Reintroducing Brontë’s wildness to a contemporary audience

Aleteia lists "The books on BBC’s 'Top 100' list that no Catholic should miss," including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and 

And we’d also add The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Brontë, 1848), which is not only a gripping story but also an important piece of history, as it was among the first novels to grapple with domestic violence, alcoholism, and other critical social issues from a woman's perspective — showing how a good person might have responded to such problems in that place and time. (Theresa Civantos Barber)

And, of course, we still have news outlets talking about the Wuthering Heights trailer, poster or the Charli XCX songs: t2online, El Diario, Bleeding Cool, Moclova, Music is to Blame, musically, The Playlist, Entertainment Now, Minuto Uno ...

Ultimately, the success of this adaptation depends on whether Fennell’s erotic, hyper-stylised approach can illuminate, rather than overshadow, the novel’s psychological and emotional complexity. Wuthering Heights is not just a story of passion; it is a study of trauma, social suffocation, generational damage, and the impossibility of love under violence. If Fennell can channel these themes without reducing the narrative to spectacle, her version may genuinely reintroduce Brontë’s wildness to a contemporary audience. If not, it risks becoming another example of her excess in visual style leading to a controversial, but thematically hollow film. Either way, she is taking a modern approach to the tone and mythology of Brontë’s works. The only question now is whether the moors will bend to her vision or simply swallow it whole. (Daniella Adetoye in Varsity)

El Confidencial (Spain) repeats the idea that the Brontë waves are a new hair trend.

The Irish Independent talks about modern Gothic retellings:

Wuthering Heights also plays with us at a deeper emotional level. We know it must all end very badly but we’re entranced. The star-crossed lovers will destroy one another and everyone else who comes into their orbit – here is the very antithesis of transactional dating and swiping left.

Writing about the anti-hero Heathcliff in British Vogue this week, author Olivia Petter said she just might be craving Bronte’s maddening breed of passion.

“I can’t tell you how many mediocre dates I’ve been on this year, swapping the same insipid stories about siblings and pets, hoping for a sudden spark of excitement and settling for its not being a complete disaster,” she said.

This is living, breathing, pulsating desire set against the backdrop of one of the wildest of places on earth, the moors which are almost a character in themselves in every depiction of Wuthering Heights.

This wildness too is one of the story’s greatest appeals: this is not safe, cultivated territory. The moors are alive and spirited, the perfect backdrop for the wildlings of Heathcliff and Cathy to get lost.

More than anything, it’s a story that taps deeply into a vein of fear, showing us what happens when we choose one thing over another. Cathy chooses a path of privilege and wealth when she forsakes Heathcliff and chooses Edgar Linton over the wildness of Heathcliff; the result is carnage. (Kathy Donaghy)

The Spectator dares to ask what if Wuthering Heights 2026 results are not good?:

Every few months or so, a new film comes along and anyone interested in the art of cinema braces themselves, because The Discourse will inevitably accompany it. There is no clearer candidate for fevered discussion next year than Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which is released, with smirking predictability, on Valentine’s Day. Ever since the film was announced, there has been controversy over everything from the casting of the Caucasian Jacob Elordi to play Heathcliff (who is referred to in Emily Brontë’s original novel as a “a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect”) to the excessively clean and stylish-looking clothes worn by Margot Robbie’s Catherine Earnshaw. When reports of strong sexual content, including BDSM and hanging-induced ejaculation, leaked from a test screening, word got out: Fennell had made her film again. (...)
So there is every chance that Wuthering Heights could be another artistic wash-out. But it could also be like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette or even the don of all period films, Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon: a fascinating, breathtakingly original take on the material. Not long to go now, in any case, and then The Discourse will have its day. And until then, we’ll always have Kate Bush: “Heathcliff, it’s me! Cathy!” Etc, etc.  (Alexander Larman)

According to The Times, Brigitte Reimann’s 1956 novella, Woman in the Pillory:

This dark wartime love story reads like a German Wuthering Heights. (...) 

Predictably, something bubbles up between the nervy blonde woman and the dark, brooding stranger (a pairing of the Wuthering Heights variety) and as the two find time to talk out of Frieda’s earshot, with Alexei “carefully putting one word on top of the other so that his shaky blocks of language didn’t collapse”, their affections grow. (Ceci Browning)

AnneBrontë.org has an extra post on 'Charli XCX And Wuthering Heights' and on YouTube, The Brontë Sisters has a video of an overnight stay at the Brontë Birthplace in a Casper (sorry, Garry) mood.