Date: Saturday 4th July | 11am – 1pmStarting Point: The Bronte Birthplace, 72-74 Market Street, Thornton, BD13 3HF.Join Paul Crossley and the Brontë Birthplace for our Walking Tour of historic Thornton, uncovering the rich cultural, industrial, and architectural heritage of the Brontë children’s birthplace. For many years, Thornton has been the forgotten chapter in the Brontë story but since the grand opening of the Brontë Birthplace, we’re working to shine a light on the fascinating history of this charming and characterful village.Led by local historian and Brontë family expert Paul and a group of local volunteers, this 2-hour tour begins at the Brontë Birthplace and guides you through key sites including the Brontë Bell Chapel ruins, Kipping House, South Square Centre, and the village’s iconic snickets and ginnels.Once overlooked, Thornton’s story is now being brought to life. Step into its vibrant past and discover how it helped shape the Brontës.The tour ends back at the Birthplace, where you’re welcome to relax in the café, browse the gift shop, or book a house tour.
Queen Camilla has accepted an invitation to become Royal Patron of a museum and educational centre at the location where the Brontë sisters were born.The Queen officially opened The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, Bradford, in May 2025 after it was opened to the public for the first time in its 200-year history following a fundraising campaign.Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, as well as brother Branwell, were all born in the house on Market Street, now under public ownership, between 1816 and 1820.Cathy Boyden, chair of the Brontë Birthplace, said: "Her Majesty's patronage is a wonderful endorsement of what has been achieved so far and gives us great encouragement as we look to the future."Boyden added: "Our first year has been a remarkable journey, made possible by the dedication of volunteers, supporters, members, funders and visitors who believed in the vision of bringing this historic building back to life."A spokesperson for the museum, which also offers overnight stays, said since it had opened, it had welcomed "thousands of visitors from across the UK and around the world".The siblings later went on to write poetry and novels, with the women originally writing under pen names.Some of their most famous works include Emily's Wuthering Heights, Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.The Brontë Parsonage Museum, based in the house where the sisters grew up after the family moved to Haworth in 1821, is also now a museum.According to a spokesperson for the Royal Family, having a Royal Patron "provides vital publicity for the work of these organisations, and allows their enormous achievements and contributions to society to be recognised and promoted".
In 2021, Sotheby’s in London announced the sale of a precious literary manuscript, feared lost for so long that it had acquired near-legendary status. A notebook into which Emily Brontë copied 31 of her poems had remained where it was last heard of in the 1930s, within the private literary collection formed by a 19th-century Lancashire industrialist, William Law of Honresfield House.As well as containing the only-known manuscript versions of some of Brontë’s most famous lyrics, the notebook bears pencilled annotations made by her elder sister (and posthumous editor) Charlotte, who, when later recalling the fiercely independent, contrarian will behind Brontë’s reserved outward manner, claimed that “an interpreter ought always to have stood between her and the world”.Many biographers have welcomed the challenge of standing as “interpreter” to Emily Brontë, but all have had to confront the slight extent of her literary remains. No manuscript or draft material of her only novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), is known to survive. Only a few of her letters and essays have been preserved, while all that is left of her long-running collaboration with her younger sister Anne on the chronicles of their imaginary empire of Gondal are her poems voiced by its impassioned, amoral protagonists.But the American literary scholar Deborah Lutz’s new biography has benefited from the successful fundraising campaign to purchase the “Honresfield Library” for the British nation – including the rediscovered poetry notebook, now preserved in the British Library. Lutz’s insights from accessing this original document, and her expert critical reappraisals of the poems, are among the highlights of this fresh and engaging account of Brontë’s career.The title of This Dark Night, taken from Brontë’s poem opening “The wind I hear it sighing”, announces Lutz’s focus on Brontë as a poet of nocturnal reveries and affinity with nature, who also achieved a sensational innovation in prose with Wuthering Heights, combining a Gothic atmosphere of romance and supernaturalism with grim, confrontational realism in the depiction of madness and violence.While fully honouring Brontë’s genius, Lutz re-examines her domestic and working life with the same human sympathy, and attention to the materiality of 19th-century writing and publication practices, previously displayed in her group biography of the Brontë sisters, The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects (2015).All the familiar anecdotes are here, with Brontë again seen abandoning teaching opportunities for managing her clergyman father’s household; studying German while baking bread; cauterising her own wound from a dog bite; rescuing her laudanum-addicted brother Branwell after he set fire to his bed, and stoically enduring, aged 30, her own consumptive death agony in 1848.But the standard narrative gains texture from both first-hand and closely researched engagements with the natural phenomena Brontë experienced, in keeping with Lutz’s quotation of Gertrude Stein’s assertion that “anybody is as their land and air is”.A discussion of Brontë’s poetry and artwork inspired by her captive merlin falcon is enlivened by her father’s description of handling a merlin, jotted into his copy of Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds (another Honresfield treasure).The Brontë family vault in St Michael and All Angels, Haworth, with its frequently necessitated reopenings, becomes a powerful motif in Lutz’s explorations of how Brontë’s preoccupations with mortality and decay grew out of her awareness of the Haworth gravediggers’ activities, and of the corpse-preserving properties of the peat bogs on the Yorkshire moors.Lutz’s project of reconstructing Brontë’s lived experience succeeds best when grounded in direct personal observations of place, or in close readings of extant literary manuscripts and other written records. Less convincing are some speculative commentaries on topics including Brontë’s sexuality, and her process of composing Wuthering Heights, where evidence is sometimes lacking even for conjecture (whether by Lutz, or by earlier scholars whose work she cites).At the same time, important contexts with relevance to Brontë’s geographical and social influences are left unexplored. Considerations of what her father’s Irish heritage might have meant to her, or of how the Romantic-period Methodist movement influenced both her parents’ Anglicanism, and her own unorthodox religious and aesthetic sensibilities, are in particular only fleetingly touched upon.In assessing Brontë’s personality, Lutz wisely avoids any anachronistic, pathologising labelling of her characteristics and behaviours. She also holds back, however, from sustained engagement with the personal, post-Romantic philosophy of individualism that drove Brontë’s struggle for authentic self-determination (and which anticipated aspects of 20th-century existentialism).Ultimately, in This Dark Night, Brontë the woman again resists definition, remaining in somewhat indistinct focus amid an accumulation of social-historical detail. Nevertheless, in her vivid communication of her physical encounters with Brontë’s art and craft in the archives, and her sensitive new readings of familiar texts, Lutz achieves a worthy celebration of the unique, uncompromising author who proclaimed “No coward soul is mine”, and became the creator of Heathcliff. (Jenny McAuley)
Christie’s June 30 Exceptional Sale in London offers many fine lots, among them, a bespoke cigar humidor of Cuban amboya gifted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Winston Churchill during the war ($25,000-$40,000); a sabre-toothed tiger skull discovered in a Pleistoscene sinkhole in Florida in 2008 ($1,000,000-$1,500,000); and by no means least, a rare first edition of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, published, fascinatingly, as a three-volume set, the first two of which are devoted to that novel, the third of which is her sister Anne’s novel, Agnes Grey. Pictured top, a portrait of the author of Wuthering Heights at about twenty-five, painted by her brother, Patrick Branwell Brontë.The three volume set carries carry a pre-sale estimate range of £400,000-£600,000 ($529,600-$794,220), but for a host of reasons, as the hammer strikes Christie’s lectern sometime after 4:30 British Summer Time (11:30 Eastern) on June 30, the effervescent speculation in the press is that this particular first edition will run higher than that. Some of the more breathless estimates bandied about in the last weeks range up into seven figures.Whatever number the hammer price attains, the intensity of interest that this lot generates is deep and longstanding. Working from the inside of these volumes out to their remarkably well-preserved cloth bindings – more on which, below – the first, main element of value is that it’s Emily Brontë’s enduring and revolutionary literary masterpiece at issue.The significance of her achievement within English and global literature is difficult to overstate. Of the three sisters, Sister Emily’s exquisitely modern gift to literature and to us – via her characters Catherine and Heathcliff and the Earnshaw and Linton families – was to show that we are all conflicted, riven, subject to great swings of emotion and roundly challenged by simply living out our lives in a largely stormy world, whatever quotient of that may be of our own manufacture.Emily Brontë’s telling of this narrative premise was, also, far ahead of its time, unadorned, stripped bare, always in immediate reach of the brutal facts of her characters’ relations and complications with each other. The very dialogue she gives them cuts to the point of those many conflicts – it’s all fire and motion, there’s virtually no digressive froth to the narrative. Neither Emily Brontë nor her famous characters waste a minute outside their conflicts. They lived them. (Guy Martin)
Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Robert Fuest, 1970)Wuthering Heights has gone through many cinematic adaptations, none of which have fully captured the essence of the novel, but the 1970 version directed by Robert Fuest is by far the most dull. It’s a major issue when a film based on one of the subversive, heartbreaking psychological romantic dramas of all time is given a G-rating, as Furst’s Wuthering Heights is afraid to have any edge.By sanding off the film from anything deeper, Timothy Dalton’s Heathcliff seems to be just a tragic figure and a failed romantic lead, and not the abusive, cruel character that emerges in the novel. Wuthering Heights is a complex story of race, class, status, and social hierarchies, and to remove the obsessive emotions from Heathcliff’s fixation on Catherine Earnshaw completely misses the point of what Emily Brontë was trying to say with her only novel. (Liam Gaughan)
There is a long tradition of romantic heroes who are difficult, cold, or cruel—Edward Rochester, Heathcliff, half a century of brooding figures on book covers with artfully unbuttoned shirts—and most of them do not change at all. Rochester is reshaped by circumstance; Heathcliff is consumed by it. What separates Darcy from the parade that followed him is that his arc is genuinely moral, not merely emotional. He is not softened by love. He is corrected by it, and he chooses to be.
Adaptation is another driver to widespread popularity: as well as Tolkien, it powers the enduring popularity of Jane Austen, readers’ most nominated writer overall, even if Emma slipped behind a host of modern novels, including Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Blood Meridian – your preferred Cormac McCarthy novel at No 28 (although The Road still ranks at 80). And perhaps the timing of film releases also provides a clue as to why Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights places above her sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre. (Alex Clark)
[Tied at #26 with Charles Dickens's Bleak House]Jane Eyreby Charlotte BrontëSarah Owen, Cheshire, 54: “The first book I ever read through the night and went to work with no sleep the next day. The sun was coming up as I finished it. All of the emotions: the outrage at her treatment as a child, the hope as she made her way into the world, the repressed longing, the romantic tension, the sting of betrayal – fantastic.” [...][Tied at #14 with Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall]Wuthering Heightsby Emily BrontëÉlise Camilla, Oxford, bookshop worker: “Gothic. Shakespearean. Dramatic. Beautiful. I’ve never loved a novel as much as this one … It changed the fabric of my being at 15 and I’ve never looked back.”
“Charlotte Brontë: Senseless Trash,” created by artist Fran Bundey, will be performed on Saturday, June 6, starting at Sapgate Gardens.The 30-minute outdoor production blends theatre, sound and storytelling into an immersive experience that guides audiences through a creative interpretation of the author’s life.Ms Bundey described the piece as difficult to categorise, combining multiple art forms into one experience.She said: “It’s sort of part theatre, part found art, part tour, and with a little bit of silent disco thrown in there as well,”The performance is designed as a promenade show, with the audience moving through the space alongside the performer while listening through silent disco headphones.Ms Bundey explained: “It’s an outdoor promenade show, so I walk around with the audience… and we do a little journey through wherever we are.”The title ‘Senseless Trash’ comes directly from Charlotte Brontë’s own writing, reflecting a moment of self-doubt early in her life.Ms Bundey said she was struck by a letter Brontë wrote after receiving discouraging feedback from poet laureate Robert Southey.She said: “[Charlotte] says she felt a painful heat rise to her face and that the first letter she sent to him was ‘all senseless trash from beginning to end’,”The show imagines the journey between that moment and Brontë’s eventual decision to publish her work, exploring how the celebrated author overcame those doubts.The performance combines historical storytelling with modern influences, featuring field recordings from the Yorkshire moors alongside contemporary music.Audiences can expect to hear “the howling winds at Top Withins” and “the tranquil trickling of nearby waterfalls”, as well as unexpected musical moments. (Jess Blissitt)
Not every love story is a romance.Some love stories—the ones rooted in reality and humanity—are also stories of the cultural fissures in a particular historic moment. They may also show us the ways lovers can sometimes clumsily harm each other, while they barely understand themselves.By reducing Wuthering Heights to a mere romance, Emerald Fennell’s recent film cheats us out of wrestling with the actual issues Emily Brontë put on the page in 1847. These issues—generational trauma, class and race divides, entrenched gender expectations, and abuse from people who love us—are still acutely relevant today. [...]If ever two characters loved each other despite personality disorders and social boundaries, it’s Heathcliff and Cathy. These people are knotted up in dysfunctions we would readily name today: narcissism, dismissive avoidance, codependency. Their story is disturbing, haunting, and beloved because of the flat-out fierceness these two characters have for each other, the consuming obsession and cruel behavior they share, and the exquisite violence of their passion for each other.Fennell’s version diminishes a tale of tortured personalities shaped by hardship, class divides, and probably racism. (Brontë describes Heathcliff as being dark and swarthy, and he’s called a “Gipsy”; that explains a great deal about why his friendship and eventual romance with Cathy were so offensive to their society.)In Fennell’s film, the tall, handsome (and white) Jacob Elordi portrays Heathcliff—which seems especially odd; Shazad Latif, a British-Pakistani actor, is cast as Edgar Linton. Margot Robbie, however, is convincingly willful as Cathy, as merciless and difficult to warm to on screen as the character is in the novel.Where Brontë critiqued the artificial cultural and social barriers people invent and insert between one another—sources of much human pain and suffering—the film neatly lops that out of the conversation.Heathcliff’s brutish rage at the injustice of the poverty he’s been dealt is simply missing here—though that’s part of what fueled him to leave Cathy, go out into the world, make himself into a wealthy gentleman, and return to destroy the prosperous men around him. With this element removed, the narrative loses much of its power. We don’t get to see Heathcliff at his wildest, exacting revenge on the class system that dismissed him and kept him from wedding Cathy. Load-bearing plot elements and essential characters are carved out of the narrative, turning the grand, searing story into a dime-a-dozen romance.There’s none of the book’s redemption here. No scene of Cathy and Heathcliff’s ghosts, wandering the moors together. No tale of Cathy’s daughter finding a more peaceful love with Hareton, who is expunged from the film entirely. No Heathcliff agonizing in guilt after Cathy dies.Set design is extraordinary in places (the fireplace mantel of carved hands!), and costumes—though thuddingly symbolic (we get it, she always wears red, she bleeds to death)—are stunning. The scene of Cathy crossing the moors in her voluminous wedding dress and veil lifted by the wind is a spectacle.Cathy seizes what power is available to her—the power of a woman to attract and use men. Far more vicious in the book, here she manipulates the attention of a rich man, denying herself the man she really loves. She breaks her own heart because of who she wants to be in life. At the same time, she exerts as much agency as her society grants her.Brontë’s story expresses a feminism of sorts, however twisted. But it’s a feminism Fennell leaves unexplored. Cathy has her own justifiable rage at her limited options in life, but the film leaves that perspective in the background.Cathy’s sort of feminism was surely central for Brontë, who created female characters pushing back against the Victorian ideals of feminine behavior that bound the author herself. (She initially published the book under a male pseudonym to bypass 19th-century prejudice against female authors.)She and her sisters Charlotte and Anne created imaginary worlds for their own entertainment, driven by their isolated lives on the bleak and remote moors. Emily wrote the book for herself, and published it only after Charlotte urged her to do so—because they needed the money. One of the most powerful love stories ever, written by a woman for the pleasure of scribbling it down, just for herself.This should be a story about damaged people loving each other savagely and without pause, finding what’s lovable and deserving in each other, despite their many flaws and obstacles. The film should have been an exploration of human passion and what binds us to one another, even in unhealthy ways. Instead, it’s much less. (Pamela Hill Nettleton)
The Australian Standing Stones will be awash with red and black this winter solstice as locals gather to channel their inner Kate Bush for Glen Innes’ first-ever Wuthering Heights Day.Organised by Shimmy in the Glen’s Helen Tucker and Lisa Wilson, the event invites people of all ages and abilities to recreate the iconic dance from Kate Bush’s 1978 hit Wuthering Heights in one of the region’s most distinctive locations.While Wuthering Heights Day events have become a global phenomenon, this will be the first time Glen Innes has joined the fun.“Lisa and I have often seen other people in other places doing it regularly,” Ms Tucker said.“We have plenty of friends that do it and we were like, ‘We must do that one year, we must do that one year.'”The idea gained momentum after a conversation with Standing Stones Management Board member John Rhys Jones.“I said, ‘We’re thinking we might do that this year,’ and he just jumped for joy,” Ms Tucker said.“He was like, ‘Yes, love it.’ And he said, ‘Please, can we do it with solstice?'”The answer was an easy one.“So we decided we would go with it.”The quirky celebration traces its roots back to the United Kingdom, where a group of fans gathered in 2013 to recreate Bush’s famous music video in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record.“Essentially it started in 2013 when a group in the UK decided that they would reenact Kate Bush’s dance from Wuthering Heights for a Guinness World Record of the most number of people dressed as Kate,” Ms Tucker said.From there, the idea spread around the globe.“Everybody just thought it sounded like such a good idea that it grew and it goes around the world.”Ms Tucker believes the singer’s enduring popularity is helping attract a new generation of fans.“I think people of a certain age certainly remember when the video came out and that it was a big deal,” she said.“But I think the fact that her Running Up That Hill song was in Stranger Things, and of course with the Wuthering Heights movie coming out this year as well, it’s kind of even the younger people know about it.”For those worried they might not have the dance moves, organisers have a simple message: don’t be.“Not at all,” Ms Tucker said when asked if participants need dancing experience.“We’ve also got some people who have already said, ‘I’m not up for the dancing, but I want to get dressed up and come anyway.’“So it’s completely up to people as to how active they are.”Participants are encouraged to wear anything red and black and simply enjoy being part of the spectacle.“We’re just encouraging as many people as possible to come along and just to wear anything red and black so that they can be part of the colour.”Free dance classes will be held at Glen Innes Town Hall in the lead-up to the event, with sessions scheduled for Tuesday, June 16 and Thursday, June 18 at 5pm, and Saturday, June 20 at 10am. Participants can attend one class or all three, and online tutorials are also available for those wanting to practise at home.The festivities will follow the Standing Stones’ winter solstice activities, including the solar noon ceremony, before dancers take centre stage at midday.“My plan is that we’ll actually do the dance and then we’ll probably play the Running Up That Hill song and run up the hill,” Ms Tucker said.“And then come back down again, maybe take a few photos and then probably do the dance again.”With organisers also hoping to capture drone footage of the colourful gathering against the backdrop of the Standing Stones, the event promises to be one of the more memorable ways to mark the shortest day of the year.As Ms Tucker puts it: “We just thought it was a bit of fun.”Wuthering Heights Day will be held at the Australian Standing Stones on Saturday, June 21, with dancing beginning at midday. Everyone is welcome. (Penelope Shaw)
6th & 7th June 2026 • 11am – 4pmThornton Art Trail returns for a vibrant weekend celebrating creativity, community and the rich artistic spirit of our village. Homes, studios and businesses across Thornton will open their doors, inviting visitors to wander, explore and enjoy an inspiring walk through our historic streets.
At the heart of the trail, the Brontë Birthplace will be welcoming visitors free of charge to enjoy the work of four exceptional local artists. Although house tours will pause for the weekend, the rooms themselves will become intimate gallery spaces filled with colour, imagination and Brontë‑country creativity.
In the Posh Parlour, artist Teresa Flavin will showcase her beautiful mixed‑media paintings—rich, atmospheric works that echo the textures and stories of the landscape.
In the Scullery, Matt Gibbons Photography will exhibit his striking wildlife and architectural pieces, capturing the character of Yorkshire’s creatures, buildings and hidden corners with warmth and precision, including his award-winning photographs of the Birthplace renovation.
SATURDAY 6th – 11am & 1:30pm
Charlotte Brontë – Senseless Trash tour
Join Charlotte Brontë on a phonic field trip over the Yorkshire Moors and listen in to the sounds that shaped the Brontë sisters’ lives. The howling winds at Top Withens, tranquil trickling of nearby waterfalls and the angelic tones of…Beyoncé will accompany you on your journey. Senseless Trash from beginning to end – don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Times: 11am (Book for 11am) and 1:30pm (Book for 1:30pm)
SUNDAY 7th – 11am & 1pm
Upstairs in Charlotte’s Room, award‑winning poet Emma Conally‑Barklem will give readings of her Brontë‑inspired poetry, bringing voice, rhythm and emotion into the very space where Charlotte herself once lived. Booking not required.
MovieWeb reports that Greenland 2 has dethroned Wuthering Heights 2026 as the most popular movie on HBO Max.Located in Thornton, its official opening was marked by a visit from HM Queen Camilla as part of a Royal Visit.During her time at the house, Her Majesty met with committee members and volunteers, signed the guestbook, and unveiled a commemorative plaque.In celebration of the anniversary, a new exhibition will open on Friday, May 15, featuring a framed piece of wallpaper dating back to 1890 discovered during the property’s restoration.Anna Gibson, general manager, said: "We have had the most incredible first year at the Brontë Birthplace and have invited people from across the world to see this very special place."From a forgotten house on a village street, it has now become an internationally renowned literary centre protecting the Brontës’ legacy and inspiring generations to come."The birthplace has attracted national and international media attention over the past year, with features in The Times, The Telegraph, and on BBC One’s The One Show.A range of events have also taken place, including a standout performance by internationally acclaimed musician Guiem Soldevila and his group, who set 12 Brontë poems to music.The house has hosted two artists in residence: Chicago-born Garrett Wild and digital artist Sam Sharp.Committee member Chris Raine also delivered a talk about the Brontë Birthplace in Japan.Other notable speakers have included Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage; author Sharon Wright; writer and illustrator Dr Eleanor Houghton; Helen MacEwan of the Brussels Brontë Group; Dr Michael O’Dowd from the Banagher Brontë Group; and storyteller Irene Lofthouse.Literary fans have had the chance to own a piece of history, with original beams from the house offered for sale.The sale is helping to boost income for the house.Siblings Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë were all born at the house on Market Street.The building was acquired through the combined support of more than 700 individual investors and funding from Bradford City of Culture 2025, the Community Ownership Fund, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the Rural England Prosperity Fund.It is now managed by Brontë Birthplace Limited, a Community Benefit Society. (Harry Williams)
Ever since it landed on HBO Max, Margot Robbie's newest R-Rated hit has been a streaming sensation. However, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and this past weekend, the film fell victim to a new post-apocalyptic arrival that quickly knocked Robbie's spicy smash down a peg. Today, it's down another rung on the ladder thanks to another movie that ties directly into HBO Max's latest success.Taking in $242 million at the box office earlier this year, Robbie's Wuthering Heights is a loose adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. Also starring Jacob Elordi, the film follows the intense and destructive bond between Catherine Earnshaw and the orphaned Heathcliff. Featuring way more heat than Brontë ever could have imagined, the film was a big hit with audiences, earning a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics were more unforgiving of the darker interpretation of the classic story, rating it just 57%.Added to HBO Max on May 1, Wuthering Heights found continued success on streaming following its box office run. The Gothic romance held the #1 spot in the Top 10 in the United States for nearly two weeks, and still sits in first place on the global charts. That being said, its stranglehold on the North American list finally came to an end this past weekend thanks to none other than Gerard Butler. (James Melzer)
The track, which opens Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights album, pulses with a sense of growing dread, building from isolated, creaking strings to a blazing crescendo. (A "Wall of Sound," if you will.) To listen to it is to feel the same sense of confinement and madness present in Emily Brontë's novel. While I had my worries about Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" going into the theater, I was still excited to see how she deployed "House."Mere minutes into the movie, I got my answer, and I was underwhelmed."House" plays during the opening minutes of "Wuthering Heights," in which young Cathy and Nelly (Charlotte Mellington and Vy Nguyen) attend a frenzied hanging, then tear across the moors back to Wuthering Heights. The song fades as we get our first glimpse of the film's titular estate, a darkened blot against hulking rock crags.The song remains a banger, especially as the film version incorporates extra orchestrations by Anthony Willis. But while the song establishes a fittingly bleak tone for the rest of the film, its placement is odd. Why is this extremely claustrophobic track being used over a shot of Cathy and Nelly running with wild abandon across the vast moors? Why does this introspective, harrowing song serve as the soundtrack to a rowdy crowd scene? The visuals and song are separately entrancing, but they do not mesh. There's no sense of creeping dread or isolation. It's just Fennell throwing the song's climax at us in the hopes of overloading our senses. Unfortunately, in doing so, Charli XCX and Cale's refrain of "I think I'm gonna die in this house" loses its potency.It's not like Fennell couldn't have used "House" anywhere else. Cathy worries about wasting away in Wuthering Heights with her ruined father (Martin Clunes) before she meets Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif). Then, once at Thrushcross Grange, she realizes she's in a gilded prison. Not to be too literal, but if you have a song named "House," maybe tie it to a character's relationship to one of the film's two central houses!(After all, if my new husband painted my room the exact color of my face, mole and all, my reaction would absolutely be, "I think I'm gonna die in this house.")While Fennell doesn't use "House" to its highest potential, at least TikTok is on the case. The song has become a meme online, used to soundtrack moments of despair or unsettling images. (Belen Edwards)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: The Original Refusal to Be SmallLet's be real: Jane Eyre has been igniting personal revolutions in readers for nearly two centuries, and it shows absolutely no signs of stopping. A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzles and shocks readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom. Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit.There's something almost radical about a Victorian novel that still feels urgently relevant in 2026. The questions Jane asks, about self-worth, about whether love should cost you your dignity, cut straight to the bone. When she finds love with her sardonic employer Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving the man she loves? Every reader who has ever faced a similar crossroads knows exactly what that feels like. (Matthias Binder)
Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell‘s take on the classic Emily Brontë novel starring Margot Robbie an d Jacob Elordi, is set to premere on HBO Max on Friday, May 1, debuting on HBO linear the following day at 8:00 p.m. ET.A version with American Sign Language will also stream exclusively on HBO Max, performed by ASL Dubbers Leila Hanaumi and Giovanni Maucere, and directed by Justin Jackerson. (Kennedy French)
As I climbed into the four-poster bed of my regency-styled bedroom, I had to remind myself this was real. Tonight, I was sleeping in a room where members of the Brontë family had slept some 200 years ago, in the building where Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—the literary sisters who gave the world Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall respectively—were born. As a travel writer, I’ve slept in many wonderful places, but this felt particularly surreal.Having joined a new wave of Brontë-curious readers in the wake of Emerald Fennell’s recent Wuthering Heights film adaptation, my stay at the Brontë Birthplace—a museum that offers overnight board—in the small English village of Thornton was one part of a literary tour readers can string together to explore the homes, landscapes, and inspirations behind the sisters’ novels. The county of Yorkshire in northern England is both their, and my, childhood home. I wanted to delve deeper into the lives they led and explore their connection to this familiar moorland scenery.My drive to the Brontë Birthplace, which sits on the outskirts of the city of Bradford (the United Kingdom’s city of culture in 2025), seemed unremarkable until I reached Thornton’s historic center. Here, lanes became narrower and buildings noticeably older, dating from the late Georgian to the early Victorian eras. Tiny “snickets” (lanes) ran between them. Faded shop facades echoed the former community where the Brontë siblings’ father, Patrick, worked as a perpetual curate (a type of parish priest in the 19th-century Anglican church).A short walk from their Market Street home led me to the ruined Chapel of St. James—or the Bell Chapel—where the famous siblings were baptized. Beside an ivy-strewn bell tower, a section of the original church wall was etched with the words: “Thornton: my happiest years 1815–1820” followed by Patrick’s name.One of the most distinctive Brontë-themed walks in the area is a nine-mile route marked by four “Brontë Stones.” Created by novelist and poet Michael Stewart, the trail links Thornton with Haworth, where the family spent most of their lives.Three of the commemorative stones are dedicated to each sister and one is dedicated to the three siblings collectively. Each is inscribed with a bespoke verse from famous writers such as poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and singer Kate Bush.Traveling to Haworth by car from Thornton will take you less than 20 minutes and, once you’re there, the village’s streets are well worth exploring if you’re not put off by their steep inclines. The soot-blackened gritstone buildings and mélange of converted mills speak to the region’s textile manufacturing past. When the Brontë sisters were alive, Haworth’s cobbled Main Street would have had everything from blacksmiths and joiners to stone masons and grocers.I passed a former tea merchant that once sold writing paper to Charlotte, plus the Barraclough clockmakers (now the Hawthorn restaurant) who crafted the family’s grandfather clock. The Haworth Old Post Office, now a curio-filled café with an original Victorian counter, was where the sisters sent off their manuscripts to London under the pen names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell.The parsonage where the Brontës lived from 1825, was among the most enthralling stops I made. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey were all written in the home, which is now a museum. Seeing the sofa on which Emily Brontë died was a somber moment.The parsonage’s rooms showcase writing desks, clothing, and jewelry owned by the sisters, plus sketches by brother Branwell. Beside their creativity—encouraged by their enthusiastic, story-telling father—there was much darkness in the Brontës’ lives. Branwell fell into alcohol and opium addiction, and this once poorly sanitized village brimmed with reminders of death. One museum member told me that Haworth’s water supply “passed through the graves of 42,000 bodies.”Rambling across Haworth’s surrounding heather moorland brought me close to the sentiment of Wuthering Heights. The popular 4.5-mile Brontë Connection route starts in the village of Stanbury, reachable via the “Brontë Bus.” It follows the outskirts of the disused quarry site of Penistone Country Park and follows the rocky path that leads to the frothing Brontë waterfall, named after the family, which descends into Sladen Beck.Keen walkers might want to go as far as Ponden Kirk, the gritstone outcrop that inspired Emily’s depiction of Penistone Crags in the novel, before rejoining the road that leads back to Stanbury to pass Ponden Hall (the farmhouse that may have inspired her Thrushcross Grange).The description in the original Wuthering Heights novel by housekeeper Nelly Dean of “temporary brooks [crossing] our path, gurgling from the uplands” couldn’t be more fitting of the sodden, peaty bogs I’d experienced. Yet now, as I paused to take in the panoramic views, the clouds parted to reveal a bright blue sky. (Lucy McGuire)
Ordinarily, I’d object to the howling, bone-chilling wind on Haworth Moor. It turns a refreshing country walk into a test of tenacity. On the hike to the ruined Top Withens farmhouse, however, that icy wind feels fittingly atmospheric. A sunny idyll wouldn’t be very Wuthering Heights – the moody, weather-beaten setting is a key part of what makes Emily Bronte’s only published novel.This unforgiving but handsome slice of West Yorkshire moorland is likely to get many more boots trudging across it in 2026. The Emerald Fennell-directed movie, Wuthering Heights, starring Aussies Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is likely to have a whole new generation setting off in search of Heathcliff’s windswept, isolated home.Bronte fans have long since adopted Top Withens as the real-life location, even though a plaque on the wall of the ruined farmhouse wall admits it may not be. “The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described,” it reads. “But the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.”Architectural layouts be damned. Top Withens embodies the spirit of Wuthering Heights. It is bleakly beautiful, built on one floor into the hillside and guarded by a pair of spindly sycamore trees. The moorland landscape hasn’t changed much since Bronté’s only novel was published in 1847, with the reservoir and wind turbines being very much on the horizon, rather than disturbing the lonely, heather-swathed foreground. Crucially, Top Withens stands apart and alone. There is no building in sight that could pass muster as a neighbour.There is little doubt that the author would have walked here. She was born in the outer Bradford suburb of Thornton – where the Brontë Birthplace reopened as a small museum in 2025 – but lived for the vast majority of her life at the parsonage in Haworth.Her father, Patrick, was the perpetual curate at St Michael’s Church, on the other side of the graveyard from the Bronte family’s honey-stoned home. The sheep paddocks and moors start at the back of the parsonage, and Top Withens is nearly six kilometres away on foot. The most popular route also passes Brontë Falls, a small waterfall that was given its name post-literary fame.While the moorland is the best place to get a sense of Wuthering Heights’ setting, the Brontë Parsonage Museum gives much more insight into the author’s life.Emily Bronte’s personal tale is lapped by great waves of tragedy. Her mother, Maria, died within 18 months of moving to Haworth. Two of her elder sisters died of tuberculosis while away at school, and her brother, Branwell – a mildly talented painter – was a troubled alcoholic and opium addict. Branwell died in September 1848, three months before Emily died of tuberculosis, aged 30.Patrick Bronëe outlived all six of his children, and his character is most pervasive throughout the museum. An Irish immigrant, he was unusually well-educated, having studied at Cambridge. His poems were published, and the children grew up surrounded by books bearing their family name.The most memorable room of the parsonage is the dining room, and not just because Emily is widely believed to have died on its couch. This is the room where the three Bronte sisters would write, regularly flitting around the table to check on their siblings’ progress. Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Anne’s Agnes Grey were put together at the same time, around the same wooden table.Haworth village is no longer quite as the Brontes would have remembered it, although Branwell’s old haunts, the Old White Lion and the Black Bull, still stand. The hilly, pedestrianised main street is now lined with restaurants and literary-leaning gift shops, the result of an overnight success that was sustained long after the sisters died. The moorland, however, is still the same wild, brooding place that inspired Emily’s masterpiece. (David Whitley)
For many, classic English novels are regarded as untouchable works of literature, and adaptations can often face considerable scrutiny - yet this particular TV series appears to capture the 19th century with remarkable authenticity.Originally broadcast in 2006, this rendition of Jane Eyre brings Charlotte Brontë's beloved novel to life, chronicling the journey of its titular character as she navigates orphanhood while striving to carve out a better existence for herself.Spanning four episodes, the series delivers a breathtaking retelling of this timeless tale, with Ruth Wilson taking on the lead role alongside Toby Stephens as Edward Rochester. (Emily Malia)
LouReviews revisits all the film, TV, and stage play adaptations of Jane Eyre that the writer of the post has seen.
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A modern retelling of Jane Eyre.Natasha drew much of her inspiration from classic literature."It's a bit like what Emerald Fennell said about Wuthering Heights," she said. "She's made a movie that captures how she felt about the book as a teenager.""When I read Jane Eyre as a teenager — in fact, I was only like 10... the overwhelming impression was of these very passionate people who got swept away with each other. It was all very, very vivid."In Jane Eyre, Jane longs to see the world before encountering her love interest, Mr Rochester. Revisiting the novel, Natasha wanted more for the protagonist than just love."I feel like Jane kind of missed out on what she truly wanted in many ways," Natasha said. "I feel like there's an alternative ending, a different story that would be more satisfying…The Chateau on Sunset is, how could we give Jane Eyre the ending she truly deserves?" (Cassandra Green)
In Churches of Bradford, a new book published by Amberley, I take readers on a whistle stop tour of 50 of the district’s most intriguing churches. (...)The ruins of Old Bell Chapel in Thornton hold a special place in literary history. Patrick Brontë served here from 1815 to 1820, and Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Branwell Brontë were all baptised within its walls. The font used for their baptisms now stands across the road in St James’ Church. (Simon Ross Valentine)
I’m sure Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is fun without an English major lamenting about the social context of the novel and pointing out the racism present in this adaptation. The film is visually stunning, it hits the right emotional beats, and the supporting performances are impressive. But by removing this social context something significant is lost. As I watched the film I couldn’t help but wonder what insightful race and class politics could be explored by a more ambitious director. I wondered what Isabella’s story would look like if it was more faithful, depicting a woman escaping abuse at a point in history where doing so was near impossible. I left the film not angry in the way I thought I would be, but frustrated. (Rosa Prior)
On its own, the movie can still be an enjoyable watch because of its strong performances, cinematography and few well-crafted scenes. But as an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, it does injustice to Brontë’s work by replacing the novel’s complex exploration of morality, obsession and generational consequences with a more superficial focus on sensuality.Ultimately, the adaptation forces a question: how far can a classic literary work be altered in the modern retelling before it wrongs the original work? (Ruksha Shrestha)
Em “O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes”, o amor não aparece como abrigo confortável. Ele surge como força que aproxima, rompe, humilha, prende e consome — e é justamente por isso que essa história continua tão provocadora nas telas. (Gabriel Pietro) (Translation)
Is it supposed to be camp? Is it supposed to be genuine? Who can say. As with Saltburn, you can’t camp it up and then ask us to care about the characters. Fennell possesses a crucial misunderstanding of tone. You’ll know something is off around the time Cathy sucks on her lower lip while her maid kneads dough, but by the time she commits an act of fervent self abuse on the moors you’ll be drafting a letter to your local representative to say down with this sort of thing. And then we are supposed to care, after scenes of Heathcliff tying Cathy’s sister (Alison Oliver) up like a dog and humiliating her, about the plight of these star-crossed lovers? Even those with an exceptionally high tolerance, even appreciation, for bad taste will find challenges here.In spite of itself, the movie is never boring to watch. Linus Sandgren’s sumptuous cinematography marks a high point in the DP’s storied filmography, with each moment so vividly rendered that it stands on its own as a tableau. And Suzie Davies’ production design is equally commendable, creating a dreamlike interpretation of a period setting that feels both vintage and futuristically alien. The Yorkshire setting of Wuthering Heights looks so fabulous that you almost want to live within it, just not with this cast of characters. (Declan Gallagher)
The [book] that you can’t stop thinking about: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. (Elise Dumpleton)
Drehorte als Reiseziel: Stürmische Höhen im Yorkshire-MoorZu den Schauplätzen von „Sturmhöhe“, Emily Brontës Klassikers, im Norden Englands reisen: literarische Pilgerorte mit Kinobezug.Schwarz ragt die Ruine der alten Bleimühle in den Himmel. Menschenleer liegen Hügel und Täler unter schweren Wolken. Das Gluckern des Flüsschens Old Gang Beck ist das einzige Geräusch, wenn nicht gerade ein Fasan auffliegt. Plötzlich erscheint Heathcliff unter einem Torbogen. Gleich wird Catherine sich in den Überresten des Torflagers der Bleihütte umdrehen und den sperrigen Antihelden der „Wuthering Heights“ nach Jahren der Trennung wiedersehen. Dass Emerald Fennells Filminterpretation des Klassikers großzügig neben der Hälfte des Romans auch die meisten Figuren weglässt und die Handlung auf die Vergeblichkeit der unheilvollen Beziehung zwischen Heathcliff und Catherine destilliert, schmälert seine Wirkung nicht. (Stefanie Bisping) (Translation)
Some websites still announce that the film is available on streaming right now: Billboard, Forbes, Page Six...
Sarah Collins Bookworm posts about her visit to Haworth and the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
A woollen sculpture created by an artist whose installations feature in the latest Wuthering Heights film is to go on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.Time's Scythe, a "site-responsive installation" by artist Nicola Turner, uses wool from the British Wool Board in Bradford and will be on display from Saturday.Turner is putting the finishing touches to the work, which will see an 18th-Century chapel at the Wakefield park covered in wool and horsehair.She said she was inspired by the landscape and "energy" of the chapel and its rural surroundings."My material, which includes locally sourced wool, will pull, weave and grasp through the space with the final form emerging as I work in situ with the YSP team," she said. [...]Turner's works appear in the Emerald Fennell version of Wuthering Heights, which stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi and was released in February.Her large woollen sculptures hang from the walls and roofs of Wuthering Heights, the moorland house in which Cathy and Heathcliffe [sic] are raised. (Grace Wood)
A series of portraits of the Brontës and people connected to them have gone on display in Thornton, to raise funds for the chapel where Patrick Brontë was a young curate.The paintings, by John Ellis, were initially displayed in the Brontë Birthplace, which opened last year as a visitor centre and education hub. The Market Street property, where the Brontë siblings were born, was opened by Queen Camilla last May.Says John: “In 2024 I and my late partner, Susan, and I were given a task to paint and draw a total of 34 pictures for the Brontë house in Thornton.During the period of 12 months it took to produce the pictures, I lost Susan to a heart attack two thirds of the way through the year. After the funeral I carried on and finished all the pictures for the opening day and the visit of the Queen.”Now John is exhibiting the portraits at St James’ Church in Thornton. The launch event included a raffle and sales of The Birthplace of Dreams, a book about the Brontë Birthplace by photographer and historian Mark Davis, to raise funds for the church and Thornton’s Bell Chapel. The exhibition is on for two weeks and has already raised more than £100.“I have always loved drawing and painting, and clay modelling. I love to create things,” says John. “Art was my best subject at school. At 15 I left school to work at English Electric as an apprentice toolmaker then I was in the RAF for five years, during which my artist talents were used quite a lot. When I came out I went back into toolmaking.“I met Susan in 2005 when I moved to Thornton; it was then that I started to take to my brushes again, doing commissions for family and friends. When we both retired we took it up much more - Susan with her drawings, she was really talented.“At the beginning of 2024 I was painting the Brontë pillar painting when we saw an advert on Facebook about open day at the Brontë house in Thornton, so decided to go and see what it was all about.“On arriving we were given a lecture about the house, then Christa Ackroyd (the broadcaster campaigned for crowdfunding for the Brontë Birthplace renovation) asked if we had anything to donate for furnishing the house. That’s when Sue nudged me in the ribs and said ‘Donate the painting you’re doing’.So we showed Christa a photo of what I was doing and she asked me to do some more, to tell the story of how the Brontë family ended up on Market Street.“Between us both, Sue and I did 34 paintings and drawings. I made the decision to keep the style of Bramwell Brontë, from the pillar painting, to give an air of the period we were talking about, plus the old fashioned style blended in with the house itself.“I have painted all the family, but only Elizabeth and little Maria, the two older Brontë siblings, are on the painting of the house.I have also put my little quirk on the paintings - a ladybird somewhere in the paintings and one on the back of the canvas.” [...]As well as painting the family, John has created a portrait of Nancy De Garrs, who was 13 when the Brontës employed her as the children’s nanny in Thornton. Nancy outlived the Brontës and died, age 82, in Bradford Workhouse. (Emma Clayton)
I left Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” feeling nothing. It was a visually pretty movie with unconventional costumes and two attractive leads, but it did not address race, class and gender roles the way the novel masterfully does.Fennell stripped away what made the book so compelling and instead created pallid fanfiction. The fact that many others feel the same goes to show that we want stories to meaningfully engage with us.Despite my negative feelings toward Fennell’s adaptation, the movie left me with hope. This decade has brought notable movie adaptations of classic novels — Emma, the Dune series, and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein”, to name a few.“Wuthering Heights” reminds audiences what made those previous adaptations successful. The directors kept the essence of the novel while adding a few authentic touches. Fennell’s failure to do this sets a higher standard for adaptations of classics that online discourse has made loud and clear: Get the themes right. (Paula Milian)
Emerald Fennell’s unhinged version of “Wuthering Heights” is surely to be divisive. There’s a reason why the film’s poster displays the title in quotation marks. Those who are loyal to the novel might be jarred by the composition of this rendition, while casual movie watchers might be enthralled by the overall spectacle. What’s certain is that this is a dark, tragic and overwhelming experience. Amidst the highly stylized presentation is a story of dangerous and toxic love that envelops everything around it. I found it haunting me for days after I saw it. (Zach Murphy)
Perhaps, to avoid losing the meaning in adaptations, we might expand our definition from one of fidelity to one that includes artistic license. Those who are inspired by a work of art and set out to adapt it to a different medium or reimagine it in a new context have the discretion and freedom over what they produce. That’s the beauty of inspiration. However, I do also argue that it is necessary for creatives to be intentional about why portions of this story are appealing to them and what they are adapting. Purposefully cutting around central themes to the original almost defeats the purpose of adapting it (unless perhaps the changes help subvert and critically comment on the source material).The original and adaptation can then be viewed as companion pieces, but that doesn’t mean that critical thinking stops outside the metaphorical door of the source material. Some people will definitely be watching this movie without the lens of the original. Saying the adaptation was bad doesn’t get to the deeper parts of the movie where the choices of creative liberty become under scrutiny as well.The new work can be judged both alongside and outside the original work. This form of the adaptation, created with intentionality, becomes a way to let the story resonate with another person or different audience. It’s just important to realize which parts are resonating.“Wuthering Heights” (2026) takes advantage of the aesthetics and narrative of the Gothic novel to market a highly romanticized and unconvincing tragic romance between two characters who are shadows of their literary counterparts. Irrelevant to the novel, this movie still leaves much to be desired emotionally and narratively. Much like its dreamy finish, the movie glosses over the themes of obsession, possession, and even the humiliation, pleasure, and pain found in sadomasochism and erratically jumps to a sudden erotic tone. At the end of it all you’re left with an empty and unsettled feeling, which is surprisingly close to how the book leaves you.This film will no doubt be the introduction of many to Brontë’s story, maybe even inspiring some to pick up the physical book since they loved this movie so much. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Reading is good! But, after you see this movie or any of the many adaptations in theaters this year, expand your analysis to criticize both the adaptation and whether the resulting work is compelling in its own right. (Hadley Blodgett)
If you want to recreate the video accurately, you’ve got to get down to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, which is where you can also find Stonehenge; that’s two bits of history for the price of one. Specifically, an area called Baden’s Clump near the Sidbury Hill area of the chalk plateau was the very spot that Bush floated about like a possessed Cathy, pretending to be up in the wily, windy moors. (Aimee Ferrier)
Venerdì 27 marzo alle 18.00, appuntamento con "Righe Ribelli" alla Feltrinelli di via Cavour a Palermo.Per il Club del libro, in programma (a ingresso libero fino a esaurimento posti) la lettura di "Cime Tempestose" di Emily Brontë. (Via Balarm)
Heights are indeed getting wuthered.Not only did Emerald Fennell’s bold take on the classic novel collect an impressive $83 million at the global box office this past weekend, but the Spotify audiobook version of the Emily Brontë story has also seen a dramatic revival. According to the public relations and communications firm Burson Global, “Wuthering Heights” has seen a 440% increase in audiobook consumption since the film trailer dropped last September.According to data, this increase isn’t just repeat or nostalgia fans – first-time listeners to the audiobook increased by 260%. Their reports also indicate that Gen Z (ages 13-28) is particularly drawn to this classic, with this age group experiencing a 191% increase in streaming the audiobook. (Anna Tingley)
Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” this weekend opened to $88.5 million over the four-day weekend ($82 million in three days), all against a production budget of $80 million (before marketing costs). It’s not exactly a record-breaker, as it’s behind the domestic opening for plenty of other female-directed films, and it’s #14 in terms of 4-day openings over Presidents’ Day weekend. It even opened a little soft compared to some projections, which originally had “Wuthering Heights” reaching $40 million or even $50 million domestic before the weekend. It is however still a boon for Warner Bros., which now has had nine straight movies open to #1 dating back to last year (suddenly a lot is riding on Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!”).But between her debut “Promising Young Woman” ($18.8 million) and “Saltburn” ($21 million), Fennell now has three movies that will crack the Top 100 on that Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report in a year, and it puts her in the conversation among some of the other top-performing female directors at the box office of all time. (Brian Welk)
The cinematography lingers on touch, breath and silence, turning longing into something tactile. The brilliant and pulsating Charli xcx soundtrack pushes the intensity further, blending gothic atmospheres with modern pop energy in the period setting. Paired with these visuals, the music instantly makes the story feel both Victorian and defiantly modern and bold. It draws outside the lines and rejects modesty. [...]Several scenes are beautiful and deeply unsettling at once. While watching, I found myself unexpectedly shaken, even in tears at certain moments — not because the story felt softened, but because it felt magnified. Fennell does not resolve a famously problematic love story; instead, she aestheticizes it, leaving viewers to sit with something uncomfortable yet undeniably captivating. (Rachel Marlowe and Kate Rothermel)
For me, this is a very difficult film to rate. It is a noticeable departure from the source material, taking creative liberties that augment the story in such a damning way. However, on its own, if under a completely separate name, the film itself is not terrible; rather enjoyable, even. If this was a new love story about two people in the 1800s, with an overtly sexual tone, then it could have been quite an enjoyable watch. The story and plot is engaging and fun to watch unfold, and the way each actor plays off each other is very well done. That being said, it is not possible for me to keep these two works totally separate. One of the most famous and important books of the 19th century deserves a respectful and proper adaptation. If the movie was its own thing, then it would yield close to four stars, but keeping in mind all the questionable decisions and changes, I must dock it and give it three stars out of five. (Alfie Eville)
Yet, sparkly bandaids can’t fix the bullet holes Fennell shot in the heart of the story. She completely assassinates the main characters and abandons the second half of the novel. Fennell turns the abused, single mother Isabella into a “girlboss” in a consensual, submissive sexual relationship with Heathcliff. Nelly, the maid, is villainized in the film as the driving force between Catherine and Heathcliff, while in the book she is a lower class hero who seeks to protect Catherine from abuse.The film itself attempts to shock the viewer — whether that be through the town’s erotic response to an execution, or Heathcliff’s sexual fascination with eggs — but consistently falls short.While the cast portrayed their respective characters well, their performances cannot throw water on the fire that is the script. Adapting a beloved classic is no easy feat, especially one that has been adapted dozens of times before, but ignoring the soul of the book in its entirety is a challenge itself.Fennell excludes the children that Catherine and Heathcliff have in the film, who in the novel go on to marry each other and break the generational cycle of abuse, instead choosing to kill Catherine after a miscarriage. While the tragedy itself was emotional, the film’s conclusion was unsatisfying. It’s as if Fennell gave a really interesting setup and walked away from the mic as soon as it was time to deliver the punchline. As “Wuthering Heights” ends, the audience is left wanting to know what the movie was about.What was the message of that movie? Or, was there a message at all? (Ava Demcher)
Fenell made “Wuthering Heights” not for bookworms but for cinephiles. The movie is stunningly shot. The mise en scene is just gorgeous in that it’s such a filthily excessive style that is common in Fenell movies. It’s a study of true filmmaking, but it’s not a true study of adaptation.Director Guillermo Del Toro had a famous saying during the “Frankenstein” press tour that “Adapting a book is like marrying a widow. You have to respect the late husband, but on Saturdays, you are allowed to get it on.”Emerald Fennel instead chose to spit on the husband’s grave and get it on every day instead. (Adrihanna Collins)
While the score, composed by Anthony Willis, is startlingly dark and majestic, the occasional interjection of a Charli xcx song is disappointing and jarring. It turns these scenes into what feels like a music video, adding to the never-ending list of things that make it impossible to take the film seriously.It’s evident in both her interviews and the film itself that Fennell has slapped a beloved, canonical title over a cookie-cutter tragic romance in the hopes of drawing audiences excited by the idea of watching something “cultural.”But her exclusion of any complexity in favor of numerous sex scenes make it clear that Fennell was aiming for a box-office hit instead of a literary tribute, much to the devastation of Brontë fans everywhere — and to the detriment of the story itself. (Amelia Barter)
The movie itself was good; however, instead of marketing something as an adaptation, it would’ve been better to be portrayed as a new story. In some parts, it seemed they slapped on the names of the known characters of “Wuthering Heights” and offered nothing else in similarity. (Ruby Johnson)
Glaring issues aside, “Wuthering Heights” has its moments, mainly via the lens of DP Linus Sandgren. There are some striking compositions, with Cathy’s white wedding train billowing across the crepuscular moor a highlight. And then there are the leeches… Overall, “Wuthering Heights” is a trainwreck, albeit a weirdly watchable one. It careers giddily through its run time (although one feels such a thematically weighty story should have more of a sense of gravity or heft), and you get the sense at least some of its curious absurdities are by design; that Emerald Fennell is thumbing her nose at anyone who ever took Emily Brontë’s baroque gothic fantasia seriously as a love story in the first place. (Kevin Ibbotson-Wight)
Doubtless there will be more versions of Wuthering Heights. This is the more puzzling and challenging one. (Father Peter Malone)
The positive standout of this film is the cinematography. The film is very visually striking, with beautiful costuming and production design in every meticulously arranged frame. From the first shots of the film, Fennell is able to maintain a dark, slimy tone. [...]However, it seems that Fennell wanted to make a movie that only works on mute. Throughout the film, composer Anthony Willis’ beautiful string-heavy score is attacked by Charli xcx’s auto-tuned vocals from the soundtrack album. While there are moments where Charli’s songs work well, such as in the opening scene of the movie, most of the time her songs feel out of place. (Thais Zboichyk)
Brontë punishes her readers for even liking her characters. Its most charismatic and compelling characters, the doomed lovers Heathcliff and Catherine, are also two of its greatest monsters. Feral and violent, Brontë’s Heathcliff and Catherine ruin lives and inflict wanton amounts of pain for the sheer sport of it all, but they also love each other overwhelmingly, ferociously, enough to tear down the world all around each other. Reading about them, it’s both difficult to wish them well and impossible not to feel that they really should be together. That contradiction is what creates the tension that powers the reader through this brutal, bleak book, with all its misery and squalor. [...]Brontë’s Cathy beats her servants, her horses, her husband. She flies into uncontrollable rages and plots to destroy her enemies. Fennell’s Cathy offers the occasional mean girl putdown, swiftly belied by her beautiful tear-swollen eyes, which reveal her true purity of heart. She is not so much passionate and angry as she is pragmatic and a little bit petty.Brontë’s Heathcliff slowly and systematically bankrupts his abuser and then ruins the man’s son. Fennell’s Heathcliff kindly cares for his adopted father in his broken old age. Brontë’s Heathcliff tortures the feckless Isabella’s puppy, then seduces her and abuses her and their child. Fennell’s Heathcliff mostly stares in confusion as Isabella writhes in pleasure on the end of a dog’s leash, having not only enthusiastically consented to the treatment, but in fact instigated it. When onscreen Catherine tells Isabella that Heathcliff will eat her alive, the moment feels absurd: The audience knows by this point that Isabella is an oversexed weirdo who will do whatever she wants with reserved, pliant Heathcliff. (In fact, she does.)No adaptation must be absolutely faithful to its source text in order to be good, but it has to do something. It has to have an energy, a source of tension, a reason to exist. But having excised the tension of Brontë’s novel from her film, Fennell replaces it with absolutely nothing. Instead, you are asked only to watch beautiful people engage in mild BDSM play upon the beautiful moors, and then die through no fault of their own.All that gleefully perverse production design made promises, and she follows through on absolutely none of them. Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” reaches no heights at all. (Constance Grady)
This ache for trashiness is not mere prurience on my part. Indeed, the film goes out of its way to cater to the prurience in the audience. No, my frustration with the film's refusal to tip full-bore into a trashy soap-opera narrative is also implied in its heightened style. Fennell got some excellent work from her photographer and production designers to create an unreal space for her film to take place in. One might be reminded of the films of Ken Russell, complete with their sexual excess.The heightened look very much leaves the door open for a more extreme approach. Some might be upset that Fennell took her film so far from the source material. I am frustrated that she didn't take it far enough. She could have turned "Wuthering Heights" into a straight-up horror movie. What if Heathcliff and Cathy murder Edgar and can only dispose of the body by eating it? What if Nelly (Hong Chau) or Isabella (Alison Oliver) found out about the murder? The line between an angst-riddled romance like "Wuthering Heights" and 1950s issues of "Tales from the Crypt" is startlingly fine, and Fennell could easily have taken her film into EC Comics territory.And this would merely be following the path that Fennell herself laid out for us. It wouldn't have been surprising at all. And it would have certainly been more fun. By backing off and ending "Wuthering Heights" as a tragedy, it merely highlights that Heathcliff and Cathy are kind of bad people whose own actions brought nothing but pain and misery. I love a good tragedy, of course, but it's not a great tragedy at the end of the day. But if Fennell had added murder, we would have had something. (Witney Seibold)
Collider, not unfairly, surmised that Brontë is “rolling in her grave.”Brontë probably is, to which I ask… so what?!Why does it matter so much that Emerald Fennell personally deviated from an oft-adapted novel to craft her own maximalist fantasia? She is not the first filmmaker to take striking liberties with Brontë. In fact, it was not until the 2011 Andrea Arnold miniseries starring Kaya Scodelario and James Howson that a major adaptation attempted to cover the full multigenerational breadth of the book. Until then, most followed William Wyler’s lead from the classic 1939 Hollywood version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon by ending the story with Cathy’s death and Heathcliff’s plea she haunt him forevermore. Arnold’s miniseries also holds the distinction of being the first version to cast a Black actor as Heathcliff. Still, before and after we’ve had Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hardy, and Timothy Dalton, among others, play Heathcliff, and films like the ‘39 version which conspicuously soften Cathy’s selfishness or Heathcliff’s sadism. [...]It is easy to wonder whether Fennell is held to a different standard than other filmmakers, perhaps because of her tendencies for decadence and excess (and questionable class subtexts) courting acrimony from a specific, popular lens of modern online criticism. Or, perhaps, it is because she’s a woman. Truthfully, though, it might be less about Fennell than the source material. While del Toro and Villeneuve, like Fennell, had intense formative experiences growing up with the novels they adapted, Wuthering Heights is a far more universal foundational text for thousands due to being on the English curriculum of most secondary or high schools on either side of the Atlantic.But at the end of the day, art is much more fulfilling when engaged on its own terms versus comparing it side by side with a text. The best films based on books generally make mincemeat of their source material—The Godfather, Jaws, The Shining—and as del Toro himself once said, “At the end of the day, I say adapting is like marrying a widow. You can pay respect to the late husband, but on Saturdays, you gotta get it on.”Being able to get it on is one thing Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has no trouble with, especially when Charli XCX ballads drift across the 19th century moors. (David Crow)
Perhaps it’s silly to berate “Wuthering Heights” for its failures, given Hollywood has always been a big-budget exercise in the cross-pollination of celebrity. The quality of engagement makes no difference as long as the publicity machine continues to churn.Recently there has been no corner of the internet in which you couldn’t find Robbie, Fennell or Elordi answering questions you never asked, with anecdotes you never cared to hear. What is perhaps more gripping than Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” – more complex, more laden with dramatic tension and cosmic irony and more accurate to Brontë’s vision of intergenerational violence – is Hollywood’s crisis of legitimacy playing out before us. (Kasumi Borczyk)
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are rightly hailed as heroines of feminism, but their lives and works far outstrip the narrow boundaries of such fashionable causes: they are astounding evidence of the triumph of the human spirit in the face of pitiless adversity. No wonder that we find them difficult to understand in our debased age. (Nigel Jones)
“Wuthering Heights” is a satisfying listen as well as a canny solution to the problem of how to follow up a breakthrough record. (Mark Richardson)
Ultimately, the album makes the most sense with the context that is a backdrop to a much larger project. Many of the songs fade together when listened to in succession, and while the project is very ambient and atmospheric, it wouldn’t be in my typical listening rotation.However, the soundtrack was a very smart move for Charli xcx’s career. While “brat” achieved Charli xcx her most mainstream success, it also created expectations for her artistry centered on edgy, danceable tracks. (Jessica Johnson)
Unless explicitly said
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