurate to convey all the star-crossed drama. (Julia Guerra, Natalie Arroyo Camacho, Emily Kelleher, and Bailey Bujnosek)
The Brontë Sisters. All born in Thornton, Bradford, but more closely associated with Haworth where they were raised and penned their celebrated novels, the Brontë sisters created some of the most iconic and beloved works in English literature. From The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, these novels have captivated and enchanted millions of readers. (Sebastian McCormick)
Cada julio, cientos de personas rinden homenaje al fantasma de Cathy, protagonista de la novela de Emily Brontë; a la vez que celebran el cumpleaños de dos mujeres que marcaron el arte británico. (...)El videoclip, en el que Kate Bush aparece bailando descalza con un largo vestido rojo y que encarna el fantasma de Catherine Earnshaw, terminó convirtiéndose en una de las imágenes más icónicas del pop británico y es justamente esa escena la que recrean las participantes, llamadas a sí mismas Cathys, durante la particular celebración anual.Pocas novelas han dejado una huella tan inmensa como Cumbres borrascosas. La única obra de Emily Brontë ha sido —y sigue siendo— una fuente de inspiración para incontables adaptaciones cinematográficas y televisivas. La más reciente llegó a la gran pantalla este mismo año, constatando que el relato de Catherine y Heathcliff sigue fascinando a nuevas generaciones. (Elsa Saom) (Translation)
The Newcastle event is also on the Newcastle Herald, and the Haworth one is mentioned in the BBC.
This Dark Night: The Life of Emily Brontë by Deborah LutzA new biography drawing on previously unexplored archival materials to examine her life and creative process. Also published by Bloomsbury.
[David] Morrissey plays Michael Polly, an English headmaster who falls under suspicion after the disappearance of his wife, Sarah. As taciturn as Jane Eyre’s Mr. Rochester, Michael is seemingly incapable of rising to the emotional moment, insisting, for example, that he is still the man to coach the school’s rugby squad even as Sarah’s body turns up in a nearby woods. (Graham Hillard)
According to Steinman, the song was inspired by Wuthering Heights and was intended as "the most passionate, romantic song" he could create. Meat Loaf, who had collaborated with Steinman on many of his hit songs, had wanted to record the track for years, but Steinman refused, saying he viewed it as a "woman's song".
But it’s great that people are engaging with these ideas. We are in a resurgence of humanities in cinema. Wuthering Heights came out and everybody was suddenly talking about how faithful it was to Heathcliff. A similar thing happened with Hamnet. That’s the kind of back-and-forth we’ve been sorely lacking for a while. (Bilge Ebiri)
Finally, the Brontë Birthplace publishes how the Elizabeth Gaskell's Society recently visited them in Thornton.
It’s inevitable that any review of an Emily Brontë biography arriving on the heels of Emerald Fennell’s bonkers adaptation of Wuthering Heights will reference the film (and most have). But I’m in the odd position of having also reviewed Fennell’s movie. This prompted an editor at W.W. Norton & Co. to send me an advance copy of Deborah Lutz’s This Dark Night: Emily Bronte, A Life, which was published in early May 2026. It arrived with a letter suggesting I might enjoy it after my “thrashing” of Wuthering Heights: “It’s not quite roaming the moors, but it’s close.”A lifelong Brontë reader, I received the book eagerly, but did not take its editor’s words literally. Having read it, I realize she meant them that way. There are biographers desperate to know a life from the outside in and the inside out, and there are biographers aware that their subject is fundamentally unknowable. Lutz is the latter, and she works instead to produce a social and domestic history of those closest to Emily, a natural history of the West Yorkshire moors Brontë immortalized in Wuthering Heights, and a material history of Emily’s writing practice which, in the hands of Lutz’s meditative attention, approaches the mystical. “Expertise,” dry and academic, is the wrong word to characterize Lutz’s understanding of the Brontës. Victorianists tend to work exclusively with the established texts of their subjects, but Lutz spent several years immersed in Emily Brontë’s hand-written manuscripts (detailed photographs of these are included in the book) and inhabiting Brontë’s hometown of Haworth, West Yorkshire, and Brussels, where she studied alongside her older sister Charlotte at the Pensionnat Héger. Lutz pored over the local weather reports of Emily’s lifetime and learned the flora and fauna of the moors so integral to Brontë’s life and work (Emily could identify local birds by their song and kept a collection of their feathers she found on her daily walks). In This Dark Night, Lutz’s deep knowledge of Emily Brontë transcends biography and—appropriate for her subject, who wrote one of the most famous ghost stories in Western literature—approaches a haunting.Written after a large cache of papers by the Brontës “that had been missing for over a hundred years” surfaced in 2018, This Dark Night gives readers a great deal of fresh information about Emily Brontë. Even with this new material, Emily remains the most elusive of the four Brontë siblings who survived into adulthood (the two oldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood, events Lutz ties convincingly to Emily’s psyche and writing). Although Charlotte Brontë outlived Branwell, Emily, and Anne, she died at thirty-nine of complications from her first pregnancy, and Lutz posits that it was her widower who likely burned most of Emily’s correspondence and diaries.Absent these sources, Lutz employs the candid letters, diaries, and various historiographical accounts of Emily’s father, Patrick, and her siblings to methodically illuminate Emily’s whereabouts and behaviors; these provide a comprehensive and intimate view into Emily’s place in the family pecking order. [...]This Dark Night effectively refutes the lasting image of the Brontës as isolated sad girls, stuck in the sticks with their abusive reverend father, which originated with Elizabeth Gaskell’s now-classic hagiography of her close friend, Charlotte Brontë. Lutz sketches a bustling, industrial Haworth where the Brontë siblings, as the children of the town cleric, were frequently at the center of social life, and Patrick bears no resemblance to the stereotypically restrictive Victorian father of legend. He gave his five daughters the same radical education he gave his only son, tutoring them in foreign languages and allowing unfettered access to the literature of the day (including the scandalous Lord Byron). He aided their travel to London and Brussels, and encouraged their creative writing, refusing to pressure them to marry. Online lit discourse likes to bat at the possibility that Emily Brontë was queer. Lutz won’t go so far as to guess, but she shows us a West Yorkshire where the Brontë siblings knew Anne Lister, the celebrated English diarist and lesbian, whose rarefied education and androgynous appearance modeled a different kind of life for Emily Brontë than the available standard for middle-class Victorian women–one Emily, who never married and devoted her life to art and her sisters, seems to have lived.Emily’s living is at the heart of This Dark Night, which eschews the historically romantic notion of Brontë’s artistic genius that places Wuthering Heights as her singular accomplishment, with life a mere cipher for the novel. [...]This Dark Night is, therefore, literally a biography of the dirt beneath Emily’s feet which subverts the tired trope of Emily Brontë hitching up her skirts and running wild on the moors to instead give us a woman who was both a writer and a naturalist who also ran a household. Wuthering Heights is a book best remembered for the wilderness of its moors which nonetheless takes place almost entirely inside. We think of Cathy’s longing for that wilderness when she is trapped in confinement and the longing, the state of it, feels almost like the place itself. Lutz compels us to wonder if Emily Brontë felt that same longing—not for the moors, which were her literal backyard, but to break free of her human form, to seep into the “rocks and stones and trees” of the world she loved. It’s difficult to say for sure, especially since This Dark Night is so grounded in the physical—gardens, laundry, mending, cooking, dogs, cats, hawks. Yet Lutz captures Brontë’s ineffable desire to break free of her physical body, which is both a graver and braver thing than she might have done with this biography.It’s possible—valuable, even—to reduce a figure like Emily Brontë to the questions that trouble our own gender politics. Emily Brontë might have often wished to be a man, or to love a woman, and these things may have limited her ability to lead the kind of life some of her contemporaries led. To write a book that addresses how Emily Brontë was limited by her gender is one thing. Lutz shows us instead that Emily Brontë’s real limitation was her human form, and how she paradoxically used that form to harness a mysticism and create some of the language’s most lasting works, works which nonetheless elucidate our own gender relations in ways rarely surpassed, even today. That is what a genius does, I suppose.Near the close of the book, Lutz writes that, after Emily’s death, she became the “genius loci” for the remaining family members (only her father, Anne, and Charlotte remained, Branwell having died six months prior). She seemed to me the genius loci of This Dark Night, as well, if it’s possible for a subject to haunt its own book. Because the book is largely constructed of the words of those closest to Emily about Emily, rather than Emily’s own words, we see her in the periphery, or view her from afar. I felt pleasantly haunted throughout my reading of this biography, and was surprised to find myself weeping as it closed. I am a writer, and frequent reader, of biography. The death of the subject is pretty much the one thing you can count on in the genre, but Lutz paces her book so well that Emily’s sudden death seems to happen as quickly on the page as it did in life. The shock of it—Emily refused medical attention and insisted on keeping her eyes open to “meet” her end—took my breath away.I learned more about Emily Brontë and her famous siblings from reading This Dark Night than I knew before. These facts stay with me and yet, the more I learned, the more distant Emily grew. It was as though the attempt to contain her or reduce her to acts or incidents or objects was to break up this person, who was always so evidently more than the sum of her parts, into her parts, and then watch the parts erase the whole. This is no fault of Lutz’s and is part of her book’s great success, since this seems to convey how her contemporaries felt about her. Emily Brontë is long dead. She can never be brought back to life, but we are haunted eternally by her, by the dictum she gave herself.“There is no Emily in Time or on Earth now,” Charlotte is quoted as saying upon her sister’s death, and we feel that loss as keenly today as Charlotte did then—or fool ourselves that we do, or Lutz fools us that we do. If Emily can die like any other, we all can. We all will. This should have left me bereft, or at least a little grim, but instead I was comforted, and reminded of the feeling I have whenever I visit the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, specifically, and the Calder Valley more broadly, which I try to do every few years. It took me a long time to characterize this feeling, which is a meditative ecstasy that leaves me with a profound sense of well-being. Eventually, I just said it aloud, so here I go: When I am there, in the land that birthed and received Emily Brontë, I feel immortal. Not because of some delusion that I will never die, but because, paradoxically, I am aware that I absolutely will. And life will go on beautifully beyond me. If I am lucky, any small thing I’ve done or said will reach out to the living; maybe they will have a conversation with the dead, like this one, like Lutz’s. Maybe I will talk back. (Emily Van Duyne)
A new music video for "Sirens," from John Caird and Paul Gordon's Jane Eyre A Musical, celebrates the new Jane Eyre EP, Highlights From The UK Premiere Cast. [...]The new EP, from Westway Music, precedes the upcoming production of Jane Eyre A Musical at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant. Performances are scheduled to begin August 28 for a limited run through October 24.With music and lyrics by Gordon and additional lyrics by Caird, the EP also features the songs "Sweet Liberty" and "Secret Soul," both of which were performed by Burn and Gilmour earlier this summer at West End Live. The three-song EP is available to stream/download here.The recording has vocal and incidental music arrangements by Brad Haak and Steve Tyler, orchestrations by Larry Hochman and Haak, sound engineering by Ben Robbins, and mixing by Gordon. It is produced by Adam Blanshay Productions, David and Hannah Mirvish and Westway Music and published by Universal Music and ASCAP.In addition to Burn and Gilmour, the Southwark production will also feature Claire Greenway as Abbot/Grace Poole, Melad Hamidi as St. John/Lord Ingram, Connor Wood as John Reed/Vicar, Jonathan Andrew Hume as Brocklehurst/Mason, Izzi Levine as Agnes/Leah/Jane's Mother/Mary Ingram, Hannah Lindsey as Scatcherd/Bertha Mason, Isabelle Methven as Helen Burns/Bessie, Gemma Page as Reed/Fairfax, and Eve Shanu-Wilson as Blanche/Sophie with Poppy Jason as Young Jane/Adele and Emily-Rose Samuel as Young Jane/Adele.Caird and Broadway's Megan McGinnis will co-direct the musical, with choreography by Georgina Lamb, set and costume design by Morgan Large, sound design by Andrew Johnson, lighting design by James Whiteside, musical direction and supervision by Ben Kubiak, and casting by Sarah-Jane Price.The 2000 Broadway production of Jane Eyre was nominated for five 2001 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. (Andrew Gans)
This Dark Night: Emily Bronte, A Life by Deborah LutzThe Brontës are having a bit of a moment again with adaptations and a semi-biographical film about Emily herself, and this book does its best to explain the elusive genius. Since the Brontës were not recognized as genius writers until much later, the historical record of their lives is incomplete. However, Lutz uses the poems, journals, and ephemera Emily left behind in her 30 years to piece together her internal life. Emily wrote about grief and commented regularly on nature and the rising industrialism in faraway cities. (Julia Rittenberg)
But it is William Wyler’s 1939 black and white swoonfest that is still ranked top on film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The clothes are pure old Hollywood glamour, the moody cinematography is sublime, Merle Oberon’s Cathy is ethereal, Laurence Olivier’s Heathcliff is brooding. Does it matter that they ditched the second half of the story, ending with the lovers’ ghosts walking hand in hand through the snow? Not really. This is Wuthering Heights reimagined as a Thirties weepie and on its own terms, it is genius. (Ruth Leon)
Anna Yates, Khadija Raza and Joseff Harris join the production ahead of its run across England.The creative team has been set for the new production of Jane Eyre, touring across England in autumn 2026. The production will be directed by Lily Dyble as a result of her winning the 2025 Royal Theatrical Support Trust Sir Peter Hall Director Award. It is based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company's acclaimed adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's enduring novel. (Stephi Wild)Tour DatesMercury Theatre, Colchester - 26 September – 10 October 2026Rose Theatre, Kingston - 13 – 24 October 2026Northern Stage, Newcastle - 3 – 7 November 2026Storyhouse, Chester - 10 – 21 November 2026
Earlier this year, Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights was an adaptation that gathered some controversy. Some loved it, while others argued it betrayed Emily Brontë's novel completely. Tail between my legs, I was one of the sceptics. While I admired Fennell's creativity, I'd struggled with how dramatically she had strayed from the original story. However, Fennell never pretended it was a true adaptation. She described the film as the version of Wuthering Heights she remembered reading as a 14 year old, a personal interpretation that filled the spaces between Brontë's words with her own imagination. The reviews, however, were a bit brutal. (...) While I did agree with some of these points, it started to unsettle my compliance.Why was I demanding literary fidelity from Wuthering Heights while happily embracing the artistic licence in Tony? The more I thought about it, the more I realised I'd been judging these films by different standards.It's easy to dismiss an adaptation by arguing it isn't faithful to its original text. Accuracy often become the ammunition we reach for once we've already decided we don't like something and want to fire it with criticism. In Wuthering Heights, fidelity suddenly became incredibly important to me. But was it just because I wasn't enjoying the film? (...)I think we've forgotten that truth and fact aren't always the same thing. A film can invent conversations that never happened and still capture something authentic. It can shorten timelines, combine characters to become one or imagine moments between what was recorded as events while remaining truthful to the spirit of the person. (...)If a film can evoke the essence we all knew and loved of (...) Wuthering Heights through a highly stylised memory of reading a book at age 14 – then it has done its job. (Samantha Corry)
El Most Wuthering Heights Day (El día de Cumbres borrascosas) es un evento alegre. Se baila cada julio en decenas de ciudades del mundo, con miles de participantes que emulan la coreografía del videoclip de Kate Bush: brazos que se abren de golpe, giros bruscos, manos que empujan el aire… Su exagerada teatralidad parece contar la historia con el cuerpo y evocar el espíritu de Cathy pidiendo entrar por la ventana. No es un baile bonito ni técnico. Es más bien raro, dramático y un poco fantasmal. Pero da igual bailarlo bien o mal porque nadie ha venido a lucirse, sino a formar parte de la coreografía. (...)La peregrinación a Haworth no es nueva. En noviembre de 1904, una jovencísima Virginia Woolf subió hasta aquí y escribió sobre la visita en un semanario londinense. En el libro de visitas de la casa de las Brontë han firmado, entre otras muchas mujeres, Sylvia Plath y Patti Smith. Durante más de un siglo, hasta aquí han venido sobre todo mujeres que buscaban a otras mujeres. Woolf se preguntaba si esta u otras romerías a las casas de los escritores no serían puro sentimentalismo, y se respondía que solo se justifican cuando el lugar añade algo a los libros. Con las Brontë, concluía, el viaje merecía la pena: Haworth y las hermanas, escribió, encajan “como un caracol en su concha”. Es imposible separar la obra del sitio que la produjo. (...)Siglo y medio después, una de sus colinas está llena de mujeres que no ocultan nada. Se visten todas iguales, de rojo, y en ese uniforme no se borran: se reconocen. Al contemplar la danza, es inevitable pensar en la ironía que produce una obra hecha en el aislamiento más extremo, y cómo sigue generando un mundo propio un siglo y medio después. (...)No es una postal perfecta: es una romería real, con su desorden, su frío, su espera. Y eso es exactamente lo que la salva del kitsch. La gente ha subido a un campo embarrado un día nublado a hacer algo aparentemente ridículo, y lo hace con una entrega absoluta. Ahí está la dignidad del gesto, en que nadie está posando para nadie. Emily, que escribió y describió el páramo como una fuerza anterior a toda ley, sigue convocando a los vivos. Por eso no envejece. (Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán) (Translation)
Other events: Otago Daily News (New Zealand), El Confidencial (Spain), National Post (Canada)...
Despite its spelling, locals pronounce it“GYZ-lee” (rhyming with “guys” and “lee”), and getting it right is often seen as a badge of honour among Yorkshire newcomers. (...)One of Guiseley’s best-known landmarks is St Oswald’s Church, parts of which are centuries old.The church holds special literary significance as the wedding venue of Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell, parents of the famous Brontë sisters.Fans of Yorkshire's literary heritage often visit the church as part of their travels.
[Dr. Leonard] Sax advocates for “gender-aware” instructional strategies in K-12 schools.
“The best way to get boys excited about Emily Dickinson is very different from the best way to get girls excited about Emily Dickinson,” he said. “And the best way to get girls excited about computer coding is very different from the best way to get boys excited about computer coding.
“But you put in place gender-aware instructional strategies.”
When educators ignore gender differences, Sax added, they ultimately reinforce gender stereotypes.
“If you understand gender differences, you can break down gender stereotypes. And that same boy who loves football and video games will love ‘Jane Eyre’ and will love Emily Dickinson.” (Jason Swensen)
In telling the story of Brontë’s life, Lutz’s method is demarcated by two commitments. First is her interest in Brontë’s world and her place in it. To pursue this, she reconstructs what Brontë ‘wore, saw, heard, smelled, and felt along her skin’ using, among other things, weather reports, the diaries of her neighbours, and local newspapers. This attention to the everyday and the senses offers a thoughtful (and relatively new) approach in Brontë biography, and it is one well suited to Lutz’s established interests, which readers of her 2015 work, The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects, will recognise. The second is that This Dark Night joins an established tradition that frames Brontë in relation to the natural world and foregrounds the environment as context for understanding her. For Lutz, as for many before her, Brontë ‘brought the open sky, birdsong, and the peat bogs to life on the page’. The imagery is vivid and compelling, participating in a romantic imaginary that tries to enter the inner mind of a woman who conjured some 200 poems (or thereabouts, that we know of and survive) and, of course, Wuthering Heights. At the same time, Lutz’ environmental emphasis also opens onto Brontë’s preoccupation with darker worlds, such as the dungeons, caves, and graves that dominate her writing, as well as ‘the mortal body’. Neither strand is, in itself, entirely new, but the way Lutz binds them together through sustained sensorial attentiveness feels fresh and it sharpens our historical understanding of Brontë as a multifaceted and complex woman.Importantly, This Dark Night delves into territories that earlier biographers have overlooked, such as, for example, the practical question of how the Brontë sisters managed menstruation, which Lutz answers by drawing on broader health histories rather than evidence specific to the Brontës. This kind of detail may not deepen our understanding of Brontë as a writer, but that is not its purpose. Rather, it is a reminder that the sisters were flesh-and-blood women negotiating a monthly cycle that shapes women’s lives – a seemingly obvious fact that can easily be forgotten amid the iconography and fandom that surround them. It is these reflections that exemplify This Dark Night at its best: Lutz’s care for the material, embodied conditions of Victorian womanhood, which lends biography historic specificity.
Wuthering Heights: 500 people gather at Penistone Country Park in Haworth for celebration. Participants gathered at Penistone Country Park in Haworth for Actually the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever on Sunday - a celebration of all things Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush and Emily Brontë.The gathering was in the stunning setting of the Haworth moors. 500 people took part in the mass 'Wuther' in a joyful, windswept, red-dress sea of Cathys dancing for charity, supporting Women’s Aid. (DanieL Sheridan)
Eleven classic novels stand in a row on a bookshelf in a library. I find each of them tempting, but in the end, I pick up only one of them.(1) The horror classics Frankenstein and Dracula both stand to the right of the book I chose.(2) Moby Dick and Animal Farm both stand to the left of the book I chose.(3) Two of the books are by Jane Austen. Of these, Pride and Prejudice stands somewhere right of Emma.(4) Pride and Prejudice also stands somewhere right of Frankenstein.(5) There are two titles by two of the Brontë sisters, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, with two other books (not by the sisters) standing between them.(6) Two books stand between Wuthering Heights and Moby Dick(7) Great Expectations (right) and Animal Farm (left) stand on either side of Wuthering Heights.(8) I notice two children’s favourites, with Heidi standing somewhere to the left of Oliver Twist. There are seven books between these two.(9) Six books stand between Dracula and Wuthering Heights.(10) The book I finally choose stands in the middle of the row of 11, i.e. sixth from either left or right. (Kabir Firaque)
Many news outlets cover the Haworth event, or the Folkestone (Kent) one or the Bunbury one or...: London Now, WION, Bunbury Herald, The Independent, Kent Online, Kent Live, La Razón, Corriere della Sera...
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëCharlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is much more than just a love story. The novel follows Jane, an orphan who endures a lonely childhood before becoming a governess at the isolated Thornfield Hall. There, she meets the estate's enigmatic owner, Edward Rochester, whose cold demeanor and mysterious past immediately set him apart from the typical romantic hero. The narrative shows Jane and Rochester growing closer, but their relationship is constantly tested by secrets, painful sacrifices, and impossible moral choices that force Jane to decide whether love is worth compromising her own principles.The best thing about Jane Eyre is that, unlike many romances of its time, it never allows love to overshadow its heroine's individuality. Jane refuses to sacrifice her self-respect and independence, even if that means walking away from the man she loves. That gives the novel a remarkable sense of maturity that has influenced generations of romance writers, but few have matched Brontë's sensibilities. (Safwan Azeem)
Llevaba demasiados años escuchando que Jane Eyre era una de las mejores novelas jamás escritas. Cuando por fin la terminé entendí que no era una exageración. No solo he leído un clásico; he sentido que acababa de descubrir el origen de muchas de las historias románticas y de misterio que vinieron después. Y lo mejor de todo es que, lejos de sentirse antigua, me ha tenido completamente atrapado durante toda la lectura. (...)Cuando cerré Jane Eyre entendí por qué sigue apareciendo en cualquier lista de las mejores novelas de la historia. No es solo una historia de amor inolvidable; es la historia de una mujer que se niega a renunciar a sí misma, incluso cuando hacerlo parece el camino más fácil. Hay clásicos que se leen por obligación o por cultura general. Jane Eyre, en cambio, se disfruta de principio a fin y demuestra que las grandes historias no entienden de siglos, porque siguen emocionando exactamente igual hoy que cuando Charlotte Brontë las escribió. (Translation)
3. HathersageHathersage has strong literary connections - having inspired Charlotte Brontë while she was writing Jane Eyre. The nearby North Lees Hall (pictured here) also became the main inspiration for Thornfield Hall. The Grave of Little John, Robin Hood’s second-in-command, can be found at St. Michael’s Church in the heart of Hathersage. While there is little evidence proving he is buried here, ballads suggest that he originated from Hathersage and settled there again later in his life. (Tom Hardwick)
In a rapidly changing intellectual environment, two developments have affected the work of the historical biographer over the past two decades. First, digitisation has made it possible to read vast swaths of printed matter online, including obscure sermons and newspaper articles, and even some manuscripts, without leaving the study. Second, with privacy under erasure, biographers are empowered to go where their predecessors feared to tread with regard to the body and its functions. Both developments are evident in the making of This Dark Night, a book that demonstrates what can be achieved when a scholar-critic of Lutz’s stature applies her empathic imagination to the hidden life and writing practices of her elusive subject.Lutz has a particular interest in the materials that writers used in the Victorian age, the subject of a previous study. In the preface to her new book, she writes; “Keeping slips of paper and a pencil nub nearby, Brontë mastered a peripatetic kind of creativity, interwoven with household work, daydreaming, and exploring her native landscape.” Out on the moors by day and under the stars by night, she scribbled poems on scraps of paper and later transcribed them in drafts written in ink. Lutz argues that “the page worked for her as a sort of frame or foundation on which to build the poem. Similar to those samplers she made as a girl, the letters, words, and lines accumulated like cross-stich across and down the sheet.” Signs of digging her quill pen into the paper while writing remain legible, we are told.As Emily and her sisters prepared their poetry and fiction for publication, they acquired notebooks with thin leather covers the colour of oxblood. When opened, they would easily lie flat. Lutz’s close readings of the texts convince us of the power of a poetic vision inspired by nature and the elements. Her treatment of Emily’s writing materials reminds us that creation is work. (Dr Michael Wheeler)
Forget hot girl summer — for readers, it's decidedly a classics girl summer. According to data from Google Trends, interest in books you might not have read or even thought about since high school English class is way up. This includes some of the standard books you'd find on Rory Gilmore's reading list, like "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë and "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, but some titles surging in popularity are unusual picks for the book girlies. (Amanda Manen)
Andrés Muedano: What are you working on next?Tara Menon: I am working on both a second academic book and a second novel. My academic book is an exploration of anger and the novel. I have noticed that readers often label books “angry”—they might say, for instance, “Jane Eyre is a furious book” or “Naipaul’s novels seethe with rage,” but it’s never been clear exactly how they make those determinations. In my book, I ask: what does it mean for anger to be embedded in a novel, rather than simply expressed by one of its characters? What are the formal characteristics of anger in fiction?
But Morton doesn’t believe in bogging herself down in research, not since starring in a British TV production of “Jane Eyre” when she was 19 and carried around a heavily highlighted copy of the Charlotte Brontë book, despairing whenever the adaptation deviated from the novel. From that point on, she stuck to the script and her own imagination. (...)Morton first came to New York as a teen to do press for “Emma,” returned a year later to promote “Jane Eyre” and then couldn’t bring herself to leave, “sofa-surfing” at friends’ apartments so she could immerse herself in the city.“New York stole my heart,” Morton says. It’s where she first got into literature, devouring Charles Bukowski, roaming the aisles at the St. Mark’s Bookshop, checking out movies from Kim’s Video and gobbling hash browns and eggs over easy at the Waverly Diner. (Glenn Whipp)
Sometimes the right project is simply too good to turn down. Wuthering Heights was a fantastic job – I loved every minute of it, and Margot and Jacob and everyone on that production were lovely. I’m lucky that I still get offered work that interests me. The moment it stops being enjoyable, I’ll stop doing it. (Claire Bowman)
" spawned a worldwide annual tradition of red-dress flash mobs, with two taking place in France this year: at the Bon-Repos abbey on July 25 and in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris on July 26, 2026.Sa reconnaissance viendra bien plus tard. Au cours du XXe siècle, Les Hauts de Hurlevent s'impose progressivement comme un classique de la littérature mondiale grâce à ses nombreuses adaptations au cinéma, à la télévision et au théâtre. Kate Bush participera, elle aussi, à cette redécouverte. Car, contrairement au roman dont elle est inspirée, sa chanson connaît un triomphe immédiat. Sortie en pleine période où s'affrontent le punk et le disco, à rebours des tendances dominantes, elle s'impose en tête des classements britanniques et détrône même le groupe ABBA. Du jamais vu pour un premier titre et une artiste inconnue.Lorsque Kate Bush découvre ce récit gothique, ce n'est pas en ouvrant le roman d'Emily Brontë, mais en regardant une adaptation télévisée diffusée par la BBC. Elle n'a alors que 16 ans. Fascinée par l'atmosphère sombre du récit et la puissance tragique de ses personnages, elle finit par lire le livre et se sent particulièrement proche de son héroïne, Catherine, surnommée Cathy, dont elle partage le prénom. Elle décide alors de transposer l'histoire dans le langage de la pop.À l'âge de 18 ans, elle compose Wuthering Heights en une seule soirée, au piano. Sa chanson s'inspire d'une scène emblématique du roman : celle où le fantôme de Cathy apparaît à la fenêtre de Heathcliff et tente de le convaincre de la laisser entrer. Kate Bush prête alors sa voix à l'héroïne disparue : « Heathcliff, it's me, I'm Cathy, I've come home, I'm so cold, let me in-a-your window... » ("Heathcliff, c'est moi, Cathy. Je suis revenue. J'ai si froid. Laisse-moi entrer par ta fenêtre..."). En quatre minutes de musique, la chanteuse parvient ainsi à condenser toute la passion, la mélancolie et le mystère qui font encore aujourd'hui la force du roman d'Emily Brontë. (...)Si Wuthering Heights est devenue une chanson culte, c'est autant grâce à la voix singulière de Kate Bush qu'à l'univers visuel qu'elle a construit autour du morceau. Son timbre aigu, presque irréel, se mêle à des sonorités éthérées pour donner vie à un personnage fantomatique directement inspiré de Cathy Earnshaw. Mais c'est surtout le clip qui va marquer durablement les esprits.Conçue avec le chorégraphe Lindsay Kemp, célèbre pour avoir notamment formé David Bowie à l'art du mime, la chorégraphie contribue à l'atmosphère hypnotique du morceau. Dans une première version du clip, Kate Bush apparaît sous les traits du fantôme de Cathy, vêtue d'une longue robe blanche vaporeuse. Filmée au ralenti, évoluant parmi des effets visuels qui accentuent l'étrangeté de la scène, elle semble flotter entre le monde des vivants et celui des morts.Une seconde vidéo est ensuite réalisée pour le marché américain. Le décor change, mais pas la chorégraphie. Cette fois, la chanteuse danse au milieu de la campagne anglaise dans une robe rouge flamboyante qui deviendra sa tenue emblématique. Plus épurée et plus facilement identifiable, cette version va peu à peu s'imposer dans l'imaginaire collectif et devenir l'une des images les plus célèbres de la culture pop britannique.C'est d'ailleurs ce clip qui est à l'origine de The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever. Chaque année, à l'occasion de l'anniversaire de Kate Bush - et d’Emily Brontë, née un 30 juillet, elle-aussi - des milliers de fans à travers le monde enfilent la fameuse robe rouge et reproduisent les gestes envoûtants de la chanteuse. De Londres à Melbourne, en passant par Paris, cette chorégraphie née à la fin des années 1970 continue ainsi de rassembler. L'archive ci-dessous nous entraîne dans l'événement organisé en Bretagne en 2024. (Florence Dartois) (Translation)
Final Jeopardy today was in the category “AUTHORS“The clue: “She sometimes signed letters “Charles Thunder”The answer: “Who is Charlotte Brontë?” (Lizzy Buczak in Parade)
The album was recorded across Iceland, New York, and Berlin, and draws inspiration from poetry, literature and visual art. de Oliveira weaves in mythology with references to Milton's Paradise Lost and the poetry of John Keats, Emily Brontë and Anne Sexton. (Kayla Sandiford)
En esto se gastan los jóvenes lucenses su Bono Cultural: «El "GTA VI" y "Cumbres Borrascosas" son los grandes éxitos de este 2026» (...) Cuentan que esta ayuda cultural es más usada por las chicas que por los chicos, aunque esto no significa que estos últimos no acudan a comprar obras literarias al establecimiento. «Ellas vienen, principalmente, en busca de novelas románticas. Cumbres borrascosas vendió muchos ejemplares por el estreno de la adaptación en cines». (Andrés Quintán) (Translation)
An AI includes Jane Eyre in a list of great stories never getting old on Bookclub. The Brussels Brontë Blog recounts a guided day trip through lesser-known Brontë sites in Lancashire and West Yorkshire — Cowan Bridge, Leck, Tunstall Church, Kirkby Lonsdale, and Wycoller — checking off several long-sought locations tied to the sisters' lives and Charlotte's Jane Eyre.
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