'People on moors (...). That's my favourite'

A contributor to The Suffolk Journal thinks that Emily Brontë would have hated Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights. Quite the statement, given the fact that they didn't know Emily Brontë and they have only seen the trailer.

One online creator argues that the erotic nature of the trailer could just be a guise to get more people to buy tickets rather than what actually happens in the movie. She discusses the growing market for smut in the book publishing industry and how that translates to film. However, I think this signals a bigger issue. 

Why must a piece of media be erotic for it to sell? A classic novel became a classic for a reason, and in this case, it wasn’t because of how hot the characters are. 

To top it all off, the trailer featured a song by Charli XCX, an artist known for her fun party music. The song, “Everything is Romantic,” comes from Charli’s “Brat” album, which is upbeat and alternative and does not match the story at all. 

Many of the creative liberties Fennell has taken contradict the essence of “Wuthering Heights” and make me doubt whether she’s read the book at all. With media literacy on the decline, it’s no surprise that classic novels are being taken at face value without any deeper analysis. 

Brontë, along with her two sisters, did the unimaginable and became literary geniuses as women. Women, during this time, often had to write under pseudonyms to even be considered for publishing. Mary Ann Evans, for instance, published under “George Eliot,” and the Brontës were no different. Each had their own male name to avoid any prejudice due to their gender. 

“Wuthering Heights,” under Fennell’s direction, would make Brontë turn in her grave. It is not a romance, and framing it as such disregards the entire point of the story and spits on her efforts in writing a gothic masterpiece. 

I am apprehensive about this movie, but who knows? Maybe Fennell will finally open a copy of “Wuthering Heights,” and the full film will be identical to the book. We’ll all have to wait until Valentine’s Day to find out because, of course, a story that is not about love is coming out on the day of love. (Desara Vladasi)

Taking into account that Emerald Fennell studied English at Oxford, we will give her the benefit of the doubt and think that she has indeed read the novel, and whatever she's done with it is just her interpretation, whether you agree with it or not. As for 'and the full film will be identical to the book'--well, that's just the problem, isn't it? Since the book already exists, we don't need anything 'identical'' to it, not taking into account the mere impossibility of the wish. If you approach an adaptation looking for something 'identical', you'd be better off buying a second copy of the actual book as no adaptation ever--good or bad--has been 'identical' to its source.

The corset experts continue seeing the trailer as if it were an instruction manual for wearing corsets. The Telegraph asked the so-called 'Jane Austen superfans' who gathered at Bath during the weekend.

And, since this is the most historically-informed gathering I’m likely to find, what about Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights? The trailer has featured suggestive dough-kneading and fingers in fishes’ mouths. The most common complaint, though, is about the costumes. “The corset without anything underneath!” one fan sighs. “They didn’t have the metal eyelets back then, but either way you’d have a shift underneath to protect your skin – and because you wash the linen, not the corset.”

“If you want to sex up an 18th-century novel, go for it – but maybe just say it’s ‘based on Wuthering Heights’, rather than calling it an adaptation,” says Lou, a Wiltshire-based librarian who prefers Gothic literature to Austen, but comes to Bath for the costumes. “If you look at the [2024] Nosferatu remake, it was such a beautiful homage to the 1932 film, and the original Bram Stoker novel. But they modernised it [so] that you went: ‘Okay, this makes sense in the context.’ [Fennell’s Wuthering Heights] looks more like fan-fiction. Not that there’s anything wrong with fan fiction, but maybe it’s not what you want in a movie.” (Joel Snape)

The Guardian features playwright and screenwriter Alice Birch.

Across the years of mulling over the idea, Birch read outside her comfort zone: Ernest Hemingway; DH Lawrence; 70s American novels; “trying to read Ulysses and failing”. Given the time and a quiet place to read, she would pick up a Hardy or Brontë. “People on moors,” she laughs. “That’s my favourite.” (Kate Wyver)

Speaking of people on moors. The Impression features the Max Mara Fall 2025 campaign.

The English moors have always been a stage for drama, and for Fall 2025, Max Mara makes them thunder with fashion. Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Creative Director Ian Griffiths looks to the wilderness as both muse and metaphor, finding a heroine who is untamed, resilient, and modern. The campaign, shot by Craig McDean with Angelina Kendall, places this force of a woman against storm-darkened skies and wind-lashed grasses, her presence as commanding as the coats she wears.

The set, built by Stefan Beckman, recreates the rolling expanse of the moors within the studio. What might have felt artificial becomes cinematic, thanks to McDean’s lighting and Kendall’s magnetic performance. Every image pits sharp, structured tailoring against unruly nature: a double-breasted coat towers over tangled branches, a cape slices through a horizon heavy with storm clouds. It’s not just backdrop; it’s battle ground, one where fashion and environment collide in equal measure. [...]

What makes the campaign sing is its refusal to romanticize. This isn’t nostalgia for Brontë’s tortured souls but a contemporary rewrite, with a protagonist who owns her narrative. Griffiths suggests that resilience and style are not opposites but partners: the storm doesn’t diminish her polish; it intensifies it. The clothes are both armor and expression, conveying elegance without fragility.

Ultimately, the campaign is less about weather than it is about weathering. Max Mara shows us a woman who doesn’t shrink from chaos but walks straight into it, perfectly dressed. In her stride lies the reminder that fashion isn’t only about beauty—it’s about power, presence, and the ability to turn even a storm into a runway. She isn’t at the mercy of nature; she is the nature, commanding, untamed, and unforgettable.

Brit + Co lists Jane Eyre among several 'cottagecore' recommendations (!).