The 21st-century pearl clutchers are the equivalent of Victorian literary critics

Sharon Wright has written an article for The Times equating the outrage of some of the people commenting on the new Wuthering Heights trailer to the outrage seen in contemporary reviews of the novel. She claims that, 'The 21st-century pearl clutchers moaning about Emerald Fennell’s ‘horny’ film adaptation don’t understand the book,' and we couldn't agree more.

When the trailer for Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming movie Wuthering Heights dropped this month, my WhatsApp went wild with shocked emojis. I’m the woman who had the misspelt memorial to the Brontë sisters in Westminster Abbey corrected, so naturally I almost broke a thumb jabbing the trailer link to see it for myself. [...]

But, speaking as an expert on the Brontës, I have news for these 21st-century pearl clutchers: Wuthering Heights has always been a sexy shocker.

When the Yorkshire author published her only novel in December 1847 under the name Ellis Bell to disguise her gender, it received a scandalised press. The first edition sold out, partly because the reviews flagged up its controversial content. The American Review wrote in June 1848 that the book was so outrageous “it excites a sense of shame to turn back to many of its most ‘thrilling’ scenes”. It also noted: “If we did not know that this book has been read by thousands of young ladies in the country, we should esteem it our first duty to caution them against it.”

According to the biographer Juliet Barker’s book, The Brontës, reviewers also described Wuthering Heights as “coarse and loathsome” and said it showed “the brutalising influence of unchecked passion”.

That last critic wasn’t wrong. The story of Cathy and Heathcliff, with obsessive love, revenge and broiling feuds, plays out in the lawless, lonely wilds of northern England. There’s an abundance of hay to roll in, so you can see why Fennell fell on the raunchy potential for her follow-up to Saltburn as another steamy Hollywood hit.

Although Heathcliff and Cathy never have sex, their unrequited passion fuels one of the hottest romances in literature. After Heathcliff is brought home as a foundling child by Cathy’s father, the youngsters become inseparable. When they are about 15, Heathcliff runs away, thinking Cathy doesn’t love him, and she goes on to marry his upper-class rival, Edgar Linton. Heathcliff marries Edgar’s sister, Isabella, in revenge for losing Cathy.

While there are no explicit sex scenes between Heathcliff and Isabella, readers in 1847 knew exactly what was happening behind bedroom doors when Isabella tells Nelly Dean, the all-seeing servant, that Heathcliff is “a monster, and not a human being!” She has fallen for Heathcliff’s calculating courtship, eloping with him despite Cathy’s warning that he is “a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man” who would “crush you like a sparrow’s egg”. Heathcliff despises his wife, telling Nelly: “The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain.”

It’s a given that these two had a sadistic sex life.

Which made it irresistible for readers in the 1840s — and excellent fodder for film-makers ever since. Fennell’s historical romp will be at least the seventh English-language movie called Wuthering Heights. The first — a silent-era 1920 version — was advertised as “A tremendous story of hate!”

The most famous, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in 1939, cemented Wuthering Heights’ reputation as the ultimate love story, with everyone’s clothes staying firmly on. Now we’ll see what happens when they all come off. And I say, why not?

Unfortunately, we’ll never know what Brontë wanted us to think of her story. In December 1848, at the age of 30, she was dead of tuberculosis, unaware that her book would hold successive generations in a fevered thrall. But her poetry offers a clue to her mindset, that she was intent on creating her own world. “I’ll walk,” she wrote, “but not in old heroic traces/ And not in paths of high morality.” Brontë followed her own rules, not those of society.

And even if the film is a travesty, what does it matter? We might not be talking about a 2026 movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights in 200 years, but you can be certain that we will forever be talking about Brontë and her famous work.

Exactly!

Swooon has an article on several Tik Tok theories about the movie. A contributor to The News Record is not excited about the film.

By prioritizing shock value and a "sultry" aesthetic, like in Fennell’s previous film “Saltburn,” the adaptation risks stripping away the elements that make the story so powerful and enduring. [...]

Without the class dynamics mentioned, the forbiddances of Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship and Heathcliff’s ostracization will not feel authentic or even believable. 

Ultimately, for many fans, Fennell's “Wuthering Heights” seems to be using the classic title as a vehicle for a very different story—one that aligns with her signature filmmaking style but diverges from the spirit of the source material. 

From what we can tell from the trailer and early reviews, the film seems to disregard the novel's historical context and character integrity. As “Wuthering Heights” is my favorite classic novel, I feel disappointed by the creative choices, especially by a well-known director that could have gotten a lot of eyes on the important themes of the novel. It adds to the ongoing debate over artistic license versus authenticity in adapting classic literature. (Madelyn Stewart)

While a contributor to Femina claims to be hooked by the trailer.

The original Wuthering Heights was not erotica. Let’s establish that first. For an author’s advocate like me, it’s not too easy to like movie adaptations, especially not when they are tampered with to this extent. My question after watching Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (2026) trailer is, “Who asked for it? But would people watch it if it were some messy romantic tragedy with no visuals to induce the extreme tension among the audience? Have we lost our ability to be stimulated by the slow bitterness of a man that slowly turned into insanity and ultimately into grief over a lost love?”

The other half of my heart is going “Holy damn” over the details that I had only visualised while reading and hopefully what the novel failed to capture, especially in terms of the sexual tension and relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. [...]

Back in the 19th century, when women were not even confident enough to use their real names for authorship, and the way Emily Brontë stayed “Ellis Bell” until her death tells us a lot about what it was like to be a woman in that era. And one can only expect a limit to the explicit display of romance. Yet we are grateful for the authentic and raw documentation of a messy love that can happen to someone alienated from the rest of the world.

Today, we don’t have to hide it. We can embrace the wholeness of love. And perhaps that’s why it is not just about having the perfect casting in this very adaptation, where we will be seeing Jacob Elordi in yet again another brooding, beastly, dark (emotionally, because the casting failed a bit here as Heathcliff was supposed to be dark-skinned) role, seething in anger, in his all-consuming passion for his beloved and Margot Robbie as Catherine, doing justice to her conflicted character, to whom nothing drives her more wild than her love for Heathcliff. And not to forget, along with featuring a music remix of Everything Is Romantic by Charli XCX, it puts you in a trance that slowly burns you from the inside out.

While we wait for the movie to release, I am convinced it’s okay not to be completely okay and yet enjoy an adaptation. Because who knows, Ms Emily is watching us from somewhere, amused at all the insane things we write and do for love. (Parul Karn)

Mirror has 'Every Wuthering Heights film [sic] rated as new Margot Robbie trailer arrives' according to their Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

A contributor to Her Campus lists her '4 Favorite Period Romances for Fall' and one of them is

Jane Eyre (2011)

Now, for those of us who enjoy the darker, more moody side to autumn, Jane Eyre offers the perfect escape. Set against the backdrop of windswept moors and shadowy corridors, the film explores themes of love, social class, and madness.

The story follows its namesake, Jane Eyre, on her journey from her abusive childhood to her role as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets her pensive employer, Mr. Rochester. The gothic architecture and brooding romance create a perfectly haunting atmosphere that’s sure to complement any chilly autumn night. (Lauren Cunningham)

LatFem (in Spanish) has an article on women writers and Gothic terror.