'Nothing beats the thrills and seductions of Emily Brontë’s novel'

Among all the Wuthering Heights 2026 news stories told and retold ad nauseam, there are always small gems. Today's is an article by John Mullan on 'How Wuthering Heights seduced its readers' in The New Statesman.

Nothing beats the thrills and seductions of Emily Brontë’s novel

"Drive me mad” implored the first billboards advertising director Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming film. So proverbial for passionate extremity is Emily Brontë’s novel that Wuthering Heights did not even need to feature on the adverts, which loudly proclaimed the film as a story of erotic compulsion. Is this what Brontë gave us? Is it why teenagers with a literary bent still love her novel?

‘“Drive me mad” is a phrase that does come from the book; it is spoken by Heathcliff, immediately after his beloved Catherine’s death, as he begs her ghost to haunt him. “I know that ghosts have wandered on Earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad!” As he finishes speaking, he smashes his head against the trunk of a tree, already stained with “splashes of blood” from earlier acts of self-violence. Maddened is just what he is.

Is Wuthering Heights a story of sexual obsession that we can still recognise? Fennell has said that she wants to do justice to the “primal, sexual” aspects of the novel. Yet the book is unusual in its depiction of sexual desire, which is obscure or unsatisfied or sublimated into anger. You might not guess from all the passionate embraces in film adaptations, but the love between Heathcliff and Catherine is never consummated. It is rooted in their shared childhood and early adolescence: she is only 15 when she becomes engaged to Edgar Linton, and the spurned Heathcliff, overhearing her say that “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now”, leaves Wuthering Heights, in the Yorkshire moors where they live, for three years. Only on his return, finding her married and mortally ill, does he, observed by housekeeper Nelly Dean, get to grasp her and give her “more kisses than ever he gave in his life before, I dare say”. The fact that she is five months pregnant by her husband is mentioned only six chapters later, when, aged just 18, she dies a few hours after the premature birth of her daughter – as if the reality of her marital sex life is to be ignored.

Nelly Dean, with the privileged access of a servant to the Earnshaw and Linton families, narrates most of the novel to a prim gentleman called Lockwood, who has rented Thrushcross Grange, the Lintons’ former home. Everything is filtered through these two, and the accounts of other characters that they report. The stories within stories can be dizzying. At one stage, for instance, Lockwood is telling the reader of what Nelly Dean has told him of what Isabella told her of a violent quarrel between Hindley Earnshaw and Heathcliff. What we see and hear is utterly removed from any authorial judgment. Who knows what Emily Brontë thought of how her characters behave? Film adaptations have been powerless to replicate the novel’s complex business of narrations within narrations.

Lockwood’s narration, which opens and closes the novel, holds within it a story that goes back 30 years – a family saga reaching across generations. With him we look into a world where characters are driven by passions that are extreme and sometimes unintelligible. The attentive reader will surely share his fascinated incomprehension. Heathcliff’s emotional expressions sometimes verge on absurdity. Comparing his love for Catherine to Edgar Linton’s, he declares, “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in 80 years, as I could in a day.”

As well as being a vehicle of passion, the novel is a thing of great formal intricacy. Time is Emily Brontë’s element, and her novel has the most beautifully elaborate time scheme of almost any 19th-century novel. (Like Jane Austen, the author worked with calendars, or almanacs, to ensure a consistent internal chronology.) Events take place in times distant from its Victorian readers. First published in 1847, it begins with a date, “1801”, that thrusts the story back into the past, even for its original readers – for most, beyond their own memories. Once Nelly Dean begins narrating, it then travels even further back, for the unfolding of the story of Catherine and Heathcliff, to the 1770s and 1780s – the equivalent of a novel of today setting its main action in the 1950s and 1960s. We are removed to a time as well as a place cut off from the world. This is a Victorian novel designed to escape its times, with less connection to Victorian values than any other novel of the period.

The novel’s narrative structure enacts the way in which the present is sucked back into the past, but we are also sometimes jolted into the present tense of Lockwood’s confused processing of what he has been hearing and seeing. Present jars against past. Interruptions keep reminding us we are listening to a narration by Nelly Dean – “The clock is on the stroke of 11” – even as Lockwood urges her to continue. The reader shares with Lockwood the experience of waking up from a different time – the shock of re-entering the present.

Seasons revolve throughout the novel, each marker of the time of year usually a description of the weather:

On an afternoon in October, or the beginning of November, a fresh watery afternoon, when the turf and paths were rustling with moist, withered leaves, and the cold, blue sky was half hidden by clouds – dark grey streamers, rapidly mounting from the west and boding abundant rain.

Meteorology had never been so precise in English fiction before. Types of cloud and the weather they portend are exactly described. We are used to hearing Wuthering Heights being called “elemental”, and certainly its characters are closer to the elements than in most novels, closer to the cold and the wet, but also to the occasional blessing of warm days. Everyone is season-sensitive.

The reader may hardly be conscious of the frequent small details of the ever-changing weather, but they accumulate to convince us that this is a real place, with its own special climate. The sense of place is extraordinary, yet also utterly remote. In the novel’s first paragraph, Lockwood marvels at his new-found disconnect from the world. “In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society”. He jokes that it is “a perfect misanthropist’s Heaven”, which is as ill-judged as most of his jokes. Hatred of your fellow human beings does indeed flourish in this place. “My mind is so eternally secluded in itself,” says Heathcliff, near the novel’s end.

This is less a love story than a hate story. Like several other film adaptations of Brontë’s novel, Fennell’s version will apparently stop at its mid-point, with the death of Catherine. We will not have the complicated enactment of Heathcliff’s revenge: his tricking of Hindley Earnshaw out of the property of Wuthering Heights and ensuring his early death (aged 27) through alcoholism; his degradation of Hindley’s son, Hareton; his cunning arrangement of the marriage of Catherine, daughter of Edgar Linton, to his enfeebled son, Linton, ensuring that he becomes the owner of Thrushcross Grange, the Lintons’ family home. Ironically, without its second phase, the story is a grimmer one. It excludes the growing affection and final marriage of Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Linton. In Brontë’s telling, these two finally escape the bitterness and fury of the older generation.

It is strange that Heathcliff has become a Byronic anti-hero, even sex symbol. He expresses contempt for Isabella Linton’s marrying him “under a delusion… picturing in me a hero of romance”. However abused he was by the jealous Hindley in his youth, his extreme violence is unforgivable. On his first visit to Wuthering Heights, Lockwood notices that, when young Catherine answers him back, Heathcliff lifts his hand and she instantly springs to a safer distance, “obviously acquainted with its weight”. Much later in the book, we actually see him strike her down. Isabella describes how, when the drunken Hindley confronts him with a knife and pistol, Heathcliff wrenches them from his grasp, slashing Hindley’s arm. He then “kicked and trampled on him, and dashed his head repeatedly against the flags”. When Isabella tells him that he would have proved an “abominable” husband to Catherine too, he throws a knife at her head, cutting her beneath the ear. She throws a knife back at him. Violence spreads from one character to another. No film has dared do justice to it.

The first reviewers were both intrigued and repelled. “The general effect is inexpressibly painful. We know nothing in the whole range of our fictitious literature which presents such shocking pictures of the worst forms of humanity,” wrote one. Yet the same reviewer added, “The reality of unreality has never been so aptly illustrated as in the scenes of almost savage life which Ellis Bell has brought so vividly before us”. “The reality of unreality” seems a good phrase for the credibility and yet utter peculiarity of this novel, which will always take us to its own remote place and time zone.

Compare that to Helen Coffey's cry in The Independent: 'I’m ready to admit it – Wuthering Heights is an awful, awful book' and 'It’s a shame, then, that it’s such an uncompromisingly terrible read'.

"Believe women” is a phrase we’ve heard a lot in recent times – and quite rightly. But there is one instance in which, I must confess, I don’t believe women. And that is every time one tells me that Wuthering Heights is her favourite book.

Let's stop here for a minute: why only women? 

I still remember the first time I picked up a copy of Emily Brontë’s much-vaunted 1847 literary classic. I’d loved eldest Brontë sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre; I’d developed a soft spot for the quiet radicalism of youngest sister Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Now, in my mid-twenties, it was finally time to take on the most extravagant, gothic of masterpieces, penned by the extraordinary middle child herself.

Ill-fated lovers torn asunder, yearning across bleak northern vistas, desire so powerful it transcends the grave – I was all set to swoon over this “tragic love story” between Cathy and Heathcliff, in which the backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors “represents the wildness of Heathcliffe’s [sic] character” (this information having been gleaned from an episode of Friends in which Phoebe and Rachel join a book group).

And this Heathcliff character sounded like “a bit of me”, as they say on Love Island, a heady mix of Mr Darcy’s brooding, glowering allure and Rhett Butler’s arrogant, magnetic charm. I’ll admit it: I was ready to have my head turned by a sexy leading man in period dress. Sue me.

Yet it wasn’t long before I found myself experiencing the literary equivalent of all dressed up with nowhere to go. Each of the characters, I swiftly discovered, was profoundly and irredeemably unlikeable, by turns cruel, mean-spirited, selfish, wet and/or weak. This cast of misfits ended up dropping dead from all manner of fevers and childbearing and alcoholism and general malaise – which might have elicited some kind of emotional response, had I cared whether any of them lived or died. As it was, the only rational reaction to each demise seemed to be, simply, “good riddance”.

Just to make things even more insufferable, every one of them seemed to be called an unholy combination of the same names mixed together – Linton, Earnshaw, Heathcliff – in a way that scrambled my brain and rivalled only Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude for forcing repeated consultation of the family tree. The piece de resistance is surely Catherine Linton, herself daughter of the infamous Cathy Earnshaw, who marries first one cousin, then another, to become Catherine Heathcliff, then Catherine Earnshaw. It all feels nothing short of elite-level trolling from Emily.

Then there’s the novel’s non-linear narrative framework, which uses multiple narrators telling stories within stories within stories: a kind of early Inception with none of Christopher Nolan’s joyful spectacle. This device, largely panned by critics at the time, has since been held up as a stroke of genius – which just goes to show that you only need wait a sufficient amount of time before something becomes fashionable (as demonstrated by the cursed resurgence of the bucket hat).

Within all this relaying of tales, Emily also saw fit to write swathes of text phonetically to indicate certain characters’ regional accents. The reader couldn’t be trusted to imagine a thick West Riding brogue, and so we’re invited to wade through mind-curdling dialogue such as “T’ maister’s down I’ t’ fowld”, “Yah dunnut loike wer company, there’s maister’s” and, a personal favourite, “There’s nobbut t’ missis; and shoo’ll not oppen ’t an ye mak’ yer flaysome dins till neeght”. It’s enough to make me reconsider my stance on book burning.

And, at the heart of it all, that fabled “love story” between Cathy and Heathcliff. It’s been romanticised and elevated as some kind of tragic, star-crossed lovers’ tale across multiple big and small-screen adaptations over the years – the latest being Emerald Fennell’s upcoming “Wuthering Heights”, starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, with the quote marks intentionally inserted to stress that this zeitgeisty hot take is likely to stray pretty far from the original. The film’s release date is slated for Valentine’s weekend; the trailer pronounces it to be inspired by “the greatest love story of all time”. To which I can only scratch my head and say, “You what, mate?” I don’t know what Emerald’s been reading, but it surely can’t be the same book that has been consistently disappointing me for more than a decade.

Far be it from me to deny any woman the pleasure of losing her mind over Jacob Elordi sporting a gruff Yorkshire accent and a cravat, but let the record show that the character of Heathcliff, as Emily wrote him, is not a romantic lead. “Grade A a***hole” would be far more accurate a description: a nasty, spiteful abuser who, it’s very heavily implied, commits acts of sexual violence against his wife Isabella after marrying her out of spite. He’s literature’s deeply problematic toxic ex that we keep “hero-washing”, somehow collectively convinced that maybe he wasn’t really that bad, after all. (Spoiler: he was.)

His and Cathy’s doomed romance has about as much in common with love as a writhing pit of venomous snakes, a noxious concoction of possessiveness, jealousy and unhealthy fascination that poisons everything it touches. I suppose one could argue that they’re a perverted version of soulmates, but only in the same way that the two very worst people you’ve ever met were “made for each other”.

In fact, it seems to me that the only good thing to have come out of Wuthering Heights is the near-perfect 1978 Kate Bush song of the same name, which captures all of the novel’s best bits – and allows you to wail, “It’s me, I’m Cathy, I’ve come home!” like a banshee while attempting an interpretive dance – without actually having to read the damn thing.

Of course, we’re all going to have different opinions and different tastes – what a world it would be if we were all the same, etc etc – but I’m afraid I simply refuse to give credence to the idea that anyone has ever derived genuine pleasure from trudging their way through this endlessly maudlin tale.

Yes, that's why it's 179 years after it was first published and we are still talking about it while it keeps on inspiring artists all over the world.

Onto more people who actually get the book: The New York Times wonders, 'Is ‘Wuthering Heights’ Actually the Greatest Love Story of All Time?'

Catherine and Heathcliff. Since 1847, when Emily Brontë published her only novel, “Wuthering Heights,” those ill-starred lovers have inflamed the imaginations of generations of readers.

Who are these two? Definitely not the people you meet on vacation. The DNA of “Wuthering Heights,” set in a wild and desolate corner of Northern England, runs through the dark, gothic, obsessive strains of literary romance. Heathcliff, a tormented soul with terrible manners and a worse temper, may be the English novel’s most problematic boyfriend — mad, bad and dangerous to know. What redeems him, at least in the reader’s eyes, is Catherine’s love.

As children growing up in the same highly dysfunctional household, the two form a bond more passionate than siblinghood and purer than lust. (I don’t think a 179-year-old book can be spoiled, but some plot details will be revealed in what follows.) They go on to marry other people, living as neighbors and frenemies without benefits until tragedy inevitably strikes. In the meantime, they roil and seethe — it’s no accident that “wuthering” is a synonym for “stormy” — occasionally erupting into ardent eloquence. [...]

This all-consuming love, thwarted in the book by circumstances, has flourished beyond its pages. Thanks to Catherine and Heathcliff — and also to the harsh, windswept beauty of the Yorkshire setting — “Wuthering Heights,” a touchstone of Victorian literature, has become a fixture of popular culture.

Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon played Heathcliff and Catherine in William Wyler’s 1939 multi-Oscar-nominated film adaptation.c

Since then, the volatile Heathcliff has been embodied by a succession of British brooders: Richard Burton, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hardy. At least for Gen X, the definitive Catherine will always be Kate Bush, dancing across the English countryside in a bright red dress in an indelible pre-MTV music video.

Now, just in time for Valentine’s Day, we’ll have Emerald Fennell’s new R-rated movie version, with Margot Robbie (recently Barbie) as Catherine and Jacob Elordi (recently Frankenstein’s monster) as Heathcliff.

Is theirs the greatest love story of all time, as the movie’s trailer insists? It might be. For the characters, the love itself overwhelms every other consideration of feeling. For Brontë, the most accomplished poet in a family of formidable novelists, that love is above all a matter of words. The immensity of Catherine and Heathcliff’s passion is measured by the intensity of their language, which of course is also Brontë’s. [...]

But the point of their attempts to justify their love is, finally, to show the inadequacy of words to capture the tidal movements and volcanic explosions of their souls.

They — and Emily Brontë — are giving voice to a shared experience that defies articulation, pushing language to the very limit of its expressive capacity and beyond.

Which is what romance lives to do. It’s a genre often proudly unconstrained by what is possible, rational or sane, unafraid to favor sensation over sense or to pose unanswerable questions about the human heart. How could Catherine love a man like Heathcliff? How could he know himself to be worthy of her love?

We’ll never really have the answers, which is why we’ll never stop reading. And why no picture will ever quite match the book’s thousands of feverish, hungry, astonishing words. (A.O. Scott)

Airbnb Newsroom announces that you can stay at a replica of Cathy's bedroom in Wuthering Heights 2026.

West Yorkshire’s Brontë Country is having its moment – rapidly becoming one of the UK’s hottest romantic destinations. As anticipation builds for Emerald Fennell’s new film “Wuthering Heights”, only in cinemas 13th February in time for Valentine’s Day, Airbnb data shows the film is putting West Yorkshire on the map for UK Gen Z, with searches for Valentine’s stays up 67% – signalling a new fascination with romance on the moorlands.1

With 40% of UK adults now travelling to locations they’ve seen in period dramas2, set-jetting is reshaping the travel map – with West Yorkshire catapulted into the spotlight as travellers seek out brooding landscapes, literary passion and timeless romance, as it stars as the backdrop to the classic tale and where most of the film was shot. In fact, searches among UK guests for Airbnb stays in Haworth – the historic Yorkshire village where the Brontë sisters lived and wrote – have surged by over 200% this winter compared to last year.3 

“Wuthering Heights” is a bold and original imagining of one of the greatest love stories of all time, centered on Cathy and Heathcliff, whose forbidden passion turns from romantic to intoxicating in an epic tale of lust, love and madness – a longing guests can discover as this Valentine’s as Cathy Earnshaw invites couples to step inside her lavish Thrushcross Grange bedroom in West Yorkshire for an immersive overnight stay inspired by Emerald Fennell’s sizzling take on the classic novel, exclusively on Airbnb. [...]

Inspired by Emerald Fennell’s exquisite film, the room channels Cathy’s intensity, offering guests a deeply personal window into her inner world, almost becoming a character of its own – a feverish ode to Cathy as devised by her husband, Edgar Linton. The skin-toned walls and layered textures make the space feel saturated with her presence, from strands of her hair woven into the table to the vein-like patterns that seem to pulse through the cushions. 

The dining room at our Thrushcross Grange is also brought to life, dressed in silver-toned finery and styled to mirror the film’s world. Here, guests will be served rich Yorkshire dishes during an indulgent and themed candle-lit dinner, echoing the opulent meals seen on screen.

Beyond these rooms, couples can fall in love again and again, with the stay also including a horseback ride across the countryside, an indulgent afternoon tea, and an intimate listening experience of Charl xcx’s “Wuthering Heights” – in their own modern, untamed Yorkshire moment. [...]

Cathy’s Bedroom will be available three separate stays for up to two guests each for  stay across multiple days between 27 February and 4 March, completely for free – exclusively on Airbnb. 

This is on many, many sites including Forbes, Ireland Live and Elite Daily.

The Guardian takes a look at the reactions of first viewers on social media and also has some paid content about the film: on the cast, on whether it will work as 'an antidote to today’s lacklustre dating scene' and on its 'captivating looks and sounds'. Inkl claims that Margot Robbie is channelling 'Brontë’s Cathy with unexpected jewellery' during her promo tour, while Hello! states that she 'reignites Brontë beauty' (?). The Independent wonders whether 'Wuthering Heights just set the biggest beauty trend for 2026'. Vogue (and many others, of course) has an article on yesterday's London photocall.

According to Time, Jane Eyre 2011 is one of 'The 50 Most Underappreciated Movies of the 21st Century'.

Even if you've never read Charlotte Brontë’s gothic romance Jane Eyre, you pretty much know the story: An impoverished but unabashedly intelligent orphan-girl governess arrives at the estate of a rich, surly, mysterious gentleman, who quickly realizes that this small, seemingly mouselike creature is the only human being on the planet who can understand him. In one of the most ardent lines ever committed to paper, he welcomes her into his life—"My equal is here, and my likeness"—with a sense of near-mystical wonder. Cary Joji Fukunaga’s 2011 adaptation of Brontë’s book—starring Michael Fassbender as the brooding man-with-a-secret, Edward Fairfax Rochester, and Mia Wasikowska as the at-first meek but ultimately fiery heroine Jane—is tuned to the beating pulse of that line, without ever resorting to dumb, bodice-ripping cliches. Rochester is a man whose kindness is the cutting kind, and Fassbender, with his straight, even teeth and mocking eyes, knows it. Sex is threatening, as Brontë knew, and Wasikowska and Fassbender make this particular dance look exceedingly dangerous. He’s a feral being who looks as if he could swallow Jane whole, but she stands up to him in every way: Wasikowska’s performance rings with understated fierceness. Jane Eyre, as Brontë wrote her, is a small girl who makes for a big story. Wasikowska steps easily and naturally into those little footprints stamped out nearly 180 years ago, in a movie that makes them seem as if they were made only yesterday. (Stephanie Zacharek)

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175th anniversary of the death of Emily Brontë

Today marks the 175th anniversary of the death of Emily Brontë. Deutschlandfunk (Germany) marks the occasion with a short audio clip. La Voz (Argentina) also mentions the anniversary but the article is accompanied by a beautified image of Charlotte. Today's newsround, however, shows that Emily Brontë is still quite alive.

The New York Sun's Poem of the Day is Emily's To a Wreath of Snow.

Last winter, as a Poem of the Day, the Sun offered “Spellbound” by Emily Brontë (1818–1848). It’s a grim poem about winter on the Yorkshire moors and the sense of being caught: “a tyrant spell has bound me / And I cannot, cannot go.”

Today’s poem offers a different view of winter. In “To a Wreath of Snow,” Brontë begins with something similar to her thoughts in “Spellbound”: “morning rose in mourning grey / And faintly lit my prison room.” But there’s a difference in what happens next, for on one of those gray mornings, she rises to find that snow had fallen: “angel like, when I awoke.” And the message of the moors is changed: “voiceless, soulless, messenger / Thy presence waked a thrilling tone / That comforts me while thou art here / And will sustain when thou art gone.”

In seven tetrameter quatrains, rhymed abab, “To a Wreath of Snow” reverses a poem such as “Moonlight, Summer Moonlight” (another of Emily Brontë’s, Poem of the Day last summer). Where that poem shows a beautiful, romantic landscape that suddenly reveals a beautiful, romantic corpse, “To a Wreath of Snow” gives us the landscape as an iron-hearted prison — even satanic, with hands that have a “rebel task,” like the fallen angels — that is overcome in beauty and meaning by the “frail” snow. (Joseph Bottum and Sally Thomas)

According to The Review Geek, both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are among the '10 Influential Books That Shaped Literature'.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel written by Emily Brontë and published in 1847. The story revolves around two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, who live on the West Yorkshire moors. It follows the complex and tumultuous relationships between the families and the haunting visions of a ghost outside the window. Influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction, the novel explores themes of mental and physical cruelty, domestic abuse, and challenges to Victorian morality and the class system. The narrative is told by Nelly Dean, a servant who witnesses the events unfold. The story spans generations, depicting love, revenge, and the haunting presence of past ghosts. [...]

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë and published in 1847. The story is told from the perspective of its protagonist, Jane Eyre. The novel follows Jane’s life from her traumatic childhood living with her cruel aunt and cousins to her time at the Lowood Institution, where she develops important relationships with her best friend Helen Burns and her mentor Miss Temple. Later she becomes a governess and falls in love with Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall. However, their happiness is threatened by Mr. Rochester’s dark past. The story explores themes of love, independence, morality, and social class, and is widely considered a classic of English literature. (Kennie M)

According to Taxidrivers (Italy), Emily is one of the best Prime Video films of 2023.

06. Emily

Incentrato sulla figura di Emily Jane Brontë, sorella minore dell’altrettanto famosa Charlotte (autrice di Jane Eyre), il film segue la sua breve ma intensa vita tutta protesa a trasformare i drammi esistenziali e l’emotività interiore nel romanzo che la rese una scrittrice unica e indimenticabile. Sul letto di morte, Emily Brontë racconta a Charlotte come ha ottenuto l’ispirazione per scrivere “Cime tempestose“. La trama rivisita momenti cruciali della giovinezza di Emily, focalizzandosi sulla sua breve e appassionata storia d’amore con il giovane curato William Weightman. A causa degli atteggiamenti audaci di Emily, la vicinanza tra i due si complica quando diventa anche il precettore della ragazza. Questa relazione complessa porta Emily a una consapevolezza del suo destino, influenzando la creazione del suo capolavoro letterario.

L’esordio registico dell’attrice Frances O’Connor sviscera le angosce che ribollono in capo alla famiglia delle scrittrici. Si concentra su Emily senza tralasciare di tratteggiare i caratteri non meno cupi e tormentati di Charlotte e del secondogenito Branwell, incerto sul proprio cammino artistico e perennemente diviso tra pittura e scrittura. (Edoardo Renna) (Translation)

The Review Geek recommends Wuthering Heights 1939 as one of several movies 'like Gone with the Wind'.

Wuthering Heights (1939)

This William Wyler magnum opus concerns the tragic liaison of Heathcliff, an orphan played by Lawrence Olivier, and Catherine Earnshaw, daughter of the affluent Earnshaw family, portrayed by Merle Oberon. This multi-generational story digs into the ripple effects of Heathcliff and Catherine’s ardent but turbulent romance and how they decimated everyone around them.

Both films examine the tumultuous nature of their protagonists’ relationships. The passionate and conflicted love between Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights mirrors the turbulent marriage of Scarlett and Rhett in Gone with the Wind, both stories ultimately ending in tragedy. (Rishabh)

JSTOR Daily has a short article on Mary Taylor, dubbed by them as 'Charlotte Brontë’s Cool Friend'. Donna Moderna (Italy) recommends giving Jane Eyre as a Christmas present.

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Bargains and more

Keighley News reports how the Brontë Parsonage Museum is supporting Museum Shop Sunday:

Visitors will be able to pick up a bargain at the Brontë Parsonage Museum tomorrow (November 26).

The world-famous Haworth tourist attraction is taking part in Museum Shop Sunday, an international initiative highlighting the role of retail in supporting arts, cultural and heritage venues.

There will be ten per cent off all items, including gifts, books and jewellery. (Alistair Shand)

The Telegraph & Argus presents an upcoming Wuthering Heights sequel, Heathcliff's Fortune: 

There have been many re-workings of Wuthering Heights over the years - from Heathcliff the Musical, written by and starring Cliff Richard as the brooding anti-hero, to a film version set in medieval Japan.

Now Emily Brontë’s masterpiece is given a new twist, in a historical novel re-imagining the events of Heathcliff’s three-year absence from the plot of Wuthering Heights. In the novel, Heathcliff returns transformed as a wealthy gentleman.

Heathcliff’s Fortune, by Gordon Howdle, is inspired by the author’s interest in British involvement in the Indian subcontinent, particularly the East India Company. The book follows Heathcliff’s journey to India and his life overseas.

In late summer 1780 Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights after overhearing Catherine, the girl he has grown up with, say that it would degrade her to marry him. He takes with him an amulet; his only possession when he was found as a child urchin in Liverpool. When he wears it, the amulet seems to bring him luck.

Heathcliff walks to Liverpool, from where he travels to India as a deck hand on a ship of the East India Company. On arrival in Madras, he finds work, love and wealth - but will his luck last? (Emma Clayton)

Also in The Telegraph and Argus a review of a local production of Rossini's Barber of Seville in Yorkshire dialect:

Whether it was a copy of Wuthering Heights on a desk, a verse containing the word ‘champion’, or the way costume designer Lu Herbert set the scene, I saw part of my world on a stage I never quite expected. (Natasha Meek)

Yorkshire Live sings the wonders of Hartshead:

And others visit Hartshead to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Brontë, who became minister in Hartshead in 1811, or to discover more about Robin Hood, who is reputed to have cut his final arrow from the yew tree that remains a prominent feature at St Peter's Church. (Andrew Robinson)

USA Today talks about Emerald Fennell's Saltburn and that scene: 

"This exact thing happens in ‘Wuthering Heights,' " Fennell says. "Heathcliff tries to climb down into Cathy’s grave and the subtext is very much that is what he’s intending to do. So this is very much part of the Gothic tradition.” (Patrick Ryan)

The River Cities Reader announces auditions for a local production of Jane Eyre. The Musical (Gordon & Caird):

 Jane Eyre the Musical — Auditions December 10, 3-5PM

A musical drama with music and lyrics by composer-lyricist Paul Gordon and a book by John Caird, based on the 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë.

There will be doubling of roles except for Jane and Rochester

There are roles for females that look twelve to fifteen years old.

Music Direction — Amy Trimble

Director — Lora Adams

The show will begin rehearsal January 22 and be performed March 15–30.

Movieweb lists romantic films set in the 1800s:

Jane Eyre 2011

 Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre traces the journey of the titular character (Mia Wasikowska) from childhood to adulthood. As a child, she suffers abuse both in school and at home. In adulthood, her life becomes slightly better, and she is appointed the governess at an estate belonging to a wealthy man named Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender). Jane soon begins dating her employer, but his unpredictability troubles her. Unfortunately, she discovers a dark secret he has been hiding.

Mia Wasikowska might have left Hollywood, but she will always be remembered for her performance here. She radiates a sense of optimism at all times, making her character very likable. Even after finding out the truth about her new lover, Jane keeps her head high and figures out the next step without any franticness and anger.

Judi Dench also deserves praise for her performance as Rochester’s housekeeper. Her character is the only nice person in the movie, and the warmth and love she channels help counterbalance the overall melancholic mood. (Philip Etemesi)

The film also appears in this Michael Fassbender ranking published in Wealth of Geeks:

Another 2011 movie marking Fassbender’s ascension to the A-list, Jane Eyre sees him take on a classic literary hero. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre follows Mia Wasikowska’s eponymous Jane through several stages of her life. A cruel aunt sends the young orphan Jane to a strict boarding school. Jane becomes a governess after leaving school and falls in love with her employer, the mysterious Mr. Rochester (Fassbender). 

The movie stands as one of the best adaptations of the book for many reasons. The adaptation shifts the novel's events around, telling some of the story in flashbacks. It looks stunning in every moment, from its Oscar-nominated costumes to its gorgeous lighting and set design. Fassbender and Wasikowska both deliver affecting performances that garnered significant critical acclaim and awards attention. (Kyle Logan)

Mashable talks about Reylo fanfiction:

[Francesca] Coppa cited Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler from Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, Catherine and Heathcliff from Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and even Buffy and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer as examples of analogous pairings to Reylo in other media. (Belen Edwards)

The Globe and Mail recommends 2023's children's books:

The Little Books of the Little Brontës, by Sara O’Leary, illustrated by Briony May Smith (Tundra Books, 5-9) A delightful portrait of the imaginary world that the four Brontë children – Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne – created for one another in a series of miniature books that offers a glimpse of the what was to come.

NDR (Germany) talks about the upcoming premiere in Hamburg of Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre ballet: 

In Hamburg feiert "Jane Eyre" Premiere: ein Roman-Klassiker der englischen Schriftstellerin Charlotte Brontë, Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts erschienen, mit einer für die damalige Zeit revolutionär mutig- selbstbewussten Frauenfigur. Jane Eyre meistert ihr anfangs schwer auszuhaltendes Leben mit einer klaren Ruhe. Die Geschichte macht einem sofort das Herz auf.

In schwarzer Jogginghose und Socken probt Cathy Marston mit den Tänzern und Tänzerinnen - fast sanft, voller Respekt. Ab und zu übernimmt sie den Tanzpart, um zu zeigen, wie sie sich genau die Bewegung vorstellt. Oder sie nimmt online das Buch zur Hand und liest daraus vor. Für die einzelnen Rollen arbeitet sie mit Wortlisten: "Mit diesen Wortlisten arbeite ich in der ersten Woche mit den Tänzern und Tänzerinnen auf Bewegungen. So kreiere ich ein spezielles Vokabular für jede einzelne Rolle."

Für die Besetzung ihrer beiden Hauptrollen hat sich Cathy Marston recht schnell entschieden: Ida Praetorius tanzt Jane Eyre und Karen Azatyan ist der finster-attraktive Mr. Rochester: "Die Rolle ist für ihn gemacht", findet Marston. Die zweite Besetzung von Jane und Rochester sind Madoka Sugai und Alexandr Trusch - beide ebenfalls Stars vom Hamburg Ballett.

Als Musik hat Cathy Marston unter anderem die "Fantasie g-moll für Cello und Klavier" von Fanny Hensel ausgesucht. Fanny Hensel ist eine Zeitgenossin von "Jane Eyre"-Autorin Charlotte Brontë und die Schwester von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Sie konnte als Frau damals keine eigene Karriere machen. So verbinden sich auch Musik und Erzählung. (Annette Matz) (Translation)

Die Zeit (Germany) explores books about sexuality. And Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is on the list: 

Supererfolg im England von früher. Charlotte Brontë lehrt weibliche Willensstärke in der Männerherrschaft.

Wie kann man mit dieser feministischen, antikapitalistischen und so weiter Brille, die einem mittlerweile so fest an den Kopf gewachsen ist, dass man nicht umhinkommt, auch Bücher von 1847 mit ihr zu lesen – wie kann man da heute noch aus einem Werk wie Jane Eyre von Charlotte Brontë die unbedingt benötigten messages und learnings ziehen? Immerhin wurde das zunächst unter männlichem Pseudonym veröffentlichte Buch unmittelbar zum Supererfolg, weil es für das viktorianische England so bahnbrechend vom sogenannten Innenleben einer Frau handelt. (Read more) (Berit Dießelkämper) (Translation)

And books about hope. Wuthering Heights appears in the list:

Unter allen Gespenstern, von denen Emily Brontë erzählt, ist der Rassismus das bis heute lebendigste.

Emily Brontës Roman Wuthering Heights (Sturmhöhe) ist voll von Wut und Wind, der einem die Haare ins Gesicht fegt, sobald man das Buch aufschlägt. Das beginnt beim Titel: Wuthering bezeichnet das Heulen des Windes und ist zugleich der Name des einsamen Bauernhofs im Hochmoor, auf dem ein Fremder während eines Sturms Unterschlupf sucht. Zwar bekommt er ein Bett, aber keinen Schlaf, weil der Geist der früheren Bewohnerin ans Fenster klopft. Und Heathcliff, der gar nicht erschrockene Hausherr, reißt das Fenster auf, um die Tote hereinzulassen.

Wuthering Heights ist eine Geschichte über die Nachtseiten des Lebens, über Diskriminierung und Brutalität. Es ist die Geschichte von Heathcliff, der vor 35 Jahren vom Vater der Familie Earnshaw auf den Straßen Liverpools aufgelesen wurde und zusammen mit dessen Kindern Cathy und Hindley auf Wuthering Heights aufwuchs. 

 (Read more) (Mithu Sanyal) (Translation)

The Guardian talks about the British Library's exhibition on Malorie Blackman:

 The exhibition traces Blackman’s young adulthood: the Lewisham homeless shelter she lived in aged 13 is pictured; the comics she turned to as a “shield against the real world” are displayed. In the local library, which she says “saved my life”, she would read novels, including classic fiction – the likes of Jane Eyre. (Ella Creamer)

The Times lists books about rock and pop music of 2023: 

Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth by Cathi Unsworth

(...) Cathi Unsworth takes a novelistic approach to the phenomenon, following its roots in fiction by Charlotte Brontë and Bram Stoker and relating its rise to the alienation so many young people felt under an 1980s culture of success at all costs. (Will Hodgkinson & Victoria Segal)

Actualidad Literaria (Spain) interviews the author Aurora Guerra:

Mariola Díaz-Cano Arévalo: ¿Qué personaje te hubiera gustado conocer y crear? 

AG: Jane Eyre. O la Reina de Corazones, una psicópata muy divertida. (Translation)

Jornal Tribuna (Brazil) reviews Rosa Montero's Historias de Mujeres:

 Ainda bem infelizes foram as irmãs Brontë, das quais Charlotte e Emily, filhas de um pastor protestante que viveram encafuadas nos confins da Inglaterra, conseguiram ser autoras de duas obras-primas da ficção romântica, respectivamente Jane Eyre e O morro dos ventos uivantes, ambas publicadas pela primeira vez em 1847.

As Brontë destoam da maioria das biografadas num quesito: não tiveram amante nenhum, muito menos uma penca deles. A vida amorosa livre e aventurosa faz parte, no caso de várias personagens do livro, dos ingredientes que as levaram tanto à condição de pioneiras quanto à infelicidade. (Eloésio Paulo) (Translation)

Silvia González Delgado's column in El Heraldo de Chihuahua (México) mentions Wuthering Heights:

Al vino rosado que hicimos este año decidí ponerle Cumbres Borrascosas, porque tiene un sabor ácido al inicio, pero al final se siente un regusto de ternura. Es de la variedad Tempranillo, de delicado color salmón, tiene una fresca esencia de durazno y mandarina. Puede usted maridarlo con una rebanada de queso, empalmada de ate de membrillo y una nuez garapiñada arriba, todos productos regionales, y brindar con sus amigos o pareja platicando de Catherine y Heathcliff, los protagonistas de Cumbres Borrascosas, sobre todo de la desesperación que le acomete a uno, como lector, cuando los ve que se aman tanto y no pueden realizar su amor. (Translation)

iSabadell (in Catalan) interviews the writer Pilar Adón:

Jordi Muñoz: Com van ser els seus inicis en el món de la literatura?

P.A.: Crec que al final tots els que escrivim ho fem perquè abans de res érem lectors. En el meu cas va ser així. Vaig ser una nena molt lectora, m’interessava estar amb els llibres que tenia al meu abast i poder passar-me hores i hores tancada a la meva habitació. Val a dir que no eren necessàriament llibres per a la meva edat, perquè va ser una iniciació molt primerenca i en aquella època no hi havia tanta divisió per trams. A casa meva llegia els llibres que podia tenir la meva mare, recordo començar a llegir les novel·les de la col·lecció RENO, amb clàssics de tota la vida com Cumbres Borrascosas o Sinuhé el egipcio, segurament sense assabentar-me massa. (Translation()

Todo Literatura (Spain) review El Lado Oscuro de la Cultura Victoriana by Antonio Ballesteros González:

Pero también tiene un minuto para Cumbres Borrascosas esa singular novela de Emily Brontë según sus palabras “dos narradores, dos casas y dos familias, dos generaciones, dos tipos de paisaje y una estructura en dos partes”  (Roberto Carlos Miras Miras) (Translation)

The Lahrer Zeitung (Germany) reviews a local student performance of Wuthering Heights:

Ein Klassiker um Liebe, Leidenschaft und Rache: Die Theater-AG des Städtischen Gymnasiums Ettenheim inszenierte „Sturmhöhe“ nach einem Roman von Emely Brontë. Die schauspielerische Leistung der Schüler würdigte das Publikum mit viel Applaus. (Klaus Schade) (Translation)

YourTango publishes the week's horoscope and recommends Virgos to read Wuthering Heights by...  Charlotte Brontë which, frankly, says it all  An English teacher who loves Wuthering Heights in Coeur d'Alene/Post Falls Press. TickerTV thinks that in Emily Brontë's you can find examples of literary juxtaposition.

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The Brontës humming 'Memory' all the way back to Haworth

Apollo Magazine has a lovely article mixing the Brontës, cats (or Cats) and T.S. Eliot, illustrated by drawings of their cats by the Brontës themselves.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, has long been one of the favourite pilgrimage sites of English literature buffs, up there with Dove Cottage, Jane Austen’s House and, erm, a luggage trolley wedged into a wall at King’s Cross station. In less turbulent years than this one, some 70,000 people visit the parsonage, which in the 1840s was a formidable fiction factory; it was here that Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were written.

So it is heartening to see that the museum’s crowdfunding campaign, which is aiming to raise emergency funds to make up for some of the revenue lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has at the time of writing achieved more than £70,000 of the £100,000 that the organisation is looking to raise to ensure its survival into 2021. That’s in no small part thanks to a £20,000 donation from the estate of T.S. Eliot, which has long benefited from the royalties it receives from the musical Cats. [...]

What the Brontës would have made of Cats is anyone’s guess. Cats they were certainly fans of, though, keeping two at the parsonage – as well as dogs such as Grasper and Flossy, whose collars survive at the museum. As Ellen Nussey wrote in her Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontë: ‘Black “Tom”, the tabby, was everybody’s favourite. It received such gentle treatment it seemed to have lost its cat’s nature, and subsided into luxurious amiability and contentment.’

Another cat, Tiger, was painted in watercolour by Emily Brontë in 1845, alongside Keeper, her bull mastiff and Flossy, Anne Brontë’s spaniel. [...]

Perhaps the Brontë siblings would have jumped at the chance of West End tickets, after all – and hummed ‘Old Deuteronomy’ and ‘Memory’ all the way back to Haworth. (Rakewell)

The Good Men Project recommends 'Three Books to Revisit This Fall' including

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë opens on a “dreary November day” and Jane has been banished away from her aunt and cousins while they warm themselves by the fire. She reads while catching glimpses of the scene outside the window.

“Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.”

Charlotte Brontë , Jane Eyre

Her cousins are warming themselves by the fire, but she is not invited. This scene will repeat itself later at her boarding school where the bigger girls stand in the way of the fire. The gusts of wind and unrelenting weather are also a motif throughout the book. The weather symbolizes Jane’s emotions and often foreshadows upcoming events.

Jane grows throughout the novel, from an orphaned and isolated girl to a strong woman who understands her own strength. She has weathered the storm. It’s a good lesson for those of us who will have to do so over the coming fall and winter. (Catherine Lanser)

The Island (Sri Lanka) reviews The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar.

In a striking episode, a zealous mullah arrives in the village, confiscates the family’s entire collection of books and burns them in the village square. With broken hearts, the family watches “as the fire spread to the intertwined lovers Pierre and Natasha, Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, Abelard and Heloise, Tristan and Isolde, Salaman and Absal, Vis and Ramin, Vamegh and Azra, Zohreh and Manuchehr, Shirin and Farhad, Leyli and Majnun, Arthur and Gemma, the Rose and the Little Prince, before they had the chance to smell or kiss each other again, or whisper ‘I love you’ one last time.” (Anushka Hosain)

In The Times Helen Davies is transported

back to my earnest 14-year-old self when, after nailing most of Agatha Christie and the Brontës, I discovered Alice Walker's The Color Purple.

Corriere Romagna (Italy) features Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

La du Maurier, che sembra avere come punto di riferimento Charlotte Brontë e il suo “Jane Eyre”, opera qui una fusione tra elementi fiabeschi, avventura gotica e thriller, regalandoci un personaggio, quello della protagonista che parla in prima persona, in grado di rompere lo schema del romanzo vittoriano con le sue fantasie nevrotiche e con le sue domande senza risposta (protagonista a cui, per una vera e propria “sfida stilistica”, la du Maurier decide di non dare un nome…). (Andrea Bernardini) (Translation)

Jane Eyre 2011 is one of several films selected by Perfil (Argentina) as movies which make you want to read the books they are based on.

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Dirty little secrets

(The selling of) Ponden Hall is again in the news. BBC News reports:

A house thought to be the inspiration for Emily Brontë when writing 19th century classic Wuthering Heights is on sale for more than £1m.
Ponden Hall, in Stanbury, West Yorkshire, dates back to 1541 and played host to Brontë and her family during their childhood.
Several features of the property are said to have inspired her work.
In 2014, it was converted into a bed and breakfast which is currently run by owners Steve Brown and Julie Akhurst.
Sisters Emily and Anne, who began writing as children along with their sibling Charlotte, first came across Ponden Hall during the Crow Hill Bog Burst, a mudslide that occurred following heavy rainfall in September 1824.
While this was the girls' first encounter with Ponden, they continued to visit, with the house providing inspiration for both Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
The library at Ponden, considered one of the finest in West Yorkshire and which boasted a Shakespeare first portfolio, was particularly appealing to the Brontës, who would often stop by to use it.
Mr Brown said it was a request from a Brontë enthusiast to stay over in the old library that prompted the couple to turn Ponden into a bed and breakfast.
The couple moved into the property in 1998 and undertook extensive restoration work.
The main guest bedroom features a small, single-paned window within a wooden, panelled box bed which bears similarities to the window that appears in Wuthering Heights.
Ms Akhurst said: "This is the room in the old end of the house which has a tiny window in it which inspired Emily to write the story of Cathy's ghost.
"There is the scene in which Mr Lockwood is asleep in the bed and he has a nightmare where he believes the ghost of Cathy is coming through the window to get him."

Also on BBC Culture we find this interesting article on Daphne du Maurier:

An article in the Spectator in the same year of the TLS reappraisal, 1962, made what I think is the first connection between Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece and du Maurier’s own, describing Rebecca as “a Cornish Gothic resetting of Jane Eyre.” It’s a comparison that, in more recent years, has seen Rebecca finally claimed by the literary establishment, thus metamorphosing a novel once blurbed as the “world-famous bestseller of love and suspense” into a key 20th-Century feminist gothic text: Brontë’s madwoman in the attic transformed into Rebecca’s ghostly presence, each woman a dirty little secret their husbands have to take care of, one way or another. (Lucy Scholes) 

Commonweal Magazine reviews both Isabelle Greenberg's Glass Town and Douglas A. Martin's Branwell: A Novel of the Brontë Brother:

Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës (Abrams ComicArts, $24.99) and Douglas A. Martin’s newly reissued Branwell: A Novel of the Brontë Brother (Soft Skull Press, $16.95). Both works take something solid from Brontë history (childhood imaginings in the case of Greenberg; addiction to drink and drugs in the case of Martin) and turn it strange and otherworldly.
While living at Haworth Parsonage in the 1820s, the Brontë siblings—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, all celebrated novelists, as well as brother Branwell, the family’s great disappointment—created an imaginary world called Glass Town. Through text and image, Greenberg recreates both the lives of the young Brontës and the realm they imagined. Glass Town was a world of soldiers and romance, hard facts and wild fancy; it offered the isolated siblings an opportunity to think about other worlds, and it gives Greenberg the chance to blend literary biography with fantastical speculation. (...)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that all good prose must be described as poetic. But Martin’s writing really does display the compressed lyricism and rhythms of poetry.
By one light, Douglas A. Martin’s Branwell takes the airy Brontë myth and brings it back down to earth. Reissued with an excellent introduction by the novelist Darcey Steinke, Branwell serves as an imaginative biography of the ne’er-do-well Brontë brother: a talented, desirous would-be artist/poet (he sent letters to William Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, and Hartley Coleridge) who became a has-been drunk before dying at the age of thirty-one. (...)
Though Branwell is an excellent novel of deromanticizing, it can be as otherworldly as Glass Town. Martin’s hero “doesn’t know how to contain all he doesn’t know what to do with,” and his mind, when under the influence of opium or erotic desire, becomes hallucinatory, beautiful and terrifying in the way of dreams. (Anthony Domestico)

Church Times reviews the book Converting Britannia: Evangelicals and British public life, 1770-1840, by Gareth Atkins

A modest example was a poverty-stricken young Irishman, Patrick Brunty, who, arriving at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1802, was taken up by Charles Simeon’s curate, Henry Martyn, who introduced him to the Evangelical great and good. Through their influence, he progressed via several Evangelical curacies to be perpetual curate of Howarth (sic) in Yorkshire, and father of the Brontë sisters. Evangelicals could also be ruthless in removing or silencing anyone who dissented from or challenged their vision. (William Jacob)

Yorkshire Life has a list of Yorkshire falls which includes our very own

Brontë Waterfall
Follow in the footsteps of the famous sisters, take the Brontë Trail starting from Haworth and running over the moors to the waterfall and Top Withens. 

The Hamilton County Times presents a curious series of talks organised by the CEArts’ annual Noblesville Interdisciplinary Creativity Expo (NICE) project:

Does Jane Eyre’s role in society always adhere to social convention?
Are Edward Rochester and Rhett Butler just a “bad boys,” or is there more to them than that?
Does Scarlett O’Hara’s sexuality help her or hurt her as a survival mechanism?
How would you describe Jo March in terms of gender roles and norms?
Is Dracula the ultimate abuser?
We’ll discuss these questions and more in the three sessions on September 12!
To register, simply email us at info@cearts.org, and we'll send you invitation information for September 12’s three Zoom sessions.All Workshops Are Free; donations welcome! 

State of Mind (Italy) reviews the essay Questo matrimonio non s’ha da fare  di M. Morretta:

Un paio di anni fa visitai Haworth, villaggio inglese dove vissero le sorelle Brontë. Un tuffo emotivo nel mio passato adolescenziale in cui cercavo di capire cosa significasse amare. Per anni ho creduto che quello fosse il vero amore: gli sguardi rubati tra Mr. Rochester e Jane Eyre, i tormenti interiori, l’unica forza in grado di cambiare le persone, l’unico motore per raggiungere la felicità. Se avessi continuato a ricercare tra quelle righe il senso della vita forse avrei vissuto a metà, in angosce profonde e frustrazione, alla ricerca di un ideale impossibile. (Eleonora Natalini) (Translation)

Tonight, at the Teatro Comunale di Cagli (Italy) a concert in remembrance of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will contain an unexpected Brontë-related piece:

Venerdì 11 settembre alle 21.00 al Teatro Comunale di Cagli va in scena il recital I want magic , in prima esecuzione assoluta, con la soprano Laura Muncaciu e la pianista Yasue Hokimoto. Un progetto musicale che vuole ricordare attraverso la musica uno degli eventi più sconvolgenti della nostra epoca: la tragedia della Torri Gemelle di New York, avvenuta l’11 settembre di 19 anni fa. (...)
Il programma si muove dalle sonorità inglesi (R.V. Williams) dell’ultimo recital (sempre con Yasue pianista) alle atmosfere americane del ’900, i “Suoni americani” (che sono differenti da altri suoni), le parole di Emily Brontë e Tennesse Williams nel Teatro di Cagli. (Source) (Translation)

The piece is I have dreamt from Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights opera.


Information (Denmark) reviews the novel Sortsyge by Cecilie Bødkers:

August er en god gammeldags narcissist, der det ene øjeblik overstrømmer Freja med kærlighed og straks truer med at tage den fra hende. Freja kaster sig forudsigeligt i hans arme, og den slags usunde dynamikker har da også givet stof til god litteratur fra Romeo og Julie til Heathcliff og Catherine i Wuthering Heights. (Bodil Skovgaard Nielsen) (Translation)

El Quindiano (Colombia) talks about pseudonyms in literature and mentions the Brontës. Books & Livres reviews the graphic novel Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna and Ramón K. Pérez.

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Leaving a mark in the world

Hindustan Times and Gothic films:

Maybe it’s the irresistible pull of the Gothic novel, an intoxicating cocktail of romance, suspense and danger, sometimes seductively garnished with supernatural elements. Rebecca had an illustrious ancestor — Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic classic, Jane Eyre, published in 1847, and also the subject of many films and TV series. (Paonam Saxena)

The Yorkshire Post explores how Dewsbury 'has left its mark in the world':

One notable curate was Patrick Brontë, father, of course, to a famous trio of talented sisters who blazed a trail in the literary firmament. Tragically, Patrick outlived them all. He was dismayed at the way that working class children received almost no schooling, and taught youngsters for hours on end at the Dewsbury Sunday School. (Phil Penfold)

The Los Angeles Review of Books talks about George Eliot's manuscript Quarry for Middlemarch:

In 2021, Harvard’s Houghton Library of rare books and manuscripts will reopen with an exhibition on women authors. At the moment, George Eliot, Phillis Wheatley, Amy Lowell, Mary Wroth, Charlotte Brontë, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf — the list goes on — are sitting far apart from one another in the stacks, isolated on separate shelves and surrounded by many better-known male authors.  (Joani Etskovitz)

Dawn (Pakistan) reviews Shokoofeh Azar’s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree,

In a striking episode, a zealous mullah arrives in the village, confiscates the family’s entire collection of books and burns them in the village square. With broken hearts, the family watches “as the fire spread to the intertwined lovers Pierre and Natasha, Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, Abelard and Heloise, Tristan and Isolde, Salaman and Absal, Vis and Ramin, Vamegh and Azra, Zohreh and Manuchehr, Shirin and Farhad, Leyli and Majnun, Arthur and Gemma, the Rose and the Little Prince, before they had the chance to smell or kiss each other again, or whisper ‘I love you’ one last time.” (Anushka Hosain)

The Telegraph & Argus talks about the reopening of the KVWR services:

The other walk miles is six miles, starting from Haworth station, along the valley to Oxenhope, looping round, down Haworth High Street, round the route of the short walk and back to the station. It takes in additional locations - Three Chimneys, the home of the railway children; Brontë Parsonage Museum, the doctor’s house; and shops along Main Street, where the children collected presents for Perks’ birthday. (Emma Clayton)

ActuaBD (France) reviews the comic Goodbye My Rose by Dr. Pepperco:

Autant dire que les rumeurs vont bon train à son sujet : a-t-il quelque-chose à cacher ? Serait-ce une femme qui aurait pris un nom de plume à l’instar de la très célèbre Emily Brontë, autrice des Hauts de Hurlevent ? Une personne proche de la maison royale ? Difficile à dire, mais aisé pour le lecteur de deviner, surtout quand un autre personnage-clé de cette nouvelle série est sujet au commérage. (Marc Vandermeer) (Translation)

According to El Sol de Tampico (México) the writer Agustina María Bazterrica is going to read Jane Eyre:

Y me compré Jane Eyre para leerla para un curso que voy a tomar sobre esta novela. (Juan Carlos Velarde) (Translation)

El Comercio (Spain) interviews another writer, María Reig:

Verónica García-Peña: ¿Y a qué personaje literario mataría con toda su alma?
M.R.: A varios de 'Cumbres Borrascosas'. Aunque Emily Brönte (sic) ya lo dejó solventado bastante bien. (Translation)

A Certain Fondness joins the Brontë Parsonage fundraising campaign.

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Just as the Brontë sisters managed to do

Linkedin's The Core File puts the Brontës as an example for these challenging times:

The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, lived lives of relative isolation at a parsonage, yet managed to create some of the most engaging stories in literature (Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights to mention two). Their lives were difficult, as was common in their time, losing their mother and two older sisters to tuberculosis early on. As grown women, the sisters also struggled to find a publishing channel to share their work. Eventually they were all published under male pseudonyms; Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell.
While they were tenacious in the quest to become published authors — it was their gift of imagination that would set them apart. They utilized every experience, every observation, every crumb of nuance as fuel to create brilliant, layered, psychologically-complex characters. The fabric of their lives and the dire experiences they faced, were woven into their books.
In some instances, resource constraints can bring both creativity and innovation. Our imaginations can be triggered by even the most mundane of details. Anything can serve as that fuel. A conversation, a tweet, a walk around the block. Combined with knowledge & experience, the results can be both formidable and enduring.
I can't help but wonder, if we can somehow utilize the shift in our daily experience as an opportunity. To look deeper and create perspectives, products and services that would enrich the lives of others. Just as the Brontë sisters managed to do. (Marla Gottschalk)

Travel+Leisure compiles links to travel virtually across the United Kingdom:

Brontë Sisters’ Homes — Yorkshire and Derbyshire, England
Fans of English literature would jump at the chance of seeing the homes of Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Brontë in Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Luckily, you don’t have to take a plane across the Atlantic to see them. Google Arts & Culture offers a virtual tour of the all places that inspired the Brontë Sisters. (Andrea Romano)

Lancashire Live lists several local historic buildings:

Gawthorpe Hall
Burnley
The Shuttleworths built the original Peele Tower as part of a defensive barricade against invading Scots during the 14th Century.
But later the need for such a fortification was obsolete and Peele was accompanied by a beautiful Elizabethan house which dovetailed around the tower.
The foundation stone was laid on 26 August 1600 and likely designed by the famous architect Robert Smythson.
 Home to numerous high sheriffs in Lancaster as well Preston MPs, the home was eventually sold to the National Trust.
It is believed that the novelist Charlotte Brontë visited the home, as a friend of the Shuttleworths, several times during the 19th century. (Dominic Moffitt)

Firstpost discusses the 80th anniversary of Rebecca 1940:

When Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca hit cinemas in the US on 12 April 1940, large sections of the audience were already familiar with its source material. The Daphne du Maurier novel had become an instant bestseller on publication just two years ago, despite critics dismissing, even disparaging, it for being a Jane Eyre knock-off. A naive young girl struggles with some of the same insecurities as Charlotte Brontë's heroine, after marrying above her station to a Byronic older man haunted by the shadow of his past wife. Both novels end in a similar way — with country houses burning. But these parallels don't do justice to du Maurier's unique story, which pulls us into an atmosphere of unbearable tension, akin to a Henry James novella. (Prahlad Srihari)

The Morning Bulletin recommends Louisa May Alcott's Little Women:

So it’s time to brush off the tired old objections about novels by Alcott, the Brontës, Austen and co being irrelevant to the privileged people who don’t have to sit around the house all day, scrimping for every last scrap of food, afraid how society will judge them if they go outside or whether they’ll get sick. (Jann Houley)

The Philippines Enquirer recommends some Pinoy TV dramas:

‘Walang Hanggan’ (ABS-CBN, 2012)
Weekdays, 2:30 p.m.
If you want to remember Coco Martin before he was Cardo, this is the show for you. It was based on the 1991 movie “Hihintayin Kita sa Langit” (which was in turn based on the Emily Brontë classic “Wuthering Heights”), and thus, in a nod to the movie, had Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta in the cast.

The Independent (Ireland) interviews the writer Naoise Dolan:

As a child, Dolan drew and painted rather than wrote stories. "I think because I found it more escapist, but I read a lot, and I think that when you're reading and thinking about what you're reading, you're building up your ideas of what a novel looks like." She read: "Dickens, the Brontës, George Eliot. In my late teens, I realised I was queer and I really connected to Oscar Wilde around that time. I loved the statue [in Merrion Square], I love his cultural image, the writing itself.

Bette Ann Moskowitz shares her poignant story in the New York Times:

I was a Bronx girl with literary pretensions, and I read everything I could get my hands on, good and bad, high and low, about love. I wrote poems and fantasized endlessly about those strict, strong, brooding men, like Heathcliff, Mr. Rochester or Rhett Butler.

Wired posts pictures of the Super Pink Moon and quotes Emily Brontë's poem Moonlight, Summer Moonlight.

Several websites remind us of the chance to watch the National Theatre's Jane Eyre adaptation this week: New Zealand Herald,  Cheshire Live, ABC Paraguay, The Bolton News, The Pilot, The Winchester Sun, The Guardian, The Blackpool Gazette, ShortList, iNews, Art Daily...

North West End reviews it:

This is an original interpretation of an old story, which removes the romantic elements, often performed, but unlikely to ever have been intended by the original author, and replaces them with a detailed exploration of Jane’s all-encompassing need to both find the freedom she craves and the secure home she desires, the flawed, controlling and potentially violent character of Rochester, and the desperateness of Bertha and the effect her illness has had on her. These are three characters who are inextricably and tragically entwined and this visit to their world will change how you view their tale forever. (Donna M. Day)

Radio Mitre (Argentina) quotes again from Florencia Kirchner's Instagram:

Yo le dije que su paraíso sólo estaría vivo a medias y él dijo que el mío sería un paraíso ebrio. Le contesté que en el suyo me dormiría, y él repuso que en el mío no podría respirar. (Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë) Para mí de las mejores novelas que jamás se hayan escrito, para otrxs, una especie de infierno que les sofoca el cuerpo hasta llegarles al odio. (Translation)

télé7jours (France) interviews the actress Annelise Hesme:

Hacène Chouchaoui:Avec vos soeurs, Clotilde et Élodie, vous apparaissez comme les soeurs Brontë du cinéma français. Je crois même que vous avez un projet en commun…
Élodie, ma soeur aînée, écrit un téléfilm pour une plate-forme SVOD, sur la première révolte féministe, dans lequel Clotilde et moi allons jouer. C’était #Meetoo avant l’heure.  (Translation)

Reverb (Brazil) lists heavy metal discs that are not on Spotify:

Celtic Frost, 'Cold Lake' (1988)
Esse grupo suíço foi ponta de lança do metal extremo nos anos 80, misturando orquestrações sombrias e elementos de experimentação em seus som. Eles citavam o poeta francês Charles Baudelaire e a romancista inglesa Emily Brontë em suas letras. E então veio "Cold Lake", um álbum lançado pouco tempo depois da primeira separação, seguida de uma reformulação na banda, em 1987. O trabalho foi na onda do glam metal, provocando desprezo de fãs e críticos. (Translation)

El Día (Spain) briefly reviews Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg:

Cristal. Antes de que las hermanas Brontë se convirtieran en hitos literarios ya eran creadoras de La Ciudad de Cristal, un mundo fantástico y estructurado al detalle en el que se alienaron en unión de su hermano, Branwell. La ciudad quedaría escindida en dos: Gondal, reino de Emily ( Cumbres borrascosas) y de Anne ( La inquilina de Wildfell Hall), y Angria, feudo de Charlotte (Jane Eyre) y Branwell. Sobre esta base, la británica Isabel Greenberg ha fabulado su propio espacio, solo en parte brontiano. El resultado, plasmado con su peculiar estilo, es un derroche de imaginación épica en un mundo de luces y sombras, de realidades y fantasías. (Eugenio Fuentes) (Translation)

El Diario Montañés (Spain) interviews the illustrator Sara Morante:

Guillermo Balbona: La he escuchado decir que le apasiona Irène Némirovsky porque no desprende halo femenino. Pero, ¿cual es la textura de las palabras?
S.M.: Cuando hice esa afirmación el 90% de mis lecturas habían sido libros escritos por hombres. Todavía no había descubierto a las implacables e impactantes Agota Kristof, Unica Zürn, Jelinek, Jaeggy, o, en nuestra lengua, a Fernanda Trías y María Fernanda Ampuero. (...) También tuve ese prejuicio antes de ilustrar Cumbres borrascosas. «Otra novela romántica del XIX», pensé, y cuál fue mi sorpresa al descubrir esa voz sin concesiones ni autocensura de Emily Brönte (sic), esa historia salvaje de rencor que la Historia ha tratado como «romántica» (que no romanticista), tal vez por haberla escrito una mujer. (Translation)

Corriere Vicentino (Italy) lists 'love stories':

Cime Tempestose
Questo famosissimo romanzo di Emily Brontë narra la storia di Heathcliff e del suo amore per Catherine. In questo romanzo vengono trattati temi fondamentali del Romanticismo.
Il romanzo inizia col nuovo inquilino del casale di Thrushcross Grange, Mr. Lockwood, che s’informa presso la governante sul suo padrone di casa, Heathcliff. Questi vive a Cime tempestose, un antico maniero nella brughiera inglese. (Translation)

Bookishloom posts about some Jane Eyre book covers. Naija News Olofofo reviews Wuthering Heights.

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What's not to love?

Cherwell reviews the film Portrait de la jeune fille en feu:

However, though the film may have profound things to say about art and the roles of women, Portrait of a Lady on Fire excels in the poignancy and universality of the love story at its centre. Motifs from the gothic genre – a solitary woman arrives at a geographically isolated house with a history of death (Héloïse’s sister died in an apparent suicide) and mysterious residents, and experiences an all-consuming forbidden love affair – remind the viewer of Rebecca or the work of the Brontë sisters and grant the film and its central romance a sense of grim foreboding. (Clementine Scott)

National Review publishes an article about John Ford's The Quiet Man:

There is quite a lot packed in that brief scene. Her assertion “I can, I will, I do,” reminiscent of Jane Eyre’s “I am a free human being with an independent will,” then her admission of weakness, that he has the physical advantage, followed by his remark that she has another, more mysterious, advantage. (Madeleine Kearns)

The wonders of Yorkshire by Alastair Humphreys in The Sunday Times:

I paused to admire the William Wilberforce statue here, as I did elsewhere in Yorkshire at the monuments to Captain Cook, the Brontës, Guy Fawkes and Fred Trueman (“t’ finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath”).

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution loves tea:

I thought about Alice and her proper ways with tea when I cracked open “Jane Eyre” for the first time in high school. When 10-year-old, maltreated Jane is sent to Lowood, a charity school for orphaned girls, the benevolent superintendent, Miss Temple, takes pity on her and the sick Helen Burns by inviting the deprived girls to her room for tea. Jane recalls: “How pretty, to my eyes, did the china cups and bright teapot look, placed on the little round table near the fire! How fragrant was the steam of the beverage, and the scent of the toast!”Bah. The trio had to split one measly slice of toast. And, a few pages later, Helen Burns dies. (Ligaya Figueras)

More websites give tips for reading in the quarantine:

Emily Lefroy – 9Honey Writer
"I'm going to re-read the Harry Potter series, it's a comfort read for sure, and reread the classics as well – it's the perfect time to get up to date with the Brontë sisters! (Maddison Leatch in Nine.com)

 "Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Brontë: An orphaned young governess, a love affair with brooding Mr. Rochester, a secret crazed wife locked in the attic – what's not to love? (Megan McCarthy in USA Today)

„Jane Eyre“ von Charlotte Brontë: Geister auf dem Dachboden sind nicht immer Geister, vielleicht sollte man das überprüfen, bevor man seinen Chef heiratet. (Maike Schiller and Holger True in Hamburger Abendblatt) (Translation)

Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Bronte. “Es una novela romántica, que para mí se debe leer como una novela de fantasmas. Es un libro que tiene la virtud de envolverte en un mundo muy lejano y hacerte volar en un dramón conmovedor”. (Elsa Drucaroff in Télam) (Translation)

Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The Brontës (Abrams)
Isabel Greenberg is a cartoonist fascinated by storytelling and how it shapes both individuals and the world. Her latest graphic novel continues exploring this theme through the lens of historical fiction, imagining the circumstances surrounding the development and destruction of the fantasy world the young Brontë siblings created after the sudden deaths of their older sisters. Greenberg pulls Glass Town and its characters directly from the Brontës’ juvenilia, giving readers a look into the early creativity of an iconic literary family with a playful visual style that captures the Brontës’ enthusiasm as they discover what fiction can do. Glass Town is also a character study of Charlotte Brontë, the last surviving sibling, and Greenberg frames the story with conversations between Charlotte and Charles Wellesley, her primary character in Glass Town. Through Charlotte, Greenberg delves into the dangers of losing yourself in an escapist world. Fictional characters become obsessions that threaten Charlotte’s relationships with her siblings, and in order to be a better sister, she needs to bring herself back to reality. Variations on the characters introduced in Glass Town would reappear in the novels that made the Brontë sisters famous, and this graphic novel inventively weaves the fictional narratives of the young siblings with their own family drama to show how both elements inform their later works. (Oliver Sava in AV Club)

Wuthering Heights. Love can be destructive if passion is the only aspect taking control in a relationship. This short novel explores just that with two love stories; one story is tragic and one story ends happily. With the two love stories, you see the differences that made each one turn out that way. The book can make you think about what love is and how it should be treated in a romantic relationship. (Christopher Molek in Worldatlas)

or films:

Jane Eyre 2011
Vakker, sanselig og observant filmatisering av Charlotte Brontës elskede roman, Med ypperlig spilt av Mia Wasikowska og Michael Fassbender. (Inger Merete Hobbelstad in Dagbladet) (Translation)

Self-quarantine in a family could be challenging as La Depeche (France) explores:

Le couple est un continent qui regorge perpétuellement de terra incognita et qui, depuis toujours, inspire la littérature, le cinéma ou la télévision. De Titus et Bérénice à Rhett Butler et Scarlett O’Hara, de Colin et Chlo à Jane Eyre et Edouard Rochester, de Bonny and Clyde à un Gars une fille, d’Harold et Maud à Scène de ménages. (Philippe Rioux) (Translation)

or dating according to 10 Daily:

Alongside this, as popular memes have described -- it might be the end of the world we once knew, so what about those of us that never found love? Nothing like a last-ditch attempt to discover our Heathcliff. Although he’ll be less likely to be wondering the moors, and more likely to be sitting at home watching re-runs of Friends and eating two-minute noodles. (Lisa Portolan)

Rolling Stone (France) interviews the author Anne Simon:

Vos principales influences ?
J’aime les récits tragiques et cruels, comme les sœurs Brontë ou les romans naturalistes de Zola… Avec tout de même un peu d’espoir et des personnages forts. Côté BD, j’ai découvert Julie Doucet à la fin des années 90. Elle se raconte sans filtre, ses dessins et mises en page sont à tomber. Je n’avais jamais rien lu de tel. De Jérôme Bosch à Sophie Calle, mes goûts éclectiques ont tous un dénominateur commun : raconter des histoires et réveiller l’imaginaire. C’est ça qui m’intéresse. (Translation)

Dod Magazine reviews the latest album of the band Triángulo de Amor bizarro:

Otros temas destacables son Calígula 2025, que narra la historia de un don nadie que quiere convertirse en un dictador y Folía de las Apariciones; de temática romántica e inspirada en Cumbres Borrascosas que recoge las armonías de las folías ibéricas. Aquí, la propia Isa se presenta a si misma como un fantasma en busca de su vivo amado “Soy yo, Isa, quien te espera / ¿No hay nadie ahí que funda mi alma / enterrada en tu memoria / y me lleve al trono vacío / donde estabas tú?” (Pablo García) (Translation)

El Sol de Tampico (México) reviews Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo:

Se le ha querido encontrar influencia a la prosa de Rulfo con los grandes escritores como Faulkner, Prost, Joyce o Kafka; sin embargo, el apego a las supersticiones, a los mitos de aparecidos, a los veneros populares y a las descripciones marcadamente locales de paisajes fantasmales, hacen que la literatura rulfiana se acerque más a los autores nórdicos como Lagerlöff, Ramuz, Bjornson, Hamsun e, inclusive, con la Emily Brönte de Cumbres Borrascosas, en el tratamiento del amor fou –tan atrayente para los surrealistas franceses-. (Juan José González Mejía) (Translation)

InfoLibre (Spain) has a point when it says

Nadie, por tanto, va a leer a Stevenson, Balzac, Baroja, Dostoievski, Galdós o Dickens porque otro le haya recordado la idoneidad de los días largos para leer libros largos. Puede que ocurra en algún caso o dos, no lo niego, pero la norma más bien parece sugerir que esos libros tienen su modo peculiar de atraer a sus lectores: hay quien los encuentra en los estantes de la biblioteca paterna, o en un mercadillo callejero –donde las colecciones populares de clásicos de la literatura universal se liquidan por unos céntimos el ejemplar–, o en la escuela, o en un comentario afortunado hecho por una persona a la que se admira –mi hija leyó Cien años de soledad a una edad muy temprana porque la cantante Shakira dijo en una entrevista que era su libro favorito, y muchos jóvenes usuarios de la biblioteca escolar de la que me ocupo pidieron en ella en su día la novela Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë porque era la favorita de no sé qué personaje de la saga Crepúsculo–. No, aquí la autoridad del lector reconocido cuenta poco y más bien puede resultar contraproducente. Esos otros azares tienen más fuerza. (José Manuel Benítez Ariza) (Translation)

AgoraVox (France) looks at Wuthering Heights... in a different way:

C’est la lecture récente d’un livre qui a éclairé ma lanterne. Emilie Brontë – Les Hauts de Hurlevent.
Dans cette histoire, les heures de coucher et de lever sont régulièrement spécifiées. On constate que les personnages sont très matinaux : la maison s’anime dès 4 heures du matin. Et pourtant il s’agit du récit de familles bourgeoises, pas d'éleveurs astreints à leurs bêtes ! (Tellurix) (Translation)

Keighley News reports that the Brontë Parsonage Museum car park will remain closed to help slow the spread of coronavirus. Ara, La Vanguardia, Diari de Girona and El Nacional (Spain) recommends the Teatre Lliure's Jane Eyre adaptation that can be seen this weekend on Youtube (Sunday, 18 h). Collyers Literary Group posts a review of Wuthering Heights.

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