As a reviewer, it doesn’t pay to make overly quick judgments. However, within minutes of Jane Eyre Convention opening, I had come to the firm conclusion that the team behind the show had picked a difficult book for a comedy parody. Jane Austen lends herself to the amusing because she is often a quick-witted, funny writer herself. In comparison, getting laughs from Charlotte Brontë’s doom-laden gothic romance feels peculiarly like hard labour. However, the valiant cast of four (Eleanor Zeal, Ben Everett Riley, Georgia Jackson and Rachel Overd) throw themselves into the task with unfazed, drama-school-level enthusiasm. This isn’t a criticism. I love drama school energy. It certainly carried the room in this case, on an otherwise quiet Tuesday night in Clapham. Playing guileless attendees at a Jane Eyre reenactment society meeting, the foursome tackle everything fearlessly, including occasional clumsy hints at a Gen Z world beyond a safe literary space. Controlling, violent boyfriends, ADHD, absent dad trauma, race, and post-colonial reflection all pop up briefly. Some references seem flippant. Others unnecessary. This only becomes a real problem with gender politics. Riley, as the only guy in the cast, is sometimes asked to embody misogyny and decry it at the same time. It’s just a bit of a mess that fails to land, either as humour or serious commentary. Not everything needs a contemporary eyebrow raise, and, perhaps, Rochester is allowed to just be a sexy older man. Clunky missteps aside, it is all a jolly romp with plenty of good gags. I enjoyed, at various times, the embodiment of the moon, Rochester’s slightly camp horse, running (or walking fast) across the moors, and death by tuberculosis. I warned you, all very doom-laden and gothic. The team gets through the novel that many of us recognise from school curricula at a pace. It’s a book that Zeal, who writes as well as stars, obviously loves in detail. The most effective moments are undoubtedly when Brontë’s words are quoted directly, unadorned. Passages are surprisingly theatrical. It left me a bigger fan of the Haworth writer’s work than I was before. Job done, then I guess. For me, Jane Eyre is best represented by the 1943 film starring Orson Welles. Others will love the 2011 film with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Many might turn to director Sally Cookson’s mighty version that landed at the National Theatre in 2015. Realistically, Jane Eyre Convention is not going to trouble anyone’s list of definitive versions. But if you enjoy the book, there is probably sufficient fun to be had among fellow fans here. Knowing that classic works of literature catch the eye in a festival programme, I reckon this is a show with an exciting future at Edinburgh, where, fortunately, it appears it is heading after this Clapham run. (Mike Carter)
Harper's Bazaar wonders 'Why Is Romance So Universally Appealing Right Now?' Coming off Fall 2026 fashion month this past March, we were left with a lingering, wistful feeling of romance. The Wuthering Heights press tour was in full swing, and there seemed to be a startling overlap between the subverted feminine tropes playing out onscreen and those walking down the runways. [...] And, of course, Wuthering Heights ties a bow around it all: a romance novel turned film with a fashion-forward press tour in which lead actress Margot Robbie, styled by Andrew Mukamal, took to international red carpets in Dilara Findikoglu corsets cinched up tight. [...] In Forbidden Fruits, the four main characters host a séance in frilly Rodarte dresses embellished with lace and ribbons. The costumes may conduct a romantic feel, but the plot does not—someone's about to get initiated into a cult. Wuthering Heights may look romantic but it doesn't really feel romantic. Each is provocative in its plotline, heart-wrenching, scary, even gross, at times despite the overt presence of ribbon and corsetry. Whereas releases like Office Romance or People We Meet on Vacation (based on a romance novel) feel more like romance in substance if not costume. Is something romantic purely because it has a Victorian element? Or because it takes place on the moors of England? "I got an Instagram ad for these dresses that literally looked cut-and-paste from the set of Wuthering Heights, and I think that's when people miss the mark," Biga posits. "Can you imagine somebody wearing a whalebone corset in Prospect Park? They would look like they were in a play." (Camille Freestone)
Wuthering Heights By Emily Brontë (1847) 2. In her story of ill-starred lovers and class divisions set on the bleak moors of Yorkshire, England, Emily Brontë creates two contrasting visions of home. Catherine Earnshaw, raised in the “disorderly, comfortless” gothic abode of Wuthering Heights, is seduced by the refinement of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange, “a splendid place carpeted with crimson.” She transforms herself from “a wild, hatless little savage” into a lady, which estranges her from her childhood companion and besotted admirer, Heathcliff, a foundling who lives with her family. Losing Catherine to Edgar, the heir of Thrushcross Grange, prompts Heathcliff, the perpetual outsider, to vow vengeance; he maneuvers to gain financial control of both houses with the aim of destroying each one’s inhabitants. “The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails.” Brontë subjects her characters to the competing influences of the two houses; those who venture too close to the Heights—such as Catherine’s daughter, years later—get sucked into the abject darkness within. Heathcliff is unable to find solace in either mansion. For him, home can only be one shared with Catherine, and he must escape his earthly bonds to unite with her spirit. (Manil Suri)
A columnist from The Argus says that 'Scientific classics deserve a place beside great novels'. When people talk about reading classical literature, they often talk about it as if it were a kind of cultural passport, a document you must get stamped with Dickens, Austen, the Brontës and Hardy before you’re allowed to pass through the gates of polite society. Admit that you haven’t read Bleak House or that you stalled halfway through Jane Eyre, and you can watch their expressions shift from surprise to a faint, pitying amusement. Yet the same people who treat nineteenth-century fiction as a universal benchmark will, without hesitation, dismiss the great scientific works of the same era as unreadable, irrelevant or impossibly dense. They will recoil at the idea of opening Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle or The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, even though these books were written for general readers and sold in their thousands to ordinary Victorians who had less scientific training than most of us today. (James Williams)
A contributor to Ethic (in Spanish) writes in defence of Anne Brontë. A recently published German scholarly book:
Nazem Daradkeh Verlag Unser Wissen ISBN-13 : 978-6209995224 May 2026
Der freudsche Ansatz ist eine Methode zum Lesen und Verstehen literarischer Texte. Durch seine Anwendung auf literarische Texte lassen sich Figuren und ihre Psyche im Verlauf der Handlungen in den Romanen analysieren. Dieses Buch untersucht die Rolle von Natur und Gesellschaft, die die Psychologie der Figuren kontinuierlich verändern. Dieses Buch analysiert, wie das Leben die Figuren im Roman beeinflusst und wie die Figuren mit verschiedenen Situationen und Orten umgehen. Sie sind auf der Suche nach Leidenschaft und Liebe. Dies gelingt ihnen jedoch nicht aufgrund von Kämpfen, Auseinandersetzungen und Konkurrenz im Streben nach der zweiten Hälfte ihres Herzens. Liebe und Leidenschaft sind die Ursachen für seelische Leiden. Diese sind schlimmer als körperliche Leiden. Dieses Buch analysiert die leidenschaftliche Liebe und ihren Einfluss auf die Veränderung der Psyche der Figuren entsprechend der Kontrolle über deren Persönlichkeit. Es kann sich dabei um das Es, das Ich oder das Über-Ich handeln. Dieses Buch erläutert diese Liebe in "Wuthering Heights", das Emily Brontë (1818-1848) 1847 verfasste. Es untersucht die Gründe, die zwischen den Liebenden bestehen und zu Kämpfen, Hass und Konflikten zwischen den Figuren führen. Die Untersuchung der Psychologie der Figuren ist für die Analyse ihrer Einstellungen von großer Bedeutung.
The Telegraph and Argus reminds readers that today is the last day to have their say about thecontroversial giant windfarm proposed for Brontë country. Keighley and Ilkley’s MP, Conservative Robbie Moore, has reminded people on his social media pages that the deadline for people to submit their views is fast approaching. Mr Moore, who opposes the plans, said he has formally submitted his own response. He reminds people they have until until 23.59pm tomorrow, Wednesday, June 10, 2026 to submit their response to the statutory consultation. Mr Moore says people can submit their objection by emailing your response to info@calderdaleenergypark.co.uk, or submit via post to Freepost, Calderdale Energy Park – for postal submissions, they will allow a seven‑day grace period after the consultation closes. Mr Moore said: “This proposal harms our environment, our ecology, our wildlife and bird population. “It harms our precious peatland, our peat bogs and its carbon storage potential. “It harms our heritage, our landscape, and our communities and neighbours. “The development must be stopped and I urge all to object to the scheme.” Mr Moore has been pressurising fellow MPs whose constituencies might be affected to come out against the proposals. Calder Valley MP, Labour’s Josh Fenton-Glynn, in whose constituency the site would be, has also now come out in opposition to the plans. On his social media pages, Mr Fenton-Glynn said: “I continue to have concerns about the impact of the Calderdale energy park on peat. “I believe in net zero but I don’t think we get there by damaging carbon stores. “Peatland is our Amazon rainforest and we should follow the science and protect it. “That is why I have stated my opposition in response to the consultation.” (John Greenwood)
Broadway World and others mourn the death of Broadway veteran Gina Ferrall, who played several roles in the first stage productions of Jane Eyre. The Musical. Book Club has an AI-generated post on '7 Beautifully Written Books You Should Read in 2026' including Jane Eyre.
If it smells like AI, looks like AI and feels like AI... it's probably AI:
Dark MirrorsQuantum Quill Story Editions Quantum Quill Publishing ISBN: 9798902650515
Beauty becomes corruption. Love becomes obsession. Desire becomes ruin.
Enter the dark heart of Gothic literature in Dark Mirrors: Gothic Obsessions, Dangerous Beauty, and the Price of Desire-a haunting collection of immersive modern retellings from the acclaimed Quantum Quill Story Editions series. Featuring cinematic reinterpretations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, Dracula, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Fall of the House of Usher, this volume explores the dangerous tension between beauty and decay, ambition and conscience, passion and destruction. These are not abridgments, summaries, or simplified adaptations. Quantum Quill Story Editions are fully original literary reinterpretations crafted for modern readers and listeners, preserving the essential characters, emotional arcs, themes, atmosphere, and philosophical depth of the original classics while presenting them in refined, cinematic prose with modern pacing, immersive clarity, and heightened accessibility. Each edition is carefully designed to deliver the emotional power of the classics in a format that feels immediate, vivid, and deeply engaging for contemporary audiences. Inside Dark Mirrors, readers will encounter: (...) - A powerful struggle between love, secrecy, identity, and emotional imprisonment in Jane Eyre - A storm-dark tale of obsession and vengeance in Wuthering Heights
Wales Online recommends the '5 'best ever' period dramas perfect for fans of Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey' including Jane Eyre Originally broadcast in 2006, this screen adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel charts the journey of its title character as she becomes an orphan and battles to forge a brighter future. Across four episodes, the programme takes viewers on a magnificent expedition through this timeless tale, starring Ruth Wilson in the titular role alongside Toby Stephens as Edward Rochester. The two gradually fall for one another despite his peculiar conduct and the enigmatic noises she hears echoing through the residence. It said: "A wonderful adaptation of this classic. The casting is excellent; Ruth makes a delightful and intriguing Jane, and Toby Stephens is an utterly fantastic Rochester. "This is a compelling series; each episode leaves you anxious to see the next. The set designers and costume designers have excelled themselves, and the lighting in particular is superb." (Angie Quinn)
Times Now has an article on 'Why Wuthering Heights Is Not A Love Story, No Matter What People Say'. Book Club has an AI-generated article on '8 Best Classic Books You Must Read In 2026' including Wuthering Heights.
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