The Guardian reviews Bebe Cave's multicharacter comedy Swoon.Giving us a Victorian-era Tyra Banks as well as the Brontë sisters, Swoon is a highly impressive and creative feat of physical comedy, with an intelligent throughline that never takes away from the more slapstick and silly elements. The show has a wealth of jokes that rely on the audience having some knowledge of art history, but even without this, the message is clear: ridiculous men with pompous attitudes are forever contributing to the erasure of women. (Arusa Qureshi) Just Watch lists 'The 6 Most Controversial Literary Adaptations Of The Last 5 Years' and one of them is Wuthering Heights 2026 Wuthering Heights (2026) is the most recent adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. However, the film garnered a lot of criticism before hitting theaters, with the most prominent being the casting of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, a typically non-white role in the novel. But that’s not all; there was even more controversy surrounding the film, from the casting of Margot Robbie as Catherine, who was considered too old for the role, to the more sensual direction of the film. Abandoning the themes of the book, it had also been stated that this film was focusing more on the teenage romanticism young readers got when they read the book, which undermined the core values of the story. (Nicholas Brooks)
Couch Soup also lists Wuthering Heights as one of '3 Books to Read with Screen Adaptations Worth Watching'. Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë in 1847, is about the tumultuous love story between Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff. It explores themes such as forbidden love, jealousy and even toxic masculinity disguised as passionate love. For me, the movie was slightly better than the book, though both seem problematic. Heathcliff is driven solely by his lust for Cathy and the jealousy he feels knowing she is with someone else. Each character has their own motives that drive them in their decisions. What I liked about the movie was the stylization of the film, especially Margot Robbie's stunning, though contemporary, looks. Robbie's chemistry with Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff was palpable. The book is more gentle to its characters and readers, but the dark nature of the story remains between both mediums. (Jasmyn Spann)
-¿Por qué 'Cumbres borrascosas' ? -Todos tenemos al menos un libro que nos persigue, que hemos leído en diferentes momentos de la vida y que, en cada momento, nos ha devuelto, como un espejo, una imagen distinta de quiénes éramos, y para mí ese libro sin duda es 'Cumbres borrascosas'. -¿En qué medida es una novela moderna, actual, o imperecedera? -Creo que basta con entrar en Goodreads (comunidad virtual de catalogación de lecturas) y ver los comentarios apasionados o directamente encendidos que suscita para entender que hay algo en este texto que sigue siendo inasible, excesivo, capaz de enfrentarnos a nuestras idealizaciones y nuestras sombras. Tiene también muchas grietas, contradicciones internas que animan la conversación en torno a la misma, la posibilidad inagotable de la exégesis. [...] -¿Lo de la fidelidad al texto a la hora de abordar una adaptación resulta muchas veces una coartada convertida en una trampa cuando no se quiere arriesgar? -Me parece complicadísimo adaptar novelas al cine y creo que hay que entender que una adaptación no es la novela en sí, sino la lectura que la directora ha hecho de dicha novela. Eso es bonito, enfatiza que, en cada lector, el texto se renueva y se hace otro. Lo que sí es inquietante es que absolutamente todas las adaptaciones hayan decidido amputar la segunda parte de la novela, que se queden en la supuesta historia de amor y no en las posibilidades que Emily Brontë les da a los hijos de la nueva generación de enmendar los errores de los padres. Y aquí es donde las películas tienden a romantizar lo que en la novela simplemente se muestra como problemático. -¿Cuál es, en su opinión, la adaptación audiovisual más acertada de la novela, o la que aporta algo diferente? -La adaptación del 2011 de Andrea Arnold (protagonizad por James Howson y Kaya Scodelario) me parece visualmente preciosa, y es la que más se atreve a mostrar esta coexistencia sin edulcorar entre el amor y la violencia que atraviesa a Heathcliff, y la que enfatiza cuestiones de raza y de clase que, en general, se suelen dejar de lado. -¿Heathcliff y Catherine serían hoy carne de meme en las redes sociales? -Bueno, creo que después de la adaptación de Emerald Fennell, cuya propuesta tiene un tono deliberadamente paródico, ya lo son un poco. (Guillermo Balbona) (Translation)
Southern Living lists '60 Classic Books Everyone Should Read In Their Lifetime' including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë brings to life Jane Eyre‘s titular heroine through a vivid internal world, one as dynamic as the wild English landscape, but one often at odds with the social strictures of the novel’s early-19th century setting. [...] Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë presents a world of conflicts, frictions between families, passions, and attachments—especially those of Catherine Earnshaw and the tortured Heathcliff—across an untamed landscape. (Caroline Rogers and Rebecca Angel Baer)
The Times of India's love quote of the day was 'Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same'. La Tercera (Chile) has an article on more people reading classic novels, including those by the Brontë sisters.
A new novel with the Brontës at the core of it:
by Catherine Friend Bywater Books ISBN: 978-1612943466 August 18, 2026
Yorkshire, 1898. When twenty-two-year-old Lilianne Loxley is sent to Lord Bexton’s isolated estate to work off her uncle’s debts, she expects drudgery—not danger. With her gift for mimicry, she becomes Bexton’s secretary—and his reluctant forger. Soon she’s trapped in a scheme to create a “lost” novel by Emily Brontë, a deception that could make—or destroy—fortunes. The house is full of secrets: footsteps echo in empty corridors, lemon-scented ghosts haunt her sleepless nights, and a portrait seems to watch her every move. Yet it’s the living who unsettle her most—especially Wren McAllister, the sharp-tongued maid whose defiance hides a tender heart. Drawn together by loss and longing, Lily and Wren risk everything for a freedom neither has ever known. As the line between truth and invention blurs, Lily uncovers a shocking connection to the Brontë family—and to Bexton himself—that will force her to choose between love, loyalty, and the dangerous power of her own pen. Catherine Friend’s The Lost Brontë is an atmospheric gothic romantic mystery steeped in secrets, desire, and literary intrigue.
The New Yorker discusses 'The Boom of the Sex-Recession Movie'- In February, I went to see Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” at my local movie theatre, in Brooklyn. Next to me sat a man and a woman in their twenties. Early in the film, as Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Cathy (Margot Robbie) breathlessly spy on a couple of servants engaging in a bout of horse-and-rider-themed roleplay, the man beside me began to squirm. This display of light bondage proved merely an amuse-bouche to the erotic banquet that Fennell had prepared. There are no sex scenes in Emily’s Brontë’s novel—the star-crossed protagonists never so much as kiss—but in Fennell’s adaptation they came and came and came: Heathcliff and Cathy snogging in a little carriage; Heathcliff and Cathy going at it on a dining table; Cathy furiously masturbating on the moors as Heathcliff sneaks up on her to watch. My neighbor reacted to such displays with a series of what Brontë would have called “ejaculations,” gasping and groaning in horrified astonishment. “Oh, my God!” he exclaimed. “He’s a sex addict!” he reported to his date, who had slipped away to the bathroom just as Heathcliff leashed up another poor girl and turned her into his willing slave. When the credits rolled, he sat, stunned, head in hands, tears rolling down his face. “That was so fucking dope,” he said, between sobs. (Alexandra Schwartz)
Spanish newspaper Público recently published an imaginary interview with Jane Eyre in which 'she' discussed beauty standards. Opino que la apariencia no debería confundirse con la verdad. Que el aparato externo no es la esencia genuina de las cosas y que los muros blanqueados jamás deberían responder de la condición del sepulcro. Pero esta cuestión no solo ha importado en este siglo. Las mujeres que buscan alcanzar un ideal de belleza están ahí desde tiempos inmemoriales, porque mientras libran esa batalla no tienen tiempo ni fuerzas para luchar por la dignidad del alma, la independencia de la mente y la firmeza del carácter. No me malinterprete: hay mujeres bellísimas que cumplen las otras tres condiciones, pero el equilibrio es difícil porque el tiempo y las fuerzas son finitas. Nosotras debemos elegir qué guerras queremos ganar, y quizás la batalla final sea aceptar que podemos ser feas sin que nada pase. Pero todo el mundo quiere mirarse en el espejo y verse bien. El problema es en qué medida "verse bien" depende solamente del espíritu de cada cual. Mi marido sugirió vestirme de raso y encaje, y adornar con rosas mi cabello, igual que hacían todas las esposas de nuestra misma posición, y yo le respondí: si haces eso entonces yo no me reconocería y habría dejado de ser Jane Eyre, tu Janet. Me convertiría en una mona enfundada en una chaqueta de arlequín o en un grajo revestido de plumas de pavo real. Y añadí: yo no digo que sea usted guapo, señor, aunque le ame; precisamente porque le amo tiernamente no lo hago, así que no me adule usted a mí. La belleza es relativa, pero el ideal de belleza de una sociedad no lo es. (Antía Yáñez Rodríguez) (Translation)
A columnist from OkDiario (Spain) picks up that last sentence to discuss beauty standards as well, together with an AI-generated image of a copy of Jane Eyre (surely there's some metaphor in that?)
the latter half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century [when] there took place in some towns and villages in the Pennines of West Yorkshire what was sometimes referred to as “the annual casting off of the apron strings”. [...] The Keighley Hen Pecked Club was the creation of Henry Thompson, the landlord of the Royal Oak on Damside. He was better known as Harry Tap and later owned the White Horse Brewery at Hermit Hole and the inn across the road. The idea of forming a club may well have been sparked by a popular book of the period – The Hen-Pecked Husband by Harriet Ann Scott – which focused on the domestic struggles within the Victorian household. Although now largely forgotten, it was said to rival Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in popularity at the time. (Robin Longbottom)
An alert for this weekend in Tudanca, Spain:
I Seminario Literatura y Paisaje Pensando el páramo desde el valle. Taller sobre Cumbres borrascosas Directed by the writer Aixa De la Cruz August 22, 23, 10:00 to 14:00
Este taller de lectura y debate en torno a la novela de Emily Brontë, abordará esta obra desde una perspectiva literaria y cultural. La actividad incluirá asimismo el visionado y análisis de fragmentos de adaptaciones audiovisuales, con el fin de explorar cómo el imaginario colectivo ha reinterpretado el texto. Este encuentro en Tudanca permite pensar ‘ Cumbres borrascosas’ desde la relación entre literatura y paisaje. En la novela de Emily Brontë, el páramo no funciona como un simple escenario, sino como una fuerza que modela a los personajes y expresa sus emociones, diciendo a menudo lo que, según los códigos de época, habría sido imposible expresar de manera directa. Leer ‘ Cumbres borrascosas’ desde un enclave como Tudanca, donde el vínculo entre literatura y territorio es tan marcado, abre la posibilidad de preguntarnos de qué manera los paisajes entran en los libros y cómo la literatura transforma, a su vez, nuestra manera de mirar y habitar esos paisajes. ( Cantabria Directa)
The worst that can possibly happen is happening. We warned about this a few days ago, and here it is: the politicization of the opposition to the Calderdale windfarm. The harm that this initiative will do and the fact that local media unashamedly dance to the orders of the local right-wing leaders is just terrible. Look at the comments if you don't believe us. Now if you oppose this obnoxious project, you turn out to be an ally of the fossil fuel industry and a follower of the Farage sect. We read in The Telegraph & Argus: Three leaders of Reform-led councils in West Yorkshire and Lancashire are united in their opposition to a giant windfarm which a company hopes to build on Calderdale moorland. Calderdale Energy Park (CEP) plans to put 34 giant wind turbines on Walshaw Moor, which is located between Hebden Bridge and Haworth, the village associated with the Bronte sisters. The company says the turbines will generate enough low carbon electricity to power 198,000 homes a year. But the proposals have met with strong resistance from campaigners concerned about potential damage to peatland and loss of moorland habitat which is home to birds. The Government’s Energy Secretary – currently Miatta Fahnbulleh – will ultimately decide whether or not this controversial application is given the green light. (...) Councillors Dan Sutherland, the leader of Calderdale Council, Stephen Place, leader of Bradford Council, and Stephen Atkinson, leader of Lancashire County Council, met at Halifax Town Hall to discuss and set out their concerns. By responding to the Calderdale Energy Park proposal collectively, they hope to amplify concerns about the plans – which have also been made by campaigners and residents – not just regionally but nationally. (...) Another factor causing alarm was the impact on the heritage associated with the moorland. “The Brontes’ work is of global significance,” said Coun Sutherland. The final outcome might come down to the Brontë moors – or the Calderdale Energy Park, he said. (...) Coun Place said: “We don’t think it’s been widely enough known in the Bradford area, which is why we’re keen to get involved with this. “It’s just something we have got to make the public aware of. “The Brontës’ works are cherished and protected peatland could be severely affected,” he said. (John Greenwood)
It's certainly disturbing to link together in the same phrase Reform Party and the Brontës. But here we are. It's much, much better to associate the Brontës with solidarity initiatives like this one that happened in Haworth. In Keighley News: More than 200 people took part in a new charity walk through Brontë country. The first-ever Brontë Pub Walk started in Haworth and wound through Stanbury, Ponden and the outskirts of Oakworth, finishing on Haworth’s Main Street. Walkers followed in the footsteps of the famous literary sisters while raising funds for Sue Ryder’s palliative and end-of-life care services. Routes of five and 10 miles were available, with pub stops along the way. Adam Brunksill, regional fundraising team manager at Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice, said: "We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who took part in our very first Brontë Pub Walk and helped make it such a special day. "It was fantastic to see people enjoying the beautiful countryside, visiting some of the places connected to the Brontë family and, of course, stopping for a well-earned drink or two along the way. (...) he walk passed by the Brontë Parsonage Museum and St Michael and All Angels’ Church, where several members of the Brontë family are buried. (Francis Redwood)
Another review of The Bronté Sister House Party is online. In City Cast DC: Brontë Sister House Party, a comedy that’s equal parts literary feminism and Christopher Durang-style surrealism, feels like it was expressly written for Nu Sass Productions. (...) Nu Sass co-founder and artistic director Aubri O’Connor plays Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë in House Party. Her performance as a neurotic people-pleaser who lives (well, “lives”) in hope that a Belgian professor who inspired characters in at least three of her novels will at last show up for this interminable soirée is one of the best reasons to attend. Written in 2021, this clever provocation comes to us from playwright Courtney Bailey. Bailey holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Baylor University, but her premise is far from academic: We are all the invited guests of the three literary Brontë ladies, none of whom lived to see 40, now sentenced to entertain us in some otherworldly bardo until their jailer decides they (we?) have reached The Point of Celebratory Reverence. Our hosts have little guidance on exactly how they might achieve this ecstatic state. Their only clue is a game show-style chime that rewards them whenever they do something to indicate that they’re fun-loving and sociable and not just a trio of introspective and invariably miserable writers. (..) Her characters are not all of equal interest, and the performances animating them are variable. Director Kathleen Barth struggles to keep the pace of all this clever existential chitchat sufficiently caffeinated, as evidenced by the fact that a play with a published (and ideal) run time of 90 minutes to two hours stretches out, intermission included, to two and a half. Still, it’s a fun night out, and one that might inspire you to brush up on your Brontë bibliography. (Chris Klimek)
The Fan Carpet explores "how John Caird and Megan McGinnis are reimagining Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre through ensemble storytelling": Rather than asking one performer to carry the weight of Charlotte Brontë's first-person narration, co-book writer and co-director John Caird has transformed the ensemble into Jane's collective voice. It is a deceptively simple idea, but one that completely changes how audiences experience the story. For Caird, the challenge was never to recreate the novel word for word. Instead, the goal was to preserve what makes Jane Eyre special while allowing theatre to do what theatre does best. A novel allows readers inside Jane's thoughts for hundreds of pages. On stage, those inner emotions must become action, performance and music. Sharing Jane's narration across the company preserves Charlotte Brontë's first-person perspective while creating something that feels inherently theatrical. (...) One decision that particularly impressed us was the production's commitment to casting genuine young performers as Young Jane and Adèle. Rather than asking adults to portray childhood, Emily-Rose Samuel and Poppy Jason bring an authenticity to the opening chapters of Jane's journey that helps establish the emotional foundation for everything that follows. It is a reminder that Jane's resilience isn't born overnight—it begins with the experiences that shape her from childhood.
1. Hathersage Hathersage has strong literary connections - having inspired Charlotte Brontë while she was writing Jane Eyre. The nearby North Lees Hall (pictured here) also became the main inspiration for Thornfield Hall. The Grave of Little John, Robin Hood’s second-in-command, can be found at St. Michael’s Church in the heart of Hathersage. While there is little evidence proving he is buried here, ballads suggest that he originated from Hathersage and settled there again later in his life. (Tom Hardwicke)
BookRiot has a list of historical queer gothic novels. Including
The Wives of Herrick Hall by Julie Lew In 1799, a disgraced young woman becomes the companion to a Lady in the isolated Herrick Hall. Lady Blake suffers from nightly visions of her impending death, and Herrick Hall is haunted by its previous mistresses. If you’ve longed for a sapphic take on Rebecca or Jane Eyre, and if you like ghosts, family secrets, curses, and forbidden love, this is perfect for your TBR.
A haunting prequel to Jane Eyre, imagining the life of Mr. Rochester's 'madwoman in the attic' before her confinement, a Creole heiress in postcolonial Jamaica. Rhys writes with lush, feverish intensity, turning a footnote of Victorian fiction into a devastating meditation on colonialism, identity, and erasure. Essential, and far richer than its source material. (Simran Sukhnani) In 1876, Publishers Weekly asked booksellers to identify their most saleable novels. [Blanche Willis Howard’s] One Summer ranked below Dinah Mulock Craik’s John Halifax and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre but ahead of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Más figuras literarias surgidas en Yorkshire han acabado en la pantalla. Por ejemplo, la pareja de Cumbres Borrascosas. Su escritora, Emily Brontë ambientó la obra en su paisaje natal, el parque nacional de Yorkshire Dales. Sus páramos cubiertos de brezos, entre verdes oscuro y púrpuras, según incida la luz de un sol casi siempre plomizo, aportan tenebrismo al relato. Y pasan a ser un protagonista más en la reciente cinta protagonizada por un tempestuoso Jacob Elordi y una Margot Robbie, tan hermosa como tóxica. (Armando Cerra) (Translation) The New York Times Midi Crossword (August 21, 2026) contains a Brontë question: "Jane, in a Brontë novel". More Recent Articles
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