Andrew McMillan: If you’re having a fragile day while midway through a tour, how do you take care of yourself?Kate Ceberano: It’s very infantilising, but you’ve got to feed yourself and put yourself to a little afternoon nap. You’re just going to think me completely ridiculous; I don’t know why, but I find listening to old English novels, like Emily Brontë in an audiobook, and it’s just the weirdest thing. I find it so soothing to go to a drawing room in 1870 or 1880, and know that there’s nothing out the window (in the story) except for a few lowing cows, and one spare lamb, you know? (laughs) And she’s just sitting out of that window, wondering what Darcy’s doing that afternoon. I find that has a sort of a therapeutic kind of “om” (effect) for me.So when I’m driving from one venue to the next, sometimes it’s up to 4½ hours’ drive, and I know I’ve got to recover, put it back up on soundcheck, and then the gig in the evening … God help me if I don’t go and escape to Jane Eyre, or Wuthering Heights, or Pride and Prejudice. It’s definitely comforting to me to cuddle into that space. I’m like a kid: put the kid on the couch, put on something quiet on the television, take everything away and make sure the stomach’s fed, give her a little “nanna nap” – and then she’s good to go.
The show opens with the Narrator (Kady Lyon) trying to settle on which scary story to tell the audience (“we couldn’t get Jacob Elordi so Frankenstein is out… we couldn’t get Jacob Elordi so Wuthering Heights is out”), before settling on Gagula. (Rebecca Mahar)
Tras muchos años de abandono, la ruinosa mansión de Wildfell Hall es habitada de nuevo por una misteriosa mujer y su hijo de corta edad. La nueva inquilina, una viuda, no tarda, con su carácter retraído y poco sociable, sus opiniones a menudo radicales y su extraña, triste belleza, en atraer las sospechas de la vecindad, y a la vez la rendida admiración de un joven e impetuoso agricultor. Pero la mujer tiene, en efecto, un pasado... más terrible y tortuoso si cabe de lo que la peor de las murmuraciones es capaz de adivinar. La inquilina de Wildfell Hall (1848), segunda y última novela de Anne Brontë, une al bello relato de un amor prohibido e invernal el retrato intensísimo del fracaso de un matrimonio degradado por el abuso y la violencia. (Translation)
Desde su aparición en 2020, la novela ha sido calificada como una adaptación de los elementos del gótico romántico al contexto mexicano. Sin embargo, Silvia Moreno-García, en una entrevista para el podcast “Books Connect Us”, de Penguin Random House, revela que esto no es del todo cierto.“En realidad no estaba pensando en el gótico romántico como el de ‘Cumbres borrascosas’ o ‘Jane Eyre’, sino más bien en el gótico de terror. Es decir, títulos como ‘Drácula’, ‘El monje’ o los relatos de Horacio Quiroga”, dice la autora que relata que la historia surgió de un viaje a Real de Monte en Hidalgo, donde hay minas que fueron explotadas primero por españoles y luego por ingleses. (Kevin Aragón) (Translation)
The Brontë Sisters UK publishes a video about this 1850 painting by Abraham Solomon, Portrait of Charlotte Brontë. An intriguing portrait, hardly of the real Charlotte but curious, anyway. The latest post by AnneBrontë.org marks two Brontë-adjacent clergy anniversaries: Sutcliffe Sowden, who married Arthur and Charlotte and later died tragically in a canal, and Hammond Roberson, the fiercely anti-Luddite Dewsbury vicar known to Patrick Brontë and immortalized as Charlotte's Reverend Helstone in Shirley.
The birthplace of the Brontë sisters will host an event looking at its own history as part of Bradford Literature Festival.The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton re-opened last year, and on Friday Bradford-born heritage champion Steve Stanworth will share his 26‑year journey restoring and celebrating the building.The event, being held at the Thornton attraction, is part of Bradford Literature Festival, and will take place at 6.30pm on Friday.At the event, Mr Stanworth will explain how he helped to return the Brontë Birthplace on Market Street to its Regency character.He has also played a central role in restoring the Brontë Bell Chapel and, with Christa Ackroyd, created the Brontë exhibition at St James’ Church.Patrick Brontë himself wrote that his happiest years were spent in Thornton, a sentiment that underpins Steve’s lifelong dedication to preserving this remarkable heritage.
7. Helen Graham escapes her disastrous marriage to Arthur Huntingdon in which Anne Brontë novel? (Olav Bjortomt)
It will be necessary to see if Kazan's adaptation maintains the epic and tragic spirit of the author, who delves into the problem of identity, betrayal, inheritance, and love without concessions, or if it creates a digestible product, as Emerald Fennell did with Wuthering Heights, which Mariana Enríquez described as a "boring and silly" film, as it turned a dark and demonic story that explores the beauty of the abyss, depression, and love for darkness into something sexy. Will the same happen with Steinbeck? We will see. (Pol Guasch)
When Merrick is revealed, the reactions from those who see him are almost uniformly panicked (though some respond with a commingling of the grotesque and erotic that wouldn’t be out of place in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights). (Jacob Oller)
The Telegraph India announces the Indian streaming premiere on JioHotstar of Wuthering Heights 2026. EuroWeekly News wonders about the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever arriving in Potsdam. Vintage Reads posts about The Invention of Charlotte Brontë by Graham Watson.
Monroe County Public Library, Southwest Branch, Meeting Room ASaturday, July 11, 2:00pm - 5:00pmJoin us for our quarterly Movies vs. Books Club! Popcorn and candy will be provided during the movie. Age 18 and up.Read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, then join us to watch the 2011 film adaptation directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. You can request a copy of the book be placed on hold for you when you register to attend, or read or listen to a digital copy on Libby or Hoopla. Afterwards, we'll tackle the question: which was better—the book or the movie?Please contact Becky Craft at bcraft@mcpl.info if you have any questions about this program.
Bella Swan lee 'Cumbres borrascosas', de Emily BrontëLa tímida e introvertida Bella Swan, protagonista de la saga Crepúsculo, fue vista leyendo 'Cumbres borrascosas'. La novela de Emily Brontë es un clásico de la literatura romántica, pero también una historia intensa, oscura y marcada por relaciones emocionales extremas. Justo lo que a ella le va a ocurrir en determinado momento con Edward.Bella no es una protagonista convencional: es introspectiva, emocional y profundamente entregada. Su conexión con 'Cumbres Borrascosas' refleja su tendencia a idealizar el amor absoluto, incluso cuando este implica sufrimiento o sacrificio. Al igual que Catherine, Bella está dispuesta a todo por ese vínculo que considera irrompible.'Jane Eyre', de Charlotte BrontëRachel Green lee 'Jane Eyre', de Charlotte BrontëLa novela de Charlotte Brontë es un relato de independencia femenina. Jane es una mujer que lucha por construir su propia identidad, tomar decisiones por sí misma y no depender de las expectativas sociales o de los hombres que la rodean.Esto tiene un claro paralelismo con Rachel. Al inicio de la serie, depende completamente de su entorno -especialmente en lo económico y emocional-, pero poco a poco construye una carrera, toma decisiones propias y redefine quién quiere ser. (Melissa González) (Translation)
There’s Helen in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, who flees her husband to protect their son from his drunken ways; (Harley Freeman)
On Thursday, July 9, the focus shifts to The Bookery, with Amelia Blackwell bringing a lively blend of literary history and mystery with The Haunting of a Brontë. In conversation with Devon crime writer Stephanie Austin, this promises an engaging evening of humour, intrigue and gothic atmosphere, inspired by the enduring fascination of the Brontë sisters.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëLiterary observers have often connected Swift's song Mad Woman to themes found in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The song's exploration of female anger, perception, and social judgment echoes ideas that appear throughout the classic novel. The connection becomes particularly striking through the character of Bertha Mason, the woman hidden away in Mr. Rochester's attic, whose story has long been discussed as a symbol of female suppression and misunderstood rage.
Wuthering Heights is, possibly, a good movie. To some, I believe it can be an enjoyable movie. It was not for me. Still, the costuming is avant-garde and fun, the cinematography is breathtaking, and the performances are captivating—none of these things can be taken away from the film because some bits made the audience squirm. However, Wuthering Heights, as directed by Emerald Fennell, fails to be an effective adaptation.Before much promotion was released about the film, it drew considerable controversy when Jacob Elordi was cast as Heathcliff, a main character. This drew significant criticism, largely from those familiar with the original book, as Heathcliff is a person of color in Brontë’s book. No character ever says, point blank, “Heathcliff, I hate you because you are a person of color.” It’s demanded by the plot and by Brontë for the reader to be aware that the young ward’s dubious birth and lack of capital aren’t helped by him being described as “dark-skinned” or “as dark almost as if it came from the devil.” The prejudice he faces becomes the catalyst for the abuse inflicted on him. It’s why he becomes monstrous in character: he has had otherness forced upon him. (...)Wuthering Heights (2026) explores themes of desire, obsession, self-destruction and love—no one will deny that. But even with CharliXCX on the soundtrack, it’s a hollow figurine of the original novel. Brontë’s work has inspired dozens of adaptations and will surely inspire dozens more, but there is a reason why audience members continue to gravitate to that story. Emerald Fennell’s work will not go down in history as worthless; the costuming and overt sexuality will likely delegate it to the realm of camp. But it will not be considered an accurate reflection of the 1847 novel. (Isabe, Papp)
Con este último protagonizó en 1992 una de las adaptaciones más recordadas de 'Cumbres borrascosas', basada en la novela de Emily Brontë. Mucho antes de que la nueva versión protagonizada por Jacob Elordi y Margot Robbie despertara la curiosidad del público, Binoche y Fiennes dieron vida a Catherine Earnshaw y Heathcliff en una película que destacó por la intensidad en las emociones de sus protagonistas y por una química que traspasaba la pantalla. En una época en la que las adaptaciones literarias de gran presupuesto no eran tan habituales como lo son hoy, aquella producción sorprendió por la pasión de sus protagonistas y por una visión especialmente oscura y romántica de la obra. (Álvaro Alonso De La Fuente) (Translation)
They all have their different reasons, but their responses, including some officially submitted to the statutory consultation organised by Calderdale Energy Park, are clear in their opposition to the proposals.Calderdale Energy Park plans to put 34 giant wind turbines on Walshaw Moor, which is located between Hebden Bridge and Haworth, the village associated with the Brontë sisters. [...]Keighley and Ilkley Conservative MP Robbie Moore has long opposed the proposals and has lodged a ten-page document with the consultation outlining his concerns.“To make it clear, I’m not against renewable energy and understand the important role it plays in our energy mix.“But I cannot simply stand by to see the construction of wind turbines being installed and constructed on protected peatland and on world-renowned heritage landscapes such as Walshaw Moor, which is the beating heart of Brontë country.“This scheme will have lasting effects on our community, our landscape and environment.“On paper, it sounds like a triumph for renewable energy, but in reality, it is anything but,” he said.Mr Moore said he did not relish the prospect of 34 200-metre high turbines – “roughly twice the height of Big Ben” – and said his objection latter raised “grave concerns.”“It harms our environment, our ecology, our wildlife and our bird population.“It harms our precious peatland, our peat bogs and its carbon storage potential, it harms our heritage, our landscape, and our communities and neighbours,” he said.Mr Moore has long-pressured fellow West Yorkshire and Lancashire MPs to come out in opposition to the proposals.After considering his response carefully, Calder Valley Labour MP Josh Fenton-Glynn, in whose constituency the project would be sited, has done.Mr Fenton-Glynn has always argued that the issues need careful consideration rather than immediate opposition, but says the science has led him to oppose Calderdale Energy Park in his response.“I continue to have concerns about the impact of the Calderdale Energy Park on peat.“I believe in net zero but I don’t think we get there by damaging carbon stores.“Peatland is our Amazon rainforest and we should follow the science and protect it.“That is why I have stated my opposition in response to the consultation,” he said on his social media pages.Hebden Bridge and Todmorden East councillors from different parties have also responded in the negative.Green Party and Labour politicians have been pressed for their view, and have now given it.Councillor Hannah Mickleburgh-Benn (Green, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden East) is opposing the proposals in her consultation response.“I remain – based on the most recent updated information provided by Calderdale Energy Park – strongly opposed to the Walshaw Moor wind farm proposal,” she said.This is because the provided literature does not provide information on key parts of the construction and decommission in order to form a complete opinion on the environmental and ecological effects, she said.In her response she asks dozens of questions of the company on a range of aspects of the proposal.These include concerns about the impact on peatland, challenging assertions that the wider region and this site in particular is among the best for siting wind power, questioning its operational capacity and predicted carbon savings, assessment of flood risk potential impacts, and questions about the proposed cabling arrangements.Coun Mickleburgh-Benn said in her consultation response: “Besides the implausibility of restoring a peat bog that’s been upearthed and in storage for up to 35 years, leaving turbine bases and roads on the site could have a legacy of negative impact for local ecology.”And Labour’s Coun Sarah Courtney has said: “I am aware that we absolutely need to be supporting sustainable energy production, and that it is important that we are not NIMBYs and embrace opportunities for our area to contribute to renewable electricity production.“However, having read information available, the scientific evidence in terms of water and peat, appears to indicate that this moor may not be the right site for these turbines.”Calderdale Council’s ruling Reform UK group have long been clear in their opposition to the scheme.“We will fight to scrap Net Zero, protect our countryside, and put local people before profiteers.” (John Greenwood)
Based on the book by Janice Hadlow, “The Other Bennet Sister” retells Jane Austen‘s “Pride and Prejudice” from the viewpoint of overlooked Mary. Surprisingly, Ella had never read the Austen novel before she landed the part. “It’s mad, isn’t it?’ she laughs. “But I’m from North Yorkshire and I just thought Jane Austen wasn’t a writer for me. She was more for posh southern people. I used to read loads of Brontë because that was the world I was from.” (Simon Button)
The fair also marks the debut of two new releases: I Hide Myself within My Flowers, a commemorative poetry collection published to mark the 140th anniversary of American poet Emily Dickinson's death, and a deluxe gilt-edged hardcover edition of Emily Bronte's classic novel Wuthering Heights. (Xing Wen)
After reading This Dark Night and having a lot of trouble putting it down between chapters, my biggest disappointment had nothing to do with how Deborah Lutz uniquely captured the essence of Emily. It was the tragic brevity of her literary subject’s life (1818-1848). (...)What brings this unusual and ultimately tragic family into focus for 21st-century readers is Lutz’s consummate skill at weaving seemingly mundane details of everyday life into the fabric of their creative existence. Alongside the practical necessities of acquiring a Victorian education, maintaining a place in society, dealing with youthful emotions and romances, encountering illness and death, and keeping a motherless household running, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their only brother, Branwell, lived energetically in imaginary worlds they created and wrote about together --- not only during childhood, but also well into young adulthood.Much of their imaginative fervor, especially Emily’s, was stirred by the climate and rugged landscape of the Yorkshire moors around their hometown of Haworth. Their intellectually liberal father, Patrick, was a local clergyman who largely home-schooled the children. He would outlive not only his wife, but all six of his offspring.By drawing so deeply on the real and imaginary worlds that the Brontës simultaneously inhabited, Lutz adds meaning and relevance to Emily’s poetry, which spans her entire short life: her seeming obsession with death, graves, memorials, ghosts and the supernatural; her passion for the beauty of the night sky and contemplation of the infinite; her keen eye for the subtlest changes in the flora and fauna of the moors on which she wandered at every opportunity; and her passion for the welfare of animals. She also captures Emily’s sometimes-painful transition into adolescence and adulthood, times in which she could be both an acute observer and vocal critic of human nature and relationships (platonic and erotic).An especially endearing and often poignant element of This Dark Night is the generous amount of correspondence that Lutz includes between Emily and her sisters, friends and relatives, which not only serves to highlight the intimacy of their connections, but also brings the larger 19th-century world into their quite isolated rural environment. An important part of that wider world was the innovation of affordable rail travel that arrived in Yorkshire in time for Emily and Charlotte to journey overseas to Belgium for additional schooling, an experience that deeply influenced both their writing. (Pauline Finch)
Helen BurnsJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 1847“Life appears too short to me to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs,” the dying Helen Burns advises the furiously unhappy, rebellious young Jane in the opening chapters of Charlotte Brontë’s best-known novel. Helen’s pacific world view provides both moral and spiritual guidance for Jane, as Brontë’s wayward orphaned heroine negotiates her way into adulthood.Yet Jane also struggles to reconcile Helen’s submissive sensibility with her instinct to kick against compliance as a woman’s sexual and political lot. The unwaveringly good Helen inhabits one part of Jane, and Bertha Mason, Rochester’s “mad wife” whom he has imprisoned in the attic, the other. The genius of the novel lies in the way it holds these feminine contradictions in balance. (Claire Allfree)
I love Wuthering Heights from every inch of my heart. I love it with a passion that I love very few other books, and it is easily in my top three of all time. Like many others, I’d grown up thinking it was a romantic book, the pinnacle of romance really, a story between Catherine and Heathcliff.The first time I read it, I was fresh out of school, in that angsty period between school and university when life promises potential but everything is uncertain. In all honesty, I didn’t fully understand it, and I am almost certain I didn’t enjoy it either. I don’t remember feeling much, which in retrospect makes sense — I was in an all-girls boarding school for most of my teenage years and wasn’t particularly social enough to have formed any real romantic attachment outside of it.I read the book emotionally unprepared, which is to say, I came to it without having loved anyone yet. No wonder I found it disappointing. Where was the adventure? The tragedy? How much time were they actually spending together? (...)The insults in the novel were fabulous — “he’s such a cobweb, a pinch would annihilate him,” “thou saucy witch” — the characters so wickedly themselves that I found myself reading passages aloud to no one.Nevertheless, it was the central miscommunication that undid me. Heathcliff walking away two minutes before Catherine confesses that he is “more myself than I am, whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” It is almost the 1800s version of Normal People. I remember how wretched I felt, wanting to shake him. And then Catherine dies, and Heathcliff says “I cannot live without my life, I cannot live without my soul,” and there is simply nothing to be done with that.The thunderstorm, and the fool who loves himMost people who read Wuthering Heights expecting a love story come away confused and slightly betrayed. This is because it is not a love story. It is a revenge tale, and once you read it that way, the fact that everyone is so comprehensively horrible to each other starts to make a great deal more sense.The structure of the book does something interesting to the characters, particularly the first generation. The whole story reaches us third hand — Nelly Dean tells it to Lockwood, who writes it in his diary, occasionally admitting he is condensing things. Nelly herself wasn’t present for a lot of it. (Read more) (Treya Sinha)
'La inquilina de Wildfell Hall' de Anne BrontëLas hermanas Brontë fueron tres: Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848) y Anne (1820-1849). En el mundo occidental de principios del siglo XIX, las mujeres no tenían hueco en casi ningún ámbito, y menos aún en aquello que se consideraban tareas masculinas. Las tres tenían intereses literarios y las tres publicaron sus escritos para ayudar a su padre, que era pastor, a sacar adelante a la familia.Con menos de 30 años, publicaron relatos donde los personajes femeninos eran inteligentes, complicados y rebeldes. Emily solo publicó Cumbres borrascosas, pero sus hermanas continuaron su carrera de escritura. La más conocida de Charlotte es Jane Eyre. Anne fue una de las más olvidadas, pero cuenta con obras tan interesantes como La inquilina de Wildfell Hall.En esta novela, cuenta la misteriosa llegada de Helen Graham y su hijo a la vieja mansión Wildfell Hall. El pueblo no sabe que esta mujer realmente huye de un pasado muy turbulento. Algo que va descubriendo mientras lee su diario el narrador de la historia, Gilbert Markham, que está enamorado de ella en secreto. En el relato se cuelan opiniones y actitudes de mujeres muy avanzadas para su tiempo que lo hacen aún más atractivo. (Lidia Lozano) (Translation)
A community hall in a historic West Yorkshire village has been awarded a £74,800 grant to fix facilities which had fallen into "significant disrepair".The Local Regeneration Fund approved the money to refurbish Haworth Village Hall's toilets, which have been described as unsafe.A Bradford Council spokesperson said the works, in the village synonymous with the Brontës, were "vital to ensure the building meets safety standards and provides accessible amenities to meet the needs of the growing community". (Chris Young)
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)
TheWrap: When you started on the project, what were the things that you and Emerald talked about in terms of the look of “Wuthering Heights?”Linus Sandgren: It started with her, obviously, talking about the film in regards to her vision. I hadn’t read the book, I read her script, and she’s really great at actually explaining with few words, so you get images in your head when she’s talking … you sort of see images when she explains things. With “Saltburn,” she would explain how he’s licking the bathtub, you get images in your head.What was lovely was that the core of the story, the core of the visual storytelling comes from how she saw it as she read the book for the first time, basically, and therefore it was a mishmash of inspirational images that could be coming from Brutalist architecture that she’s seen in her neighborhood with films she’s seen as a kid or other things. She built that story in her head and the dream for her was to make a film that looked like that.She wanted to shoot it all on stage. Basically, to be able to create, at least the world, to look in a specific way and not just shoot in a random house. Everything is derived from her fantasy that has evolved, I’m sure, over the years, and so she had very specific ideas for costume and the design. It would be like the element of a rock and she would have images of rocks, and then images of unclear details of an animal on the wall that you don’t know what it is, but it looks gross, but it’s also beautiful, and it’s actually nothing special. It’s just a piece between the leg and the chest on a pig, but it looks like something else.It was [a] playful and very inspirational room that she had, with inspiring images that were not necessarily in the movie but they were helping us feel the freedom to go much further than you would normally do in in a film that would have to stick to reality – in a way that it was meant to be heightened realism and focus on the love story itself and let the world be expressive for this strong love story, in the same way romantic painters painted dramatic landscapes of man and nature. I think we use the same idea in different ways. Nature and man could be combined in, as much as we could fit, everything to whatever goes on emotionally. And then we had the freedom to be more dramatic than normal, Emerald encouraged [it].From shot to shot, as we went through the story, we decided on what would benefit this scene emotionally to make us feel when we watch these images and the actors in them, how they feel like inside, you always want to do that, but I think to a degree, in this case, it was only what we cared about. That was fun, because that was different from other films, and also, it was a dramatic, emotional and sensual story, which also was different for me.Emerald is the most fun to work with, because it’s always laughter. We always have so fun. Doing this film after “Saltburn” was really a fun challenge, but more challenging for all of us was the technical stuff, because it demanded more technical solutions for everything to work.What were those technical challenges?Well, for example, you decide to shoot on stage and build a house on stage with the interior and the exterior of the house. We shot only landscape shots and the introduction and the hanging and different things on location, but otherwise anytime you were outside around the Wuthering Heights house or Thrushcross Grange, it was on stage.One, you need a variation of weather to both entertain the audience, but also, we saw that as an opportunity to use the weather for the different emotions. That was an important key. It’s like when you play Zelda, then you mix these superpower drinks, you put down like a little bit of Kubrick here and then a little bit of “Gone With the Wind” here and German Expressionism there.I always try to think, which painterly style are we in? “Saltburn” was more baroque, because it could be like a picture that depicts something really hard to watch, but at the same time, you can’t resist watching it because it looks great. In this case, it was like, go all in on romanticism, use the nature with the emotions of the characters and an absolute classic.Also, because we were on stage, that it couldn’t look too artificial. The lighting, in a way, I feel like it should look naturalistic as much as possible, like the correct color temperatures that is in the real world, but an unrealistic amount of dramatic lighting, because it was always somewhat dramatic – either it was foggy or it was like rainy or it was the last sun with the dramatic clouds. Because it happened to be always a little bit dramatic, I guess that is what creates that heightened reality or surrealism in combination with strange sets.When we’re on location, we wanted to maintain that look on location and the technical challenges there would become that it’s sunny and windy, and you want to have a foggy looking or rainy looking scene, we added fog and added rain. All those scenes that look foggy or rainy were a challenge. There was also a challenge to light it in such a way that you had a great flexibility, because we shot on, I forgot now how many days, but it must have been over 40 days on the stages. And, from one day to another, you change, or even from one shot to another, you change direction, and a lot of lights are up there in the ceiling and on pipes and stuff. We needed to always have the flexibility to turn around. And so, we had to add more lights than we needed in a way that I basically peppered the ceiling with the LED lights.It was technical challenges like this because we aimed for creating somewhat realistic but also a dramatic once-a-month type of moment for every shot or every scene. Why it becomes a little more surreal but it was really about trying to capture whatever felt important in that particular scene, emotionally, in the most appropriate way, to enhance that with the visuals, which you don’t always do in films, because sometimes you want it to not be looking the way it feels or you want to do it in more subtle ways or realistic ways. Here it was more all in, which was different and fun. (Drew Taylor)
Fans of period dramas – particularly those inspired by novels from the Brontë sisters – are in for an absolute treat, as one largely overlooked television gem is being celebrated as essential viewing. Having accumulated rave reviews and widespread critical acclaim in the years following its release, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall made its debut on the BBC in November 1996.The three-part miniseries is adapted from Anne Brontë's 1848 novel of the same name and was directed by Mike Barker. Available to watch for free on BBC iPlayer, this outstanding period drama has prompted viewers to declare it surpasses even adaptations of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. (Parul Sharma)
Bradford has a rich literary history shaped by women writers who made women the centre of their storytelling. From the Brontë sisters whose female protagonists were independent, fearless and revolutionary, such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Catherine Earnshaw and Anne Brontë’s Helen Graham, to Times bestselling author Saima Mir, whose lead character Jia Khan of The Khan trilogy dismantles the deeply-rooted patriarchal institution of Bradford’s baradari, women writers from Bradford are gifted in their ability to tell powerful, eye-opening stories about women, offering both nuanced critiques of societal conditions and challenging norms. [...]It was while living in Bradford that I penned by own book, Hijab and Red Lipstick, which was recently released as a second edition. While my book is not set in Bradford, the city certainly nurtured my writing. From long hours spent writing at Waterstones café, whose staff diligently kept me fuelled with coffees and teas, to the advice and support I found at the Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing in Haworth, and the opportunities I have had as both an attendee and speaker at Bradford Literature Festival, the city really has a lot to offer for women writers like me. (Yousra Samir Imran)
One of 2026’s most buzzed-about historical novels is heading straight into the heart of old Hollywood glamour with a tinge of darkness.Bestselling author Natasha Lester is set to release her latest, The Chateau on Sunset, on June 2, 2026, and the novel is already being described as one not to miss thanks to its bold premise: a feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre set inside the infamous Chateau Marmont during Hollywood’s Golden Age. (Nina Derwin)
To her credit, Fennell understands that it’s more fun to smash a dollhouse than to construct one meticulously. Her sledgehammer approach to party scenes in her previous films is rivaled by Wuthering Heights’s opening sequence of a public hanging. Though we are supposed to be in the late 18th century, the mood is more medieval. After a few moments of the hanged man’s dying gasps, a Charli xcx song floods the soundtrack (the truly terrifying track “House,” which she recorded with John Cale), and the crowd erupts in a carnal frenzy. People roar, some start fucking, a nun closes her eyes, and parents pull away their children. The scene does not exist in Brontë’s novel, but it’s somehow closest to the monstrous vitality of that world, a place where the dead refuse to die. Too bad that Fennell never gives her characters the chance to live. (Genevieve Yue)
Originally broadcast in 1996, this TV period drama deserves recognition amongst the finest examples within the genre - at least according to enthusiastic fans..Drawing from Anne Brontë's 1848 novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a British production made for the BBC under Mike Barker's direction.Spanning three episodes broadcast in 1996, the series presents the novel's narrative in a manner many devotees consider faithful to the source material. (Emily Malia)
This autumn, a powerful reimagining of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre will be staged at Storyhouse in Chester from November 10 to 21, 2026.Helen Redcliffe, Head of Producing at Storyhouse, said: "One of the key themes of Jane Eyre is personal discovery and development, which feels especially fitting as we celebrate the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and its commitment to championing the next generation of theatre-makers."At Storyhouse, we are thrilled to be part of this partnership and to support Lily as she takes this exciting step in her career."From the moment we encountered her work, we were struck by her bold, imaginative style and her instinctive understanding of our venues and audiences."Her Jane Eyre promises to be a heightened, deeply theatrical experience, using the very best of storytelling to bring this beloved classic to life — and we are proud to play a part in what we’re certain will be an extraordinary journey for her and a memorable production for our community."Jane Eyre is a co-production between Storyhouse, the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and Rose Theatre Kingston. (...)Lily Dyble, director, said: "What I see at the heart of this story is courage in the face of the unknown."Jane Eyre reminds us of the risk and enormity of love, but also how uncertainty can breed hope as well as fear; that we can choose to fiercely love each other and ourselves, even within chaos, and even when our old lives have been lost to the fire."I’m thrilled to be bringing Jane’s story to audiences across England this autumn, with the support of four wonderful venues and the RTST." (Josh Price)
Però lo Yorkshire della Emily Brontë e delle sue blande cime vince sul Wessex, sui Cotswolds, sul Somerset e Dorset perché è davvero ruvido, gotico e più selvaggio suscitando introflessioni talvolta dilanianti. Così, come non dire dell'ultima versione hot di "Woundering Heights" girata da Emerald Fennel con Jacob Elordi e Margot Robbie (una Cathy troppo adulta rispetto a Heathcliff) e trasformata in un fiaba nera, piena di sangue, sesso e sospironi? Un adattamento sicuramente meno sognato, rispetto alle storiche precedenti, ma pur sempre infarcito di dimore fatiscenti e scorci strazianti. Non solo cuori infranti ma pure danza amorose, macabre o salvifiche e ad alto tasso erotico. Per cui di grande successo anche in quel pubblico giovane che la Brontë manco sapeva chi fosse. (Andrea Battaglini) (Translation)
Wuthering HeightsSky Cinema Premiere/Now, 8pmEmerald Fennell isn’t mucking about with her adaptation of the Emily Brontë classic. As well as ravishing Aussies in the lead roles (Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliffe), we get eye-popping cinematography, songs courtesy of the hyperpop princess Charli XCX, Martin Clunes as Cathy’s cruel alcoholic father and the young Heathcliff played by Owen Cooper. (2026)
by Alyson BaughDigital Literature Review, 13(1), 130–140 (2026)The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë, was published in the Victorian period, and Netflix’s TV series Maid was released in 2021. Despite being from different time periods, both stories explore domestic abuse, particularly through the significance of space and environment. Both texts use their individual stories to explore the double meaning of space and the reclamation of domestic spaces, and to redefine what makes a home a home.
My favourite classic readsI was soon drawn to the Brontë sisters. It wasn’t just the books, of course, it was also their story. How could you not feel pity at their situation but also envy that they were able to share their writing with their siblings? I have a battered anthology of Jane Eyre,Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall right by my desk. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre will always call to me.The writing is deceptively simple but the story fascinating, if chilling, and the heroine, as in so many of their books, ahead of her time.
Theatr Gymunedol Aberystwyth Community Theatre presentsby Lucy Gough. Based on Anne Brontë's novelAberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth SY23 3DE, UKFri 20 Mar - Sat 21 MarWho is the mystery woman that recently moved into Wildfell Hall? The Hall is isolated and semi-derelict. She is an artist and a single woman with a child; both frowned upon in 19th-century society. As the mystery unfolds, a life of struggle and courage is revealed. This is a story of resilience, survival, and an uncompromising need for truth and creativity. The play is framed by Anne Brontë’s reasons for writing this powerful, starkly honest, early feminist novel.
Commenting on the novel, Aberystwyth writer and director, Lucy Gough said: “Anne Brontë wrote a brilliant novel and I have worked with Aberystwyth Arts Centre Community Theatre to bring this to life on stage.“It has been an exciting journey, from novel, to script and now stage. I hope people new to the novel will be stimulated to read and enjoy it and those who know it find the play opens up fresh ways of understanding it.”This is the second time that Lucy’s love of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ has resulted in a new production.In 2024, loosely inspired by Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Lucy’s then new play called, ‘The Wild Tenant’ explored the complexity of a relationship overwhelmed by someone with addiction. (Julie McNicholls Vale)
7 The Professor (written 1846; published 1857) by Charlotte BrontëThis was the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed. It was rejected by publishers nine times. Written in the voice of a male narrator, William Crimsworth, it offers a downbeat story of everyday middle-class striving as the protagonist travels to Brussels to establish his career as a teacher. But the last publisher to see it thought it showed promise, despite being too short and insufficiently “striking and exciting”. Had the author anything else to offer? Luckily, Jane Eyre – which amply supplied the earlier book’s deficiencies – was already in train and was soon accepted with alacrity. Although The Professor remained unpublished in Charlotte’s lifetime, she continued to believe that it was “as good as I can write”; its subtly ironised male voice reveals her underlying literary sophistication.6 Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne BrontëIn 1846, the three Brontë sisters had – at their own expense – published a joint poetry collection under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. It sold just two copies. Realising that fiction was more saleable, they decided that each should write a novel under the same pen names. While Charlotte toiled over The Professor, the youngest sister, Anne, was working on Agnes Grey. It also sought to portray everyday life, but the result has a more authentic ring since she drew so directly on her personal experience working as a governess in well-to-do families. The first-person heroine is initially excited at the thought of earning her own living. But she finds herself underpaid and unappreciated by the snooty parents, while her tantrum-prone charges include a vile little boy who likes pulling the legs off baby sparrows. Had it not been overshadowed by Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights when it came out in 1847, it might perhaps have caused more of a stir as a Nanny Diaries-style exposé.5 Shirley (1849) by Charlotte BrontëThis flawed follow-up to Jane Eyre was written under trying circumstances. Charlotte’s brother Branwell and both her sisters sickened and died in quick succession during the writing of it, so it was abandoned for a while before being resumed by the bereaved author. That’s not, however, the only reason why this “condition of England” novel – which announces itself on page one as “something unromantic as Monday morning” – has failed to entrance readers as much as its predecessor Jane Eyre. Its third-person narrative does not focus on a single hero or heroine and as a result the book feels comparatively diffuse, though Charlotte herself might have defended it on the grounds that real life is diffuse. Set during the Luddite riots of 1811-12, it explores social unrest, capitalism and the “woman question”. Because of her proto-feminism, Charlotte’s ideological position has often been called progressive, yet she was in fact a political conservative.4 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (1848)In feminist terms, Anne’s second novel is the most radical and socially engaged of all the sisters’ books. The eponymous tenant, Helen Huntingdon, is hiding out at Wildfell Hall with her young son after leaving her abusive husband. At the time, unequal marriage laws meant that it was very hard for a woman to get a divorce at all and nigh impossible for her to get custody of her children. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte had made Mr Rochester a sexy Byronic rake; Anne, in reply, exposed the toxic masculinity behind that character type. Despite the novel’s strong Christian message, its unvarnished portrayal of addiction and adultery shocked Victorian readers more than any of the other Brontë books. More interested in the real than the ideal, Anne was drawing on her experience as a witness to Branwell’s chaotic behaviour.3 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)The first of the Brontë novels to be published, Charlotte’s melodramatic tale of the poor plain governess and the madwoman in the attic became a bestseller on first publication. Its genius, in fact, lies less in the plot than in what George Eliot’s future partner GH Lewes, who was one of its first reviewers, called its “strange power of subjective representation”. Ditching the distancing device of a male narrator for a female voice proved Charlotte’s creative breakthrough: it enabled her to inject a then unprecedented first-person intensity into the novel form. However, Jane Eyre proved controversial at the time among sexist critics. Correctly surmising that the author behind “Currer Bell” was a woman, they decried the book as “coarse” and the heroine as too assertive for a female.2 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)It is mind-boggling to think that Wuthering Heights was written alongside The Professor and Agnes Grey, quite literally on the same dining room table in Haworth Parsonage at which all three sisters sat together working on their first novels. Emily’s masterpiece was called “a strange book baffling all regular criticism” on publication; it remains enigmatic, completely sui-generis and totally outside the norms of Victorian fiction. Justly regarded as one of the greatest works in the western canon, it’s far from the cliched love story it later became in popular culture. Though grisly with violence, it’s oddly devoid of sex. The writing is astonishing: scarcely any adjectives and not a purple passage in sight. The Victorian poet Swinburne was right to compare it to Greek tragedy.1 Villette by Charlotte Brontë (1853)Less famous than Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, Villette is Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece and deserves to be better known. Here, she goes back to the Brussels material that she had already used at a tangent in The Professor – and which was rooted in her real-life experience of studying and teaching there in 1842-4. Reworking those memories from a first-person female perspective, she now incorporated her own secret into the story: the unrequited love she had felt for her Belgian writing tutor Constantin Heger. Yet the result is anything but naïve autobiography. Instead, it shows Charlotte push the classic realist Victorian novel in new, artistically experimental directions. The unreliable narrator, Lucy Snowe, has intimacy issues and sets a challenge for the reader. Long before Freud, Charlotte was exploring questions about repression and the unconscious in a complex, self-knowing psychological novel whose generic status hovers ambiguously between naturalism, gothic and autofiction. The extent to which Villette mined and refracted her own inner life was only discovered posthumously by her biographers.
Modern artists like Manet, who portrayed purely modern scenes without conforming to the “grain,” provoked viewership fury. French critic of the time, Émile Zola, argued in an essay titled “Édouard Manet”, originally published in 1867, that public outrage simply reveals how tightly audiences cling to expectations of what art ought to resemble. The public, up until this point, had maintained neoclassical values in art: to flatter, narrate, and moralize. Manet refused all three of those familiar imperatives by producing art that felt uncomfortable and bluntly new — a choice that is now heavily applauded. True art, a point Zola returns to time and time again, does not come from a desire to conform to norms or follow the “grain” but from individual temperament and personal vision.Nearly two centuries later and across the Atlantic, my girlfriends and I visited the Cineplex on Rue Sainte Catherine to watch Emerald Fennell’s 2026 “Galentines” adaptation of “Wuthering Heights”. The reaction to the film was generally varied. Some praised it, while lovers of the novel jumped to Twitter and Reddit to vent their anger over yet another inaccurate adaptation. To give credit to these bibliophiles, Fennell abandons many of the themes that make this story so impactful by portraying a narrative based on her initial impression of the book as a 14-year-old girl. In depicting this youthful interpretation, Fennell centres the film around a glorified toxic romance between Catherine and Heathcliff. Frustrated viewers were appalled at Fennell’s tone-deafness in foregrounding obsessive love while sidestepping and softening the harsher themes of the novel, particularly those pertaining to Heathcliff’s racial marginalization and the systemic class violence in the setting.In reading tweets alleging the film’s negligence, just as I did in December when choosing my winter semester electives, I turned to modern art history. Two hundred years apart, both Manet and Fennell have something in common: they’ve both committed to their personal visions and rejected traditional expectations. Manet counters aesthetic norms and produces art that depicts the tensions of modern life in a way that is truthful to himself. Similarly, Fennell abandons the expectation that adaptations be reflective of their source material to create a film rooted in her own experience, a decision Zola might have applauded. Whether or not you enjoy or even “agree with” either of these artist’s work, they both made the choice to commit to their personal truths and abandon external expectations. In practicing artistic autonomy, they choose their own temperament as an anchor in their work.If these two artists are correct and individual temperament is the “True North” of art, it leads us to question: are there traditions or expectations that artists must uphold, or is personal vision all that truly matters? Between these contexts, “tradition” is understood very differently. For Manet, “traditions” are expectations set by the Art Academy surrounding what defines academically valid (and objectively good) art. For Fennell, “tradition” underlines the source material from which she draws her film: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Both these artists abandon tradition in their works, making audiences question: where is the line drawn between artistic autonomy and deviations from tradition?In deviating from tradition, one can question the difference between innovation and avoidance.If artists do have a responsibility to uphold a certain tradition, both Manet and Fennell have failed to do so. Yet we celebrate Manet as a transformative turning point in modern art history. Why? In my opinion, it is because Manet’s work denies the comfort of ignorance and bluntly presents his audiences with uncomfortable social realities, forcing them to analyze their own lives through his work. In contrast, Fennell’s Wuthering Heights does exactly the opposite. While she also deviates from “tradition”, she does so by refusing to inherit the uncomfortable and darker themes of the novel. She allows her audiences to find comfort in the avoidance of difficult themes surrounding the intersection of violence, race, and class. If Manet makes audiences question how closely art should adhere to academic standards, Fennell forces them to question how much personal vision we are willing to accept in interpretations of classic narratives.In some cases, we respond well to moving away from tradition when artists depict their personal visions because it feels honest and revealing, confronting you with art rooted in social reality. This is what Manet did in pulling at the seams of academic art to reveal true modern life. On the other side of the coin, moving away from tradition can feel dishonest if viewers don’t feel it is rooted in these social truths — the very social truths that made Emily Brontë’s novel so impactful in the first place.Now, as I wrap up this article in my student apartment a few streets from campus, I have to conclude that this argument is somewhat of an open-ended question. I think that is because there is no universal line that separates avoidance from innovation in art. That line is unstable by design, and artists have always toed it by pushing their own personal vision forward while balancing a respect for tradition. Perhaps this tension is what produces great art. That being said, in my art history class, we are still marveling at Manet’s impact on the evolution of modern art two centuries later. But as I left the Cineplex on Sainte Catherine after seeing Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, I got the impression that this particular adaptation might not make it onto the syllabus of a film class in another two hundred years. (Lyla Burt)
Contemporary psychology doesn’t view their relationships as “tragic lovers divided by social class and circumstance.” Instead, people agree that this story is about two deeply wounded people who cannot escape each other’s influence.Behind the perfect visuals and stunning costumes, it’s still possible to get the idea that this movie is a “psychological horror,” as often described on Reddit. Catherine, Heathcliff, and nearly every supporting character become trapped in a cycle of resentment and revenge.
Wuthering HeightsWe went to see Wuthering Heights within the last two weeks, and we totally loved it. I know that a lot of people felt really mixed about it, but we loved it, and so I took the opportunity to see if she might be into listening to Jane Eyre on Audible. I thought she might want to hear what another Brontë sister was writing, but I got sort of a mixed reply on it. We listened to her for a little bit, but I’m still trying. (Padma Lakshmi as told to Marah Eakin)
Wuthering: A Musical on the MoorsBy Hannah GregoryWorld PremiereMainStageDirected by Caitlin McWethyApril 2-18, 2027Rated: PG-131787, Yorkshire, England. After her father’s death, the once bright and wild Cathy Earnshaw marries the wealthy Edgar Linton, in order to provide financial security for herself and her true love, Heathcliff. Devastated by her betrayal, Heathcliff disappears for three years, only to return as a wealthy man intent upon seeking his revenge. An original folk musical inspired by Emily Brontë’s classic novel about the socioeconomic anxieties of love, class, and race in Victorian England.
The world premiere of Lucy Gough’s adaptation of Anne Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ will be performed at Aberystwyth Arts Centre this month.Theatr Gymunedol Aberystwyth Community Theatre present Gough’s version of Brontë’s novel on Friday, 20 March at 7.30pm, and on Saturday, 21 March at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. [...]Commenting on the novel, Aberystwyth writer and director, Lucy Gough said: “Anne Brontë wrote a brilliant novel and I have worked with Aberystwyth Arts Centre Community Theatre to bring this to life on stage.“It has been an exciting journey, from novel, to script and now stage. I hope people new to the novel will be stimulated to read and enjoy it and those who know it find the play opens up fresh ways of understanding it.”This is the second time that Lucy’s love of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ has resulted in a new production.In 2024, loosely inspired by Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Lucy’s then new play called, ‘The Wild Tenant’ explored the complexity of a relationship overwhelmed by someone with addiction. (Julie McNicholls Vale)
Margot Robbie starrer R-rated romance drama collected $3.7 million at the domestic box office on its 4th three weekend. It lost 709 theaters in North America and is now running on only 2512 screens. On Monday, the film added another $332k at the box office in North America. It dropped by 46.5% from last Monday.According to Box Office Mojo‘s latest data, Wuthering Heights’ domestic total has hit $79.06 million cume in 25 days. After its 4th weekend, the film’s overseas total has reached $134.9 million, bringing the worldwide total to $213.9 million. It is the second-highest-grossing film worldwide in 2026.Worldwide collection breakdown
- Domestic – $79.0 million
- International – $134.9 million
- Worldwide – $213.9 million (Esita Mallik)
The movie Pegasus 3 has become the big box office phenomenon of 2026, accumulating a global total of 529.6 million dollars, making it the highest-grossing film of the year.Directed by Han Han, the film follows the story of Zhang Chi, a veteran car racer who leads a team in an international rally. Released in China on February 17 and in other markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia on February 23, Pegasus 3 has surpassed the previous leader, Wuthering Heights, which had achieved 192 million dollars. (Jesús Bosque)
La temática de la Feria del Libro de 2026 de San Fernando estará centrada en la literatura victoriana y de regencia, centrándose en personajes como Sherlock Holmes, Drácula, Jane Eyre, Dorian Gray, Doctor Jekyll y Mr. Hyde, entre otros. Se desarrollará del 15 al 20 de junio en la Plaza del Rey (José F. Cabeza) (Translation)
Wuthering Heights adaptation is what happens when no one reads. (...)The latest work from English filmmaker Emerald Fennell — who cultivated a sizable following with her tawdry 2023 dark comedy Saltburn — is a loose adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 Wuthering Heights — loose being a charitable term doing more than its share of heavy lifting — and a reflection of a stark literary crisis plaguing our modern age. (Harry Khachatrian in Washington Examiner)
Emerald Fennell's adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" ultimately falls flat, trading significant characters and emotional intimacy for awkward erotica. (...)However, even if the film is reviewed as an independent entity, it still relies on montages, shock value and awkward erotica, which do not make up for underdeveloped protagonists and a complete lack of story development. (1 of 5) (Mia Colangelo in Pipe Dreams)
There’s something undeniably Shakespearean about Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Like Romeo, Heathcliff is “fortune’s fool,” undone by a love so infinite he’ll destroy everything and everyone just so he won’t be without it. But in some ways, this story is even more gut-wrenching. Romeo and Juliet’s romance was impulsive and short, kept apart by family drama; Catherine and Heathcliff torture themselves slowly through their pride and insistence on possessing one another completely. So yes, the film is provocative. It’s romantic. It’s erotic, and even gross at times. And in that way, it lives up to the hype because it’s so deliciously, unapologetically an Emerald Fennell film. And I loved every second of it. (Liana Minassian in The Everygirl)
Ultimately, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of prioritizing aesthetic over substance. In its attempt to modernize the moors for a commercial audience, the adaptation loses the very soul of the novel, turning a classic into a cheesy romance. (Madelyn Stewart in The News Record)
To her credit, Fennell understands that it’s more fun to smash a dollhouse than to construct one meticulously. Her sledgehammer approach to party scenes in her previous films is rivaled by Wuthering Heights’s opening sequence of a public hanging. Though we are supposed to be in the late 18th century, the mood is more medieval. After a few moments of the hanged man’s dying gasps, a Charli xcx song floods the soundtrack (the truly terrifying track “House,” which she recorded with John Cale), and the crowd erupts in a carnal frenzy. People roar, some start fucking, a nun closes her eyes, and parents pull away their children. The scene does not exist in Brontë’s novel, but it’s somehow closest to the monstrous vitality of that world, a place where the dead refuse to die. Too bad that Fennell never gives her characters the chance to live. (Genevieve Yue in Film Comment)
In lieu of Bronte’s original tale, Fennell offers an odd mix of campy Harlequin-esque romance and weird Gothic horror. Within this concoction, sumptuous sets, flashy costumes and wild weather turn out to be the real stars. (...)It all adds up to an overheated mess. Thus, in the end, this “Wuthering Heights” might more aptly be titled “Withering Lows.” (Joseph McAleer in Catholic Review)
Fennell wields overacting from the lead as a strategy for preserving a classical tone. However, the choice to cast modern A-listers in a period piece set to the music of a Gen Z chart-topper already forgoes the chances of being perceived as authentically vintage. Once the story reaches its climactic change of ownership of the Wuthering Heights estate, this ability-to-go-viral tone takes a turn for the better. This pick-up in momentum and quality improves the impact of Robbie’s acting because her whimsical runs across the moors come off more genuine than performative. At this moment, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” redeems itself as an entertaining spectacle, no matter how far removed from its blueprint. Luckily, it does not always take itself seriously at times, like the ridiculously tall mountain of empty beer bottles that surround Cathy’s father, who turns to alcohol in his isolation. This admission of dramatization welcomes laughs and critiques all the same. Clearly, Fennell was not looking to be conventional. (Georgie Gassaron in The Ithacan)
Millennial Fennell may be tapping into a dark romance zeitgeist with “Wuthering Heights”, but she’s also going against the grain when it comes to younger viewers. Despite Gen Z’s pornography habits, headlines proclaim that Zoomers are uninterested in sex or even sex scenes in movies and television. The perception is so pervasive that actress Olivia Wilde is practically begging Gen Z to buy tickets to her new film I Want Your Sex. One of Wilde’s younger costars said she hopes the film inspires risk-averse Zoomers to have sex, adding, “Sex can be lighthearted. It doesn’t have to stare. (Evie Solheim in First Things)
In contrast, Wuthering Heights is a little late to the party. The mix of contemporary culture and period drama on which it relies has become an established trope, from the appearance of a Converse trainer in Sophia Copolla’s Marie Antoinette back in 2006 to orchestras playing Ariana Grande in the more recent Bridgerton (2020–). Perhaps in time, Fennell’s oeuvre will be appreciated for its encapsulation of our present, an era in which the distinction between a film and its promotion has all but evaporated, both transformed into tools for creating a blitz of images designed to dominate social media feeds. But for now, as pleasant as it is to see Margot Robbie in a bodice and a pair of red sunglasses à la late 90s Britney Spears, this is not, on its own, enough to own the moment – or to fill more than two hours of cinema. (Rosanna McLaughlin in ArtReview)
Ultimately, this “Wuthering Heights” adaptation succeeds most when it’s viewed not as a translation of the novel but as a reimagined, loose version of it.It’s understandable why some viewers feel protective of the original source material. But treating adaptations as creative conversations rather than sacred reproductions opens the door for something more interesting — and sometimes more memorable.Fennell’s version may not replace the classic in anyone’s mind. But it does prove that even a story told countless times can still feel new when someone is willing to take risks with it. (Kamdyn Sargent in The Suffolk Journal)
They cry and mewl and pout at each other, break for a costume change, and then do it all again, striking postures of indignance and hurt as they growl about their feelings and heave their respective bosoms. They stand stoically by Cathy’s father’s grave, the wind tearing camply at her black veil, then, practically within sight of the funeral party, reunite with animal intensity. Occasionally in fits of love-stricken anger Robbie will beat her girly fists on Elordi’s manly chest. When all other ways of communicating their profound bond have been exhausted, they stick their fingers in each other’s mouths. (John Maier in UnHerd)
“I have not broken your heart,” sighs Heathcliff during one sweaty, tear-streaked moment of truth with Cathy. “You have broken it, and in breaking it, you have broken mine.” That’s a great line, and Fennell is smart enough to retain it and many others; brave, too, considering the inevitable and palpable clash between her dialogue and Brontë’s. The hearts most likely to be broken by Wuthering Heights are those set, however sincerely (or foolishly), on the prospect of a faithful cinematic translation of a classic. For viewers at the skeptical end of the spectrum about Fennell’s filmmaking to date, the dubious choices on display may play less like disappointment than a grueling but finally gratifying kind of validation: It’s “very enjoyable.” (Adam Nayman in The Ringer)
Film as a medium requires compression and most subplots do not survive, but Brontë’s novel was never meant to be easily digested.When adaptations oversexualize characters, viewers are offered something more consumable. Was this a missed opportunity for Fennell to make a social commentary on race and class? Do modern adaptations assume viewers cannot comprehend depth? Or, do viewers prefer it that way?“Wuthering Heights,” the movie, is a hit. It is ambitious and emotionally resonant. But it still calls into question our modern appetite for complexity. Do audiences still crave the sharpness of a classic, or is the pretense of sophistication enough to sell? (Aditi Allam in The Flat Hat)
I was astonished. I was mesmerized. I was in profound thought. The realization of how much human connection can mean hit me deeply during Wuthering Heights. The theme of a forever-relationship taking place in the late 1800s spoke to me, especially in an era in which there were no technological advancements.Instead, only-face-to-face interactions which resulted in immersive moments of love. Fennell brings audiences on a journey that is one-of-a-kind. Not everyone may understand it at first, but the dramatics are a wild adventure that is all about love and how much it can hurt. (Tarek Fayoumi in Positively Naperville)
A sensual, stylised and satiric interpretation of Brontë's classic novel. (Jane Freebury in The Daily Advertiser)
Do I recommend this movie? Well, not to my mother. But if you’re anything like me and you enjoy stylized period adaptations that lean more into fantasy than accuracy, then go for it. (Steven Leatherwood in Indiana Daily Student)
It's dangerous to see the movie with your mother, as this fellow warns you.
This movie plays with the erotic - but never quite gets it right. The reason for this is Wuthering Heights is not a vehicle for sexual fantasies. Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” has all the porno tropes: choking; quickies in the back of a car (or in this case, a carriage); dirty talk. There’s even a peeping tom scene as Cathy ventures into voyeurism as she watches through the floorboards as two servants do the deed. One says to the other: “Have you been a bad girl?” as his amour walks through horse bridles, before it is placed on her head.Yet there is one sexualisation of the text that sits very uncomfortably with me. Heathcliff in the original text murders dogs for the hell of it. He imprisons and rapes Isabella (played by Alison Oliver). He is a character of untold evil, brooding for literally years over his hatred at Cathy’s rejection of him. Yet, his treatment of Isabella is portrayed as a dominant/submissive relationship. He climbs in Isabella’s window and tells her exactly what he will do: he will not love her. He will hurt her. Throughout he asks: “Do you want me to stop?” Isabella nods her consent.This act of consent neuters the evil that Heathcliff is known for. Brontë’s text shows his acts as calculated, deliberate, and completely abhorrent. Yet, in Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”, this evil is boiled down to a kink.Young viewers, who may not have read the text, may understand Heathcliff as Fennell shows him to be: a romantic hero striving at all costs to be with his one true love. When they eventually pick up Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, will they read his sadism as acts of love to be tolerated? Incel culture and misogyny is on the rise. We could do without translating it into something to be doe-eyed about. (Aimée Walsh)
Wuthering Heights is at its heart a story of class and race. Emerald Fennell has got it all wrong.By turning the novel into just a corset-heaving love story, the director has stripped it of what made it so boundary-pushing. (...)It’s difficult, when watching Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”, not to imagine what Emily Brontë would have made of it. Before I get into it, I feel obliged to state that although I love the book I am not a purist. I often relish creative reinterpretations of classics. Admittedly, this one came with a fair few red flags, from the casting of Margot Robbie (simply too old, Cathy is a teenager) and Jacob Elordi (simply too white, Heathcliff, while his origins are uncertain, is described as darker skinned) to the unhinged marketing and crass brand tie-ins.Nevertheless, I was still excited to see it. So why did I leave the cinema not only bored, but feeling a little bit sad? Fennell said she wanted to make the film she imagined at 14, the age at which many of us read the novel in English class. Fennell focuses almost entirely on the “love story” at the expense of almost all of the novel’s other themes. Of course, if you’re a teenager in love, the doomed connection between Cathy and Heathcliff does captivate, although as an abuser who hangs a dog, Heathcliff is not exactly fanciable. I do understand the impulse behind Fennell’s fan-fictiony desire to have them consummate their love, when Brontë, who probably never touched a man her entire life, left all that desire unrealised. Horniness at the expense of all else, however, can feel terribly hollow. (...)Ultimately, the film was an act of cynical co-option by someone who didn’t understand the molten core of this novel and its groundbreaking approach to class, race and gender, or chose not to. And that’s why it made me feel so bored, and sad.
Which, of course, is true. The novel is all about that. But not only that. There are many Wuthering Heights in Wuthering Heights and what happens is that yours is not Emerald Fennell's.
Amber Barry, a PhD researcher in Victorian literature at King’s College London, says: “The Yorkshire moors illuminate Cathy and Heathcliff’s story particularly within the context of working-class demonstrations at the time. Can we call this Wuthering Heights if such a crucial setting is reduced to a flat, vaguely gothic backdrop?”As a Bradford-born actor, I have experienced barriers in the arts first-hand, and I believe casting choices such as Fennell’s preserve a system that undervalues northern women. Of course, acting is a transformational craft – performers are expected to inhabit lives far removed from their own, myself included. But the issue is not that actors shouldn’t extend beyond their lived experience. The question is far broader: when a major production depicts a didactic novel steeped in landscape, dialect and cultural identity, why should those from that region be denied such life-changing opportunities? It’s not about choosing between A-listers and regionally authentic actors, it’s about asking why so few actors from Bradford have ever reached the visibility necessary to be considered at all.
With this hyper-stylized and hyper-sexualized interpretation of the literary classic, Fennell has said that she “wanted to make something that was the book that I experienced when I was 14.” Davies was intrigued as soon as she read the script. “When I read her stage directions, I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe she wants to do this! How am I going to do it?’” Davies’ second project with Fennell, after Saltburn, has been “one of the most exciting experiences as a production designer. There were so many unusual yet wondrous ideas on every page, from the dollhouse to the skin room [Catherine’s bedroom]. I felt immensely privileged that we were going to try to create that subconscious vision that everyone has when they read a book or listen to a story. Everyone has their own visuals in their mind, but very rarely do you get the opportunity to bring that to life.” (...)That top shot when Heathcliff goes to see Catherine after she dies is beautifully shot, as he lumbers up that rectangular staircase to her bedroom. What does that symbolize?We nearly didn’t do those stairs. I could’ve gone with a Regency or Georgian-shaped staircase; a spiral might’ve been the obvious choice. But in this case, necessity being the mother of invention, I had one space where I could build that staircase, and I wanted to fill it as much as possible. The rectangular staircase is really unusual and makes you feel uneasy. It’s a white marble staircase with red fur hanging from the bottom to give it different textures. He slowly goes up those stairs to find Cathy dead — the power of that scene. As [Cinematographer] Linus [Sandgren] and Emerald held that shot, you hold your breath until you can’t hold it anymore. As he walks into the light at the end of the bedroom, up those stairs, that’s such a powerful moment. (Su Fang Tham)
Glamour thinks that period dramas don't need period costumes – and “Wuthering Heights” is the proof.
Nelly is not a canonically queer character, and though she used queer content for shock value in Saltburn, Fennell shies away from most queer subtext in Wuthering Heights, with exceptions like a sapphic crush disappointingly framed as a jokey signifier of mental instability. But while not explicitly queer, Nelly is in a marginalized position as a servant and an unmarried woman. (In the novel, she’s sometimes called “Mrs. Dean,” but this appears to be simply an honorific; no husband is ever seen.) Though she’s surrounded by people desperately trying to negotiate marriages like business transactions, Nelly doesn't have the option to marry up, and her class status informs her view of the people and dynamics around her. (Megan Burbank)
Infobae (Argentina) thinks that the film is an (intolerable) fiftyshadesofgreyfication of Wuthering Heights. Also on Infobae, Wuthering Heights (the novel) is among Amazon Mexico's best-sellers.
The soundtrack is an exercise in experimentation for the artist, to which she is lyrically attached above all. For long-time fans of the British artist, Wuthering Heights is a great body of work that sees her return to her earliest sound but incorporating everything she’s learned over the years and her expansive, ever-changing career. Charli reminds us again that she’s an incredible lyricist and producer, that she knows what she wants to sound and look like, and the worlds she’d like to inhabit and explore through music and art. (Toni Casal in Metal)
Overall, “Wuthering Heights” is a bold and compelling addition to xcx’s discography, highlighting her growth as an artist. From haunting lyrics to high-energy instrumentals, xcx demonstrates her versatility, blending her signature pop sound with a darker, more cinematic edge. The album makes the perfect soundtrack for the film, immersing listeners in the passion, obsession and heartbreak of the story. (Lexi Bunting in Indiana Daily Student)
But at least since Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, the prospect of musically reimagining the story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff – if you want to reduce it to that – must have been all too daunting. Not for Charli XCX, who, after reading Emerald Fennell’s screenplay and being asked to contribute an original song for her inevitably steamy adaptation, decided to do a full album – not a soundtrack, certainly not a score dotted with a couple of pop songs, but a conceptual record attempting to match the infernal yearning Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi arguably bring to the screen. It does – makes it more convincing, even – but the album is so front-loaded it eventually stops sounding like a passion project, which is worse than having it tumble into madness. (Konstantinos Pappis in Our Culture)
Wuthering Heights was directly inspired by the film of the same name, and I applaud Charli XCX for taking a leap of faith here by stretching her creative muscles into uncharted waters for her. I really enjoyed the majority of this album, but the last few songs were a bit too “samey” to fully realize her vision for this record. The best news from this record is that Charli XCX has rekindled her creativity and seems poised for another big breakout when she drops her next LP. (Adam Grundy in Chrous.fm)
The album that could’ve been is spelled out there: one that, like the most feverish and unrelenting of love, tortures and tears you open in delight, challenges you and takes you out of yourself, leaving you open, lacerated, raw, and dripping like a wound. Yet so many of Wuthering Heights’s songs feel too easy, especially for Charli XCX of all people. Love is a dangerous game, after all, but here you can’t help feeling Charli is playing it safe. (Lydia Wei in Paste)
Infobae recommends The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Unless explicitly said
