For over a century, filmmakers have tried — and arguably failed — to capture the full storm of the Brontë sisters on the big screen. Their novels are wild, introspective, and morally untamed, filled with howling moors, forbidden desires, and women too intelligent for the worlds they inhabit. As a result, many have argued that there is no perfect Brontë film — at least none that fully captures the ache, the passion, and the defiance that define their work. (...)5. 'To Walk Invisible' (2016)(...) While this may not be a traditional adaptation, To Walk Invisible is easily one of the better adaptations of the Brontë sisters' lives. Focusing not on their literary output, the film showcases the domestic and social conditions that shaped it, whether that be familial struggles, poverty, or the constraints of being women in a strict, patriarchal society. The performances, particularly from the sisters, are raw and understated, revealing the delicate balance between ambition and repression. The result feels like a rare window into the sisters' inner world, one that transforms biography into something just as dramatic, painful, and complex as their fiction.4 'Jane Eyre' (1943)(...) While it doesn't capture every nuance of the novel, this 1943 adaptation of Jane Eyre shines for its mood, performance, and atmosphere. Yes, it simplifies some of Brontë's more psychological integrity, but it does so in order to heighten the romance, the mystery, and the moral tensions to allow the film to feel operatic and charged. Fontaine's Jane brings a steely dignity, but it is Welles' Rochester that best captures his literary counterpart: dark, brooding, and full of shadows and secrets. For many, this version remains a towering example of classic Hollywood Gothic romance, but also one that proves you can alter a source text and still retain its emotional power.3 'I Walked with a Zombie' (1943)Though it sounds worlds apart, I Walked with a Zombie is essentially Jane Eyre in disguise — a reworking of Brontë's narrative through the lens of colonial horror. Director Jacques Tourneur transforms the governess-and-aristocrat dynamic into a slow, hypnotic exploration of guilt and power, where repression manifests not in English estates but in Caribbean folklore. The film's dreamlike visuals and moral ambiguity make it one of the most inventive Brontë adaptations ever made. Its engagement with race, empire, and the supernatural pushes the novel's subtext to the surface, creating something both haunting and unexpectedly progressive for its time.2 'Wuthering Heights' (1939)Like other adaptations of the famed novel, William Wyler's Wuthering Heights tightens its sprawling plot to focus on the doomed romance of the central couple. As a result, it masterfully captures the wildness of Emily Brontë's moor, the volatility of Heathcliff's passion, and the class tensions that haunt Cathy's relationships. Between the sweeping cinematography and the lush score that amplifies the novel's emotional extremity, the movie turns into something that is both operatic and primal. More than 80 years later, few versions have matched its tragic grandeur, as it brilliantly showcased the elemental force of the story of love being both a salvation and a curse.1 'Jane Eyre' (2011)Visually, the film is breathtaking. From its cinematography, costume design, and choice of landscape, it's a tale that feels tactile and lived-in, stripping away the gloss of period drama in favor of grit and intimacy. While some scenes are streamlined, the film's fidelity to Brontë's themes is unmatched, with passion and morality in constant collision. It doesn't just retell Jane Eyre — it reclaims it. So, if you need a break from the frequent re-watching of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, perhaps you should put this film on your watch list. But beware, it might not be as comforting as you'd like. (Jessica Nobleza)
The Sunday Times explores the history of Hazleford Hall in Derbyshire:New adaptations of Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Brontë’s (sic) Wuthering Heights explore slavery, pervy nuns and death in childbirth. Count me in! (...)I’ve always embraced the darkness in literature. Being technically what the internet calls a “Brontë girlie”, I grew up being repelled and fascinated by the red room in Jane Eyre, and by Bertha Mason’s madness, before falling head over heels for Wuthering Heights at 14. But when it comes to dark themes, is there such a thing as going too far? The Brontë girlies have been in revolt over Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation, which not only has a white Heathcliff and looks to have put the actors in costumes from the “wrong” period, but according to test audiences opens with a scene in which a nun gropes a recently executed man’s penis. You do find yourself wondering if it’s necessary, when the source material manages to be fairly depraved already. Heathcliff hangs a puppy and digs up Cathy’s body, for instance. Wuthering Heights is famously difficult to adapt, but I rather liked Andrea Arnold’s 2011 social realist film.Amusingly, there was a debate at the Cheltenham literature festival a few years ago with the immortal title “Heathcliff versus Darcy: who is the bigger shit?”. I think the jury is still out. Heathcliff may have murdered a dog, but until we know how Darcy makes his money it’s all to play for. (...) As for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, it sounds utterly appalling and I will be there at the doors of the cinema the moment it opens.
The history of a Derbyshire manor house that inspired Charlotte Brontë.Hazleford Hall appears as Ferndean in the classic novel Jane Eyre — we trace what happened to the property and its occupants after its literary claim to fame. (...)‘The manor-house of Ferndean was a building of considerable antiquity, moderate size, and no architectural pretensions, deep buried in a wood. I had heard of it before. Mr Rochester often spoke of it, and sometimes went there. His father had purchased the estate for the sake of the game covers,” says Jane Eyre in the final pages of the Charlotte Brontë classic.The inspiration for Ferndean is thought to have been Hazleford Hall near Hathersage in Derbyshire. Hazleford was built in the early 1600s by Robert Eyre of Highlow Hall, one of seven houses built for his sons in and around Hathersage in the Peak District. All seven were within sight of Highlow and it is believed that Robert was able to send flag signals to his sons from the house.The present owner of Hazleford Hall, David Simon, says there is another Brontë link: “The house was part of the film set in a BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre in the 1970s — the description in the final pages of the novel fits it well.”One of the other Robert Eyre houses, North Lees, is recorded as having been built for William Jessop at the end of the 16th century but was later extended by Robert Eyre. North Lees has become well known among the Eyre houses — centuries later it was visited by Brontë, who used the house as the inspiration for Mr Rochester’s home Thornfield Hall. “Brontë was visiting friends at the vicarage in Hathersage in 1845, and she visited North Lees Hall several times. She is also believed to have used the village of Hathersage as the fictional village of Morton in her world-famous novel,” explains Melanie Backe-Hansen, the house historian. And, of course, she borrowed the name Eyre for her heroine. (Carol Lewis)
Suspicions of paedophilia trail Lewis Carroll. But rather than being an adult with an unhealthy interest in little girls, he is more likely to have been a man-child who bonded better with children simply because he remained one throughout his life. Literature, especially Victorian literature, is full of such figures—poet and painter Edward Lear, Kenneth Grahame (author of The Wind in the Willows), Hartley Coleridge (son of the Romantic poet). (Does a corresponding category exist when it comes to women? Can they afford to stay a child for long in a man’s world? But some do, surely, conditions permitting—the wild and wayward Emily Brontë, living a socially isolated life in Yorkshire, was probably one.) (Anusua Mukherjee)
The book moves to contemporary times where we have Martha Winter, an abused wife who left her husband and is terrified that she will be found. She found work as a housekeeper for an elderly, wealthy and mysterious woman named Madame Bowden. She befriends Henry Field, an academic from London who is searching for Emily Brontë’s missing manuscript and the mysterious lost bookshop. He meets Martha while on his search for the bookshop, which was located right next door to the house that Martha is working at. Henry and Martha end up joining forces to find the lost bookshop. (Deborah Condit)
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