It's not Wuthering Heights, it's us

Indian Express discusses 'Why Wuthering Heights is not a romance. The misreading of Emily Brontë’s classic'.

When British filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights arrives next year, a Charli XCX anthem pulsing over Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff, the internet will do what it always does. Instagram will light up with edits of Margot Robbie’s Catherine whispering, “I am Heathcliff.” Bookstagram and Booktok will churn out reels about “toxic soulmates.” And yet again, Emily Brontë’s classic will be flattened into the same tired pitch it has endured for nearly two centuries, vaunting it as one of literature’s greatest love stories.

Except it isn’t.

The great error of Wuthering Heights’s cultural afterlife, part of which was fueled by Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight series, is the assumption that Brontë intended a romance in the lowercase sense, evoking images of candlelit devotion, destiny-laden courtship, love conquering all. What Brontë gave us is Romantic with a capital R, a work born of a literary movement obsessed with wildness, excess, the sublime and the terrifying. Heathcliff is not Mr Darcy in a leather jacket. He is closer to Milton’s Satan: elemental, vengeful, almost inhuman in his capacity for cruelty. Catherine is no heroine either. Her mercurial whims, her selfishness, and her inability to choose make her a tragic agent of destruction.

And yet, generation after generation, we keep insisting otherwise. Why? Because we want it to be true. Because we are addicted to the idea that passion redeems suffering. Because we crave love stories so intense they burn morality away. It is why Wuthering Heights ends up on bridal Pinterest boards and “best romances of all time” lists. It is why reels clips swoon over Heathcliff, despite the fact that he systematically abuses nearly everyone in his path, including the next generation of characters who never wronged him at all.

In other words, it is not Brontë who romanticised Heathcliff and Catherine. It is us. (Aishwarya Khosla)

The Spinoff tries to explain why 'everyone' (sic) hates the trailer.

At worst, this adaptation of Wuthering Heights reminds me of AI image-making. A new language for our times from which a slick monster has emerged – a too-smooth amalgamation of parts of parts. Always, something is off, an element is ill-formed – the entire creation lacking in human intelligence, a deeper meaning, evidence of work and process. (Claire Mabey)

Using quotes from Reddit, Express claims that Andrea Arnold's adaptation of the novel is a masterpiece while Daily Tribune lists ten period dramas that 'will give you what 'Wuthering Heights' can't'.

2. Jane Eyre (BBC, 2006)

One of the definitive adaptations of another Brontë, Charlotte, this four-part miniseries makes room for nuance and slow character development. Ruth Wilson (spine-tingling as Mrs. Coulter in His Dark Materials) and Toby Stephens (son of Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith and star of Black Sails and Lost in Space) capture the psychological and emotional complexity of Jane and Rochester’s relationship without veering into melodrama.

The gothic elements are handled with care, making it ideal viewing if you’re craving the atmosphere promised but not yet delivered by the new Wuthering Heights trailer. [...]

6. Les Soeurs Brontë / The Brontë Sisters (1979)

Curious about the actual lives of the Brontë sisters? Start here. This French-language biographical film is a moody and evocative exploration of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, starring Isabelle Adjani, Marie-France Pisier, and Isabelle Huppert. It’s a haunting and melancholic portrait of three brilliant women whose art was shaped by isolation, illness, and imagination.

Though it takes liberties with the facts, Les Soeurs Brontë captures the emotional and psychological reality of being a woman writer in the 19th century and offers context for understanding why Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are so emotionally charged and complex.

7. To Walk Invisible (BBC, 2016)

For a more historically faithful take on the Brontës’ lives, To Walk Invisible is essential viewing. Written and directed by Sally Wainwright (Gentleman Jack), it dramatizes the sisters’ struggles to publish under male pseudonyms while navigating poverty, illness, and family turmoil.

It’s an eye opening look into the real conditions that shaped their writing and offers far more insight than any stylized adaptation of their novels ever could. For newcomers to Brontë lore, this is an excellent entry point.

8. Wuthering Heights (1992)

Now let’s return to the source, but perhaps not where you'd expect.

The 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, directed by Peter Kosminsky, may diverge from Emily Brontë’s novel in key ways (including its choice to cover the second generation of characters which other adaptations don’t usually do), but it nails the emotional essence of the story.

Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort in the Harry Potter series and many other iconic roles) is raw and magnetic as Heathcliff, while Juliette Binoche (who also appeared opposite Fiennes in The English Patient) brings a wildness and fragility to Cathy.

And the most daunting performance of all is delivered by Sinéad O’Connor, the Irish singer and songwriter, portraying Emily Brontë herself, whose voice narrates the film with a ghostly melancholy. The score is sweeping and unforgettable, and the cinematography captures the stark loneliness of the Yorkshire moors in a way that few adaptations have matched. Despite its liberties, this version is worth watching for its atmosphere and performances alone. (Maria Margarita Caedo)

According to Brit + Co, Wide Sargasso Sea is one of 'The 16 Most Binge-Worthy Books You Can Read In 2025'.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

This is a gorgeous literary take on what it means to be an outsider in the Western world. Written by Jean Rhys in 1966, it remains a beloved classic to this day due to its rich writing, Caribbean pride, and lovely prose. It’s one of my absolute favorites, and I’d go so far as to recommend everything by author Jean Rhys, who’s just as talented (dare I say more so) than Sylvia Plath, yet is far less known by modern society. Her books are actually what got me into reading, and now I’m the ultimate bookworm all these years later. (Bre Avery)