Heathcliff as a Mirror

Her Canberra and the upcoming Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever:

Taking over the iconic Canberra institution on Saturday 26 July, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever (TMWHDE) is celebrating its ninth year of raising funds for Domestic Violence Crisis Service (DVCS) in the capital.

A whimsical global tribute to Kate Bush and her iconic 1978 hit Wuthering Heights, the global event was inspired by UK performance art group, Shambush. (Erin Cross)

More MWHDE celebrations in Nation Cymru,  Los Alamos Daily Post, WABE (Atlanta)...

Daily Mail asks the writer Lily Samson about her reading preferences:

As a teenager, I much preferred Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and its unhinged, wild, surreal spirit; the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff stirred my soul, whilst Elizabeth and Darcy left me cold. But I’m aware that I’m in a minority here…

Grazia looks into the Englishness of Too Much:

Meanwhile, Britain is the home of Heathcliff and Darcy – and their 1995 counterparts, the Gallagher brothers. As viewed from across the pond, Brits can be cool and romantic, fun and enigmatic. We share a language, we’re up for a laugh and we have windswept moors at our disposal. We can’t promise that you’ll meet a lord with a castle. But we can find you someone with a hot accent and great eyebrows. (Daisy Buchanan)

Counterpunch analyzes the 'racialized vampire': Nosferatu and, in some sense, Heathcliff:

[Robert] Eggers has said that one of the major inspirations while writing the Nosferatu (2025) script was Wuthering Heights, as he saw a similarity between Heathcliff and Count Orlok. However, while Heathcliff is an Other, he is not an essential Other. Unlike Orlok, whose monstrosity is depicted as innate, Heathcliff’s demonization stems from the way he is treated by those around him. From the moment of his arrival at Wuthering Heights, he is subjected to abuse, especially by Hindley. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff is forced into servitude, denied an education, and made to labor in the fields. As Nelly observes,

“He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley’s blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident, and nobody was to blame.”

By being continually portrayed as demonic and subhuman, Heathcliff gradually transforms into the image others have imposed upon him. He conforms to the role society assigns him, not because he is inherently monstrous but because monstrosity is the only way left to assert agency. In Wuthering Heights, the figure of the Other functions not as a permanent outsider, but as a mirror reflecting society’s own prejudices and contradictions. For example, when Catherine tells Nelly about a dream in which she goes to heaven and feels utterly miserable, only to be cast out by the angels and return joyfully to the earth, it reveals how the Other disrupts conventional notions of order and moral idealism. Catherine understands that she becomes an Other by loving Heathcliff and she chooses to marry Edgar Linton, believing that doing so would help both herself and Heathcliff materially. (Read more) (Maliha Iqbal)

Brit+Co recommends summer readings:

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

is a gorgeous work of literature written by Jean Rhys in the 1960s. It takes place in Jamaica and is filled with colorful, sensory details that’ll make you feel as though you’ve escaped your current setting and have entered the charming atmosphere of the island, filled with the lush scent of blossoms and salty ocean breeze. (Bre Avery)

CTV streams Jane Eyre 2011 for Canadian viewers. Stay at Home Artist has posted a new Brontë story: An Ember in the Ash.