The Virago Book of Friendship (2024) is an anthology of excerpts that was her excellent idea, and ranges from the tragic (Jane Eyre) to the comic (Bridget Jones) and fraught (Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield). (Susanna Rustin)
Charli XCX has dropped an appropriately dramatic new music video for “Chains of Love,” the latest single from her upcoming album tied to Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights adaptation.Directed by C Prinz, the clip finds Charli performing the song in a grand but empty dining hall where she contends with an unseen force that flings cutlery and candlesticks in her direction, and lifts the giant table off the floor. At the cathartic climax, Charli stomps on the glass table, sending up a storm of shards.Charli released “Chains of Love” last week, the song arriving fast on the heels of her other recent single, “House,” with John Cale. Both songs will appear on the Wuthering Heights companion album, which Charli crafted with songwriters/producers Finn Keane and Justin Raisen. Wuthering Heights the movie — which co-stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi — is set to arrive Feb. 14, 2026, while the album is slated to drop Feb. 13. (John Blistein)
Wuthering Heights tells us that love should hurt. Actually, it should burn. Lacerating your heart and excavating your soul, it will, in the words of Emily Brontë herself, drive you mad. Fans of the 19th century classic were reminded of this last week, thanks to the release of the first full-length trailer for Emerald Fennell’s highly contentious but much anticipated adaptation, which stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.The trailer depicts Cathy (Robbie), meeting Heathcliff (Elordi), as children before becoming embroiled in what it describes as “the greatest love story of all time”. While it’s not clear how far Fennel has strayed from the 1847 novel – the film has raised eyebrows among literary types who’ve pointed out that Heathcliff is described as “dark-skinned” in the book, while Cathy wears a red latex dress among other things in the film – it’s set to be a major cinematic event, with original songs by Charli XCX and a Valentine’s Day release date.Make no mistake: Wuthering Heights – which focuses on the intense bond that develops between Cathy and Heathcliff as children into young adulthood, and the subsequent devastation that occurs when social mobility prevents them from being together – is a heart-wrenching tale, one that offers up meaningful commentary on everything from class and revenge to generational trauma. For me, though, it has always been about one thing and one thing only. And that’s Heathcliff, AKA literature’s original fuck boy. Brooding, handsome, and troubled beyond repair, he epitomises everything straight women are supposed to run from and yet somehow run towards. Or, at least, I do. (Olivia Petter)
Yes, I’m brand new to…whatever his fandom his called. The Jacobis? The Elordians? Team Jacob? And I’m sorry it took me this long, but I’m ready to pay my dues and collect my t-shirt. [...]And yes, there is plenty to criticize about the Wuthering Heights trailer and (I suspect) the upcoming film. Like, are we really calling this a “love” story—and could this really be based on one of the greatest English novels of all time?? Fennell herself admitted that this “primal, sexual” interpretation isn’t necessarily faithful to the source material. And while I was skeptical of that creative choice at first, now that I’ve seen Elordi’s shoulder-length hair, I could not be more grateful to Fennell for just going with her gut here. (Though it must be said that Brontë’s Heathcliff certainly wasn’t white.) But there will be a time and a place for all those think pieces, but that is not here and not now. (Lauren Tousignant)
Of course, Brontë’s novel doesn’t explicitly contain such a scent. Yet, as I follow the “mad” (no love has ever suited this word better) love between Heathcliff and Catherine, the relentless fate and curses spanning generations, and the windswept manor that feels like the true protagonist of those stormy hills, I sense a familiar, chilling odor at the tip of my nose. The smell of burning leaves, the earth’s resolve before winter. Literature is beautiful because it creates sensations through language alone. Though we’ve never seen Heathcliff’s face, heard Catherine’s voice, or smelled the manor, we feel and experience them through a novel written in a foreign language over 170 years ago.The second of the famous Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—she wrote only this one novel in her lifetime. Published at the age of 29, the book received little acclaim at the time, with many critics condemning its characters as vulgar and immoral. A year later, she died after a cold caught at her brother’s funeral worsened into pneumonia. I sense the same scent in Emily’s life.The original title, “Wuthering Heights,” is a proper noun, making the Korean title—literally “Storm Hill”—a near-mistranslation. Yet some mistranslations are more literary than accurate. For each of us has our own “stormy hill,” and ascending it always carries a familiar smell—the dark shadow left by late autumn. (Moon Ji-Hyuk)
It is impossible to write about the autumnal aesthetics without mentioning the dominance of Halloween in the autumnal months. Inspired by the pagan festival of Samhain, where it was believed the veil between the living and dead was weakened, and later the Eve of All Saints’ Day, Halloween has become the pinnacle of the gothic and horror lovers’ year. Autumn, therefore, becomes the backdrop for the gothic canon: Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Libby Davis)
An online fundraising page has been launched as part of a campaign to restore the steps of a world-famous church.The weather and years of use have taken their toll on the 19th-century steps at St Michael and All Angels, Haworth.Patrick Brontë, father of the literary siblings, was vicar at the church for over 40 years and most of the family are interred there.Visitors are drawn to the site from across the world.But the condition of the steps has deteriorated, and they have had to be partially closed for safety reasons.Now a GoFundMe page is set up, at https://gofund.me/b1b760a86, with the aim of raising £10,000 towards the cost of repairs.The Rev Oli Preston, rector of Haworth and Cross Roads, says: "For about the last 18 months we have been working on plans to repair and restore the steps."We started with the idea that this might be a fairly limited repair, but as time and assessment has gone on it has become clear that it's the right time to do a fuller restoration."We've managed to secure good community support already and have raised over £20,000 – two thirds of the estimated cost – from a few key grants and donations."With the backing of other leaders and businesses in the village, we have launched the GoFundMe page to ask for wider public support to enable us to complete the project."So far, the fundraising page has coined in over £1,300. (Alistair Shand)
Haworth in West Yorkshire will draw you into another time with its cobbled lanes and old alleyways, some which lead to an ancient church and graveyard where novelist sisters, Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë are buried. Younger sister Anne Brontë also lies at rest in the cemetery of St Michael & All Angels Church in Haworth, the three siblings wrote seven books, including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The village’s high street is full of ‘totally wonderful’ shops, including some with a magical witchy vibe, a ‘divine’ chocolate retailer and several unique gift and book stores to enjoy. (...)Also, edging the countryside that leads to the moorland is the Brontë Parsonage Museum - and this is well worth a visit if you are a fan of the Brontë sisters literature as this is where the family lived in the 1800s. (Katie Oborn)
6. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean RhysJean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is a bold and haunting prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, giving a voice to Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic." Set in Jamaica, the novel explores themes of colonialism, identity, and madness through the story of Antoinette Cosway, a young Creole woman caught between two worlds. The author's lyrical prose brings depth to the marginalised character, revealing the emotional and cultural turmoil that shaped her tragic fate. (...)9. Jane Eyre, Charlotte BrontëCharlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a groundbreaking Gothic novel that follows the resilient orphan Jane as she overcomes hardship and adversity to find love and independence. Working as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane falls for the mysterious Mr. Rochester, but their romance is shadowed by dark secrets. The novel's deep psychological insight and timeless exploration of morality, identity and social class make it a must-read work of literature. (Jennifer Pinto)
This is not an attempt to scold Emerald Fennell for perceived liberties in her upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. We haven’t seen it. What is of interest here is the brilliance of the prerelease marketing campaign.Warner Bros’ translation of a Gothic romance from the mid-Victorian era is, half a year before its arrival, on St Valentine’s Day, already the most-discussed film of 2026. Wuthering Heights is the new Barbie. If they moved it back five months to collide with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey we could have ourselves a ... Wutherssey? Odyssing? Okay, that really doesn’t work. But you get the idea.A large part of the controversy stems from unique and irrational antagonism towards the director in the online bear pit. (...)The content in both films was provocative, but few would have cared so much if Fennell didn’t seem so baldly posh. (...)That lurking hostility nudged the door open when, last September, Fennell announced the leads for her assault on Emily Brontë’s great novel. The horrible phrase “book accurate” now pollutes online discussion of adaptations. Nobody much gave a toss when, for his classic 1939 version, William Wyler scrapped whole acres of Brontë’s plot. But 21st-century book-accurate zealots blew a gasket at the news that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi were to play Cathy and Heathcliff.It mattered that they were significantly older than the lovers when, in the source, they first meet. It mattered a lot more that Elordi was white. Over the past decade or so the reasonable argument that the rugged Heathcliff, often regarded as Romani, could be black has, among many younger readers, evolved into a certainty that he’s a person of colour. Fennell was therefore “race swapping”. Few of these folks seemed concerned that she had cast Hong Chau, an American of Vietnamese descent, as Nelly Dean, the robust Yorkshire housekeeper. (...)The tabloids faked outrage. The Daily Telegraph commissioned an article that ran under the headline “A woke Wuthering Heights reboot is another tedious attempt at provocation”. What is “woke” about nuns groping hanged men? Didn’t the internet just identify the casting of Heathcliff as an assault on wokery? (...)If this Wuthering Heights does turn out to be a deranged, sexed-up, wildly violent deconstruction, like something by the late Ken Russell, that is surely preferable to a drably faithful walk-through of a text that has been so adapted more often than is healthy. (Donald Clarke)
Literary sisters behind "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights".
Black Hills Pioneer recommends Wuthering Heights as a Gothic quick pick. Several Latin American websites report the death of the actor Eduardo Serrano (1942-2025) who played Edgardo Linton in the Venezuelan soap opera Cumbres Borrascosas 1976. The Brontë Sisters UK explores Haworth graveyard's notable gravestones, including that of the doctor who attended Charlotte Brontë's deathbed, while revealing why the local church clock has been silent.
Her first book, A Long Way from Verona, was written for children and published in 1971, when she was in her early 40s. “I ought to tell you at the beginning,” announces Jessica Vye in the first sentence, “that I am not quite normal, having had a violent experience at the age of nine.” In the book, clever bookish girls, at a private school in wartime, are hungry for adventures and also for tea with cress sandwiches and chocolate eclairs; they belong to that class beloved of British fiction in the old days, educated people fallen on hard times. Jessica’s father has left his job as a schoolmaster to follow his vocation as a poor curate.
The Summer After the Funeral, published in 1973, begins with the death of Athene Price’s elderly vicar father, when his young wife and children have to move out of the vicarage with no money. Athene believes she’s a reincarnation of Emily Brontë; Jessica has mentioned Henry James, Chopin and Shakespeare by the end of her second chapter. These books belong to the tail-end of that rich period of English middle-class children’s writing, which depended upon an audience of sophisticated and informed young readers; it was partly through the books that their readers grew sophisticated and informed.
8. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne BrontëOften overshadowed by her sisters, Anne Brontë delivers one of the most radical and emotionally powerful novels of the 19th century. Through Helen’s courageous escape from an abusive marriage, Brontë examines love, autonomy, and endurance. The novel’s heartbreak stems not from grand tragedy, but from daily degradation and the slow erosion of hope. Yet Helen’s strength shines through, making her sorrow not only moving but monumental. Brontë offers no easy solace—only the raw dignity of resistance and integrity.
Thomas built an impressive career spanning five decades across film and television. His most prominent roles included the Portuguese priest Father Alvito in NBC's "Shogun" (1980) alongside Richard Chamberlain, and a first mate in Roman Polanski's "Pirates" (1986). His film credits showcased his versatility in productions such as "Julius Caesar" (1970), "Henry VIII and His Six Wives" (1972), Ray Harryhausen's "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" (1977), "The Message" (1976), "Never Let Me Go" (2010), and "The Limehouse Golem" (2016). On television, Thomas appeared in numerous British series including "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," "Poirot," "Blake's 7," "House of Cards," "The Professionals," "Tenko," and "Dempsey and Makepeace."
One of his most important roles was Richard Mason in the BBC's "Jane Eyre" (1983) with Timothy Dalton,
But what all the obituaries fail to mention, at least the ones we have seen, is that she also was Bertha Mason in Delbert Mann's Jane Eyre 1970 adaptation with George C. Scott and Susannah York. That is, a year before she catapulted to fame with Upstairs, Downstairs.
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Dame Joan Plowright (1929-2025), who passed away at 95, was a pivotal figure in British theatre, particularly during its transformation in the late 1950s. As a founder member of George Devine's English Stage Company in 1956, she gained prominence playing Beatie Bryant in Arnold Wesker's "Roots" (1959). Her marriage to Laurence Olivier in 1961 led to significant roles at the National Theatre, where she excelled in productions like Uncle Vanya, Saint Joan, and later The Merchant of Venice (1970) and A Woman Killed With Kindness (1971). She went on to achieve great success in West End productions, notably in Eduardo de Filippo's plays Saturday Sunday Monday and Filumena, and delivered memorable performances in classics such as The Cherry Orchard and The Way of the World. But she also appeared in Broadway. As a matter of fact she won a Tony Award for her performance in A Taste of Honey in 1961.
In her later career, Plowright transitioned primarily to film work, particularly after 1990. She appeared in several acclaimed movies including Drowning by Numbers (1988) by Peter Greenaway, An Enchanted April (1991) (with a nomination for best-supporting actress at the Academy Awards), James Ivory's Surviving Picasso (1996), Widows' Peak (1998), Franco Zeffirelli's Tea With Mussolini (1999), and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (2005). She retired in 2014 due to failing eyesight. Nevertheless, she still appeared in 2018 in the documentary Nothing Like a Dame with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, and Maggie Smith.
We went [she and her mother] on a pilgrimage together to Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire, where the Brontë sisters had lived, written their books and died. It seemed that every window in their house looked out onto gravestones; and we thought it was no wonder Emily took to striding on the moors all day to get away. My mother liked Charlotte best, and though I identified closely with Jane Eyre, I was fascinated by Emily’s more dangerous nature, and we were both quite fond of Anne. I think we had read almost everything they had ever written.
Published in 1979, "The Madwoman in the Attic" was more than a scholarly text—it was a radical reinterpretation of female literary expression. Gilbert and Gubar introduced a revolutionary lens through which to view women writers, particularly those of the 19th century like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. They argued that the seemingly "mad" or rebellious female characters in these works were not mere plot devices, but powerful proxies for the authors' own suppressed rage and rebellion against patriarchal constraints.
In their landmark analysis, Gilbert and Gubar saw Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" as a quintessential example of this narrative strategy. Bertha Mason, the infamous "madwoman" locked in the attic, was not just a plot obstacle, but a complex symbolic representation of the protagonist's own thwarted desires and social frustrations. This character became a metaphorical embodiment of the creative and emotional restrictions imposed on women during the Victorian era.
The madwomen and harridans of Brontë, Austen and others were proxies for the authors’ own rage and rebellion, Ms. Gilbert and Ms. Gubar declared. So, too, was Shelley’s “Frankenstein”: her monster, herself. (..)
The book became a feminist blockbuster, joining second-wave feminist classics like Kate Millet’s “Sexual Politics” (1970) and Elaine Showalter’s “A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing” (1977), which traced the legacy of gender discrimination in the arts. (...They thought of calling their course Upstairs, Downstairs, but settled on The Madwoman in the Attic, in homage to the madwoman who haunts Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” otherwise known as the first Mrs. Rochester. The patterns that began to emerge as they taught those works — what they described as a distinct feminine imagination and literary tradition — were thrilling to them. (Penelope Green)
Maggie Smith's connection to the Brontë legacy, while not widely known, is quite intriguing. Her most direct link comes through her son, Toby Stephens, who portrayed Rochester in the 2006 adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. However, Smith herself has a more obscure Brontë connection through a 1978 theatre play titled Haworth: A Portrait of the Brontës, written by her then-husband, Beverley Cross.
This play was originally slated for performance at the Stratford Festival's Avon Theatre in Ontario, Canada, with Maggie Smith and Brian Bedford in leading roles. However, the production was ultimately removed from the festival's program, reportedly due to the illness of the Festival's director, Robin Phillips [1][2]. The details of what happened next are somewhat unclear.
What we do know is that Smith rehearsed for the role and participated in a photo session, as evidenced by her appearance on the cover of the published play script in 1978 [3]. The play eventually saw its official premiere in 1981 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, starring Polly James. However, given the gap between the initial preparations and this later production, it's possible that Smith may have performed the role in some capacity during this interim period, though no definitive records of such performances are readily available. This Brontë-focused work, regardless of its full performance history, adds an intriguing footnote to Smith's illustrious career, highlighting the diverse range of roles she has engaged with throughout her time on stage.
Check more details about the play on the essential IG account @bronteghosts, which is also the source of the picture that accompanies this post.
[1] Michael Coveney, Maggie Smith. A Biography, St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2015He [Spencer] is not much of a book person: When asked to tell them the last book he has read, he says “Wuthering Heights” but then adds, “I didn’t read it as much as read the Wikipedia page.” (Jay Lustig)
Pat Heywood, the veteran Scottish actress who made her film debut as Olivia Hussey’s nurse and confidant in Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, has died. She was 92.Heywood died June 26, the Scottish Daily Mail reported.During her four-decade career, Heywood portrayed the maid in the manor at the center of Freddie Francis’ horror comedy Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1970) and the wife of British serial killer John Christie (Richard Attenborough) in the Richard Fleischer-directed 10 Rillington Place (1971). (Mike Barnes)
She also played Ellen Dean in the 1978 TV series Wuthering Heights.
Charlotte Brontë’s 'Jane Eyre' is a compelling exploration of personal strength and moral integrity. The novel tells the story of Jane Eyre, an orphaned girl who overcomes a harsh childhood to become a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she meets the enigmatic Mr. Rochester and faces numerous challenges that test her resolve and character. Through Jane’s experiences, Brontë addresses themes of love, independence, and social criticism. The novel's rich character development and Brontë’s keen insight into human nature create a narrative that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Jane’s journey from oppression to self-realization continues to inspire and captivate readers. (Girish Shukla)
A new video of The Brontë Sisters takes us to "where the Brontë Story started", in Guiseley, where Patrick Brontë married Maria Branwell at St Oswald's Church on December 29, 1812.
Her film career included significant roles in various genres. She starred in Antonioni's "Le Amiche" (1955), which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and played a key role in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" (1960). Furneaux also appeared in horror films like Hammer's "The Mummy," peplum productions, and psychological thrillers such as Polanski's "Repulsion" (1965). Her work spanned British, Italian, and French cinema, showcasing her versatility as an actress.
After Ms. Furneaux co-starred in Ray Milland’s crime drama “Lisbon” (1956), a Hollywood production shot in Portugal, she returned to the theater for a Shakespeare tour in India. On her return in 1958, she stopped in Rome for a short holiday. A call came from the office of American producer and talk show host David Susskind, who wanted to cast her in a CBS television production of Emily Brontë's novel “Wuthering Heights.”“I screamed,” she told the Daily News. “I was so excited! America at last … I caught the next plane out, without even seeing the Colosseum.” (Brian Murphy)
In 1964 she played Cathy in a Televisa adaptation of the Emily Brontë's novel: Cumbres Borrascosas. Fifty-nine thirty-minute long episodes, no less. Pablo Palomino did the adaptation and Manuel López Ochoa played Heathcliff. The producer was Ernesto Alonso.
So the facts were my stepping - stones, and sometimes, when there were enough of them, my straight path through these four lives. Where there was no solid factual ground, I have felt free to guess, to use my novelist's insight - in a word, to invent. Who has studied this family and not longed to be a fly on the parsonage wall, to watch and listen and find out what really happened, what they said to each other, what they did, what motivated them? But I have not let my imagination run riot. I have kept it harnessed to the truth. For the rest, I offer my answers to some of the mysteries. Let anyone who is not satisfied with these brave the wrath of the curator of the Brontë Museum by digging up the parsonage garden!
Rebecca Wolff : Wuthering Heights is what is known as a “classic”; I read it at least six times before I was 15. What kind of place did it have in your imagination before you retold it?Maryse Condé There is a strong tradition of what is called literary cannibalism in the Caribbean. A lot of people have done it before me. When I read Wuthering Heights, I was 14. It was given to me at a prize ceremony for being good in writing. I read the book in September, which is rainy season in the Caribbean. I was lying on my bed in my bedroom, and for me it was an enchantment. I really was transported to wherever Emily Brontë wanted to transport me . . . and then I forgot all about it. I saw it at the cinema after that, by chance—the version with Laurence Olivier. It revived memories of my adolescence, so I read it again and discovered it had a meaning beyond the actual meaning, beyond the meanings the author wanted to give. It was a story you could transplant into any society. I was teaching a few years later and I discovered Jean Rhys, who wrote Wide Sargasso Sea, a rewriting of Jane Eyre. I thought, It’s not so bizarre that I’m attracted to Emily Brontë. Because, in fact, there is something about the Brontë sisters that speaks to Caribbean women, regardless of their color, regardless of their age, regardless of the time they live in. So I decided I was going to rewrite it. But it was at least another five years for me before I really started. Because my husband, who is English, was shocked when I was telling him my vague intention. He did not see the connection between the Caribbean and Brontë’s work. It seemed blasphemy to him to rewrite Brontë’s masterpiece. So I took another five years to decide—and when I could not help it, I started to write.RW Blasphemy!MC But I totally understand. It is such a masterpiece, such a beloved work in England. For example, when we promoted the book in England we went to the Museum at Haworth, where Emily Brontë was born. People came to listen to me but I could see when they were sitting down looking at me, there was a kind of . . . I wouldn’t say fear, but a kind of shock. What is she doing to the text? How can she dare touch that text?! I really had to convince them that I did not do any disrespect to Brontë; on the contrary, I was paying homage to her. It seems to me the greatest homage that I pay is to her artistry.
Unless explicitly said
