HuffPost seems to be only just finding out that 'Charlotte Brontë Really, Really Didn't Seem To Like Jane Austen' and have interviewed Dr Michael Stewart about it. “She wasn’t a fan of Austen,” Dr Stewart said. Charlotte once told critic G.H. Lewes she’d never read Austen (despite her very literary childhood). And after he urged her to give the books a try, she said in correspondence: “Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? I am puzzled on that point… I had not seen ‘Pride & Prejudice’ till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book and studied it. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face; a carefully-fenced, highly cultivated garden with neat borders and delicate flowers – but no glance of a bright vivid physiognomy – no open country – no fresh air – no blue hill – no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses.” This, Dr Stewart said, might be called “damning with faint praise”. [...] Basically, her greatest compliment to the author appeared to be something along the lines of, “cool story, Austen!! Now imagine if it had literally any heart, soul, or vim whatsoever...” Why didn’t Charlotte Brontë seem to like Jane Austen? We’ll never truly know, but it’s highly possible the more restrained author just didn’t float Charlotte’s boat. And Austen isn’t the only victim of Charlotte’s sharp tongue, either. “She liked Dickens even less. She disliked his ‘ostentatious extravagance,’” Dr Stewart told us. But it’s hard not to wonder if the writer, who was one when Austen died, was sick of unfair comparisons to the literary titan. “I don’t think there are any meaningful comparisons between the work of the Brontës and Austen. In many ways, they are exact opposites. Although Anne’s Agnes Grey was called a ‘coarse imitation of one of Miss Austin’s [sic] charming stories,’” Dr Stewart explained. To that point, he noted that “Emily and Anne [Brontë] were no fans of Austen either”. (Amy Glover)
Yet it's been said--without any actual evidence--that Anne Brontë may have liked Jane Austen.
A contributor to Metro recommends 'The UK’s prettiest towns and most charming villages for staycations in 2026' and one of them is Haworth, West Yorkshire Growing up in Yorkshire, I was never far from an idyllic village. One of my favourites has to be Haworth, in the moorlands of the Pennines. While it might be small, it has some world-class literary credentials — it’s where the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) wrote their iconic novels, including Wuthering Heights. Head to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the Grade I listed Georgian building, formerly the home of the sisters which has been preserved to offer a glimpse of their life from 1820 to 1861 — entry is £13. Brontë fans should also take a country walk to Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse near Haworth, believed to have inspired Wuthering Heights. And to continue your Victorian education, take a trip on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a five-mile heritage steam train that runs through the village. Finally, if a day of sightseeing has tired you out, stop for a classic pub lunch. My favourite is Haworth Old Hall, a cosy inn set in a 16th-century manor house. Try the Whitby Scampi (£14.79) and a pint of local ale for the ultimate Yorkshire experience. (Sophie-May Williams)
Russh has selected '8 of the most toxic on-screen relationships we can’t look away from' and of course one of them is 1. Cathy and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights (2026) Is there anything more toxic (or dramatic) than ghosting your childhood best friend for five years when she chooses another man? Emily Brontë proved that toxic relationships have been around since the dawn of time with her writing of Cathy and Heathcliff, and Fennell's take shows us just how self-destructive a love like this can be... No thanks. (Kirsty Thatcher)
Yesterday was Mothering Sunday in the UK and so AnneBrontë.org devoted a post to mothers and the Brontës. The Maëlle Dequiedt Wuthering Heights adaptation comes to Colmar, France:
d'après le roman et la vie d'Emily Brontë mise en scène Maëlle Dequiedt Comédie de Colmar. Grande salle Tuesday 17.03. 14h15 Tuesday 17.03. 19h Wednesday 18.03. 20h
Roman noir et scandaleux, sur fond de landes sauvages du Yorkshire, Les Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë plonge dans les tréfonds de la nature humaine. Maëlle Dequiedt explore très librement ce monument de la littérature anglaise, dans un spectacle impressionniste et musical. En complicité avec la compositrice et performeuse Nadia Ratsimandresy, la metteuse en scène libère toute la puissance de ce texte tempétueux, d’une force tellurique, brute, immorale. Devenu mythique, Les Hauts de Hurlevent reste l’unique roman d’une écrivaine morte à trente ans. Maëlle Dequiedt, artiste associée à la Comédie de Colmar, s’approprie l’histoire tourmentée de Catherine et Heathcliff pour en proposer une version très personnelle, iconoclaste, faite de sensations et d’images fulgurantes, autour des thèmes du roman : la famille, la violence, l’enfermement, le mal. La langue brûlante d’Emily Brontë devient matière poétique et sonore, en anglais et en français, tandis que les fantômes qui habitent l’histoire prennent vie à travers les corps de quatre comédien·nes. La musique, jouée en live aux ondes Martenot — instrument précurseur de l’électro —, suggère puissamment la lande battue par le vent et la pluie, autant que les émotions qui ravagent les personnages. Un voyage sans retour au cœur d’une œuvre obsédante.
Time Out also covers the increase in visitors in Haworth: Always wanted to step right into Heathcliff and Cathy’s sort-of-love story? Clearly, you’re not alone. Since it was released on February 13 one thing Emerald Fennel’s somewhat controversial adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’ has done is show just how beautiful Yorkshire can be. As a result, Haworth, a tiny hilltop village in God’s Own County, has been swept up in ‘Brontëmania’. Local businesses and guides have apparently reported a major uptake in bookings since the film’s release. (...) If you’re hoping to make your own Brontëmania trip, the nearest local station is Keighley in Yorkshire – which is on the East Coast Main Line and a direct LNER train away from London, Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Once you’ve made it to Keighley, Haworth is less than an hour ride away on the Brontëbus – yes that’s really what it's called. For only three quid, the bus takes you past iconic Brontë locations (as well as where The Railway Children was filmed). (Anna Mahtani)
Wuthering Heights still remains in the top ten of the Fiction Paperback Sunday Times Bestsellers List. It's number 9. Emerald Fennell’s sexed-up take on Emily Brontë’s gothic romance feels empty. (...) Maybe Fennell’s Wuthering Heights was, like its protagonists, doomed from the start. If nothing else, watching it has made me wonder why our culture is so invested in this gothic tale as a paragon of romantic longing. Brontë’s novel is about two people whose love, cankered by misunderstanding, narcissism, and a soupçon of undiagnosed mental illness, devolves into a rage that destroys them and their estates; the traditional love plot it is not. Fennell is not particularly interested in exploring that material, but she also doesn’t have enough grasp of the power and promise of romance to produce the film it seems she wanted to make. She missed the essence of Charli XCX’s repetitive call to “fall in love again and again” in “Everything is romantic,” the track used to mesmerizing, vibes-enhancing effect in the film’s early trailer. She missed the romance, missed why, with the right book or film, we crave letting ourselves fall in love over and over and over. (Eric Newman)
Because the novel itself was not polite Victorian entertainment. It was wild, obsessive, and deeply strange. Catherine and Heathcliff behave like forces of nature, not characters designed to teach moral lessons. In that sense, the chaotic energy of “Wuthering Heights” feels strangely appropriate. The internet may continue to argue about casting, costumes, accents, and Charli XCX. The discourse will probably last months. But inside a cinema, away from social media commentary, the film reveals itself as something much simpler. Not a sacred text. Just a loud, messy, visually striking movie that is actually pretty fun to watch. (Katarina Doric)
If you’re a purist looking for a faithful adaptation of Catherine and Heathcliff’s destructive, often sadistic but seemingly chaste and tragic love story, you’re going to be pissed. Fennell’s screen adaptation pointedly puts “Wuthering Heights” in quotation marks for multiple reasons. (...) As someone who reread the book immediately before watching the recent adaptation, the film left a lot to be desired. In Brontë’s book, just about everyone is kind of awful. A number of her characters, especially Heathcliff, are selfish, vengeful and violent and there is a supernatural element that looms over it all in a way that is fascinating and thoroughly unsettling. In Fennell’s film adaptation, Heathcliff in particular is highly sanitised. (Martha Mukaiwa)
Maybe the LARB's reviewer would prefer one of the Wuthering Heights rewritings recommended in Women: If this isn't up your alley, the good news is that there are five books out there that have successfully reimagined "Wuthering Heights". "Here on Earth" by Alice Hoffman will satisfy any gothic romance craving. "What Souls Are Made Of" by Tasha Suri, part of the Remixed Classics series, reimagines "Wuthering Heights" through an Indian lens. For a fantasy twist, readers can enjoy "Ruthless Devotion" by Rebecca Kenney. In "For No Mortal Creature" by Keshe Chow, Brontë's classic is retold through a world of dark romance and Chinese superstitions. "The Favorites" by Layne Fargo portrays Cathy and Heathcliff's turbulent relationship through professional ice skaters competing at the Winter Olympics in the 21st century. Whatever you're craving, these books are guaranteed to fix the Brontë blues. (Danielle Summer) Ver a Heathcliff proclamar que "no puede vivir sin su vida y no puede vivir sin su alma" mientras luce un perfil donde hay músculos que ni siquiera sabía que existían genera un cortocircuito en las generaciones de ahora. (...) Teniendo clarísimo que la película es bastante mala y una versión muy libre del libro, tenía muchas ganas de ver qué sucedía en la sala de cine y cuál era la reacción de quienes acuden a ver la película. La realidad ha superado mis expectativas. La directora no ha rodado un drama gótico, ha filmado un deseo colectivo en un mundo de ghosting y frialdad digital; ver a un semidiós moderno sufrir por amor nos parece la más envidiable de las fantasías que puede que ninguna confesara jamás. (Belén Unzurrunzaga) (Translation)
Fennell leans all the way in. The film is decadent and drenched in color. Cathy’s beautiful, vivid ballgowns stand out against the Longley mansion’s abundance and excess, and even the walls of her bedroom, painted almost exactly the color of her own skin, down to the nerves, create an unsettling intimacy. It’s visually rich – almost indulgent – yet always heavy with doom. Costume design deserves serious praise. Robbie stuns in exquisite period dresses and deep red frocks that mirror Cathy’s emotional turbulence. The opulence never feels accidental – it amplifies her mood swings. Alison Oliver’s Isabella adds an unexpected edge. She brings comic timing to a character who is, at her core, deeply insecure and slightly twisted. Watching her willingly allow herself to be degraded by Heathcliff is uncomfortable. She is vulnerable, desperate for love and craving control in the only way she thinks she can claim it. It’s disturbing, but compelling. (Anjola Fashawe)
En conclusión, un producto entretenido y de alta calidad, pero que ha sido relegado de la esencia original de la obra a una simple historia de pasión, que dentro de unos años nadie recordará. Sin embargo, la novela de Emily Brontë seguirá perdurando como clásico de la literatura universal por su complejidad emocional y social. (Mercè Homar Mas) (Translation) De algo parecido adolece Cumbres borrascosas según nos la intentan empotrar en esta última adaptación al cine. Sin duda Jacob Elordi y Margot Robbie son dos de las personas más agraciadas que se hayan puesto jamás delante de una cámara. Derrochan fotogenia. Lo que no derrochan, por desgracia, es ninguna química. Encerrados los dos en las respectivas burbujas de una fría estética narcisista, la cámara tiene que hacer milagros para arrancar algún destello aislado de morbo que a lo mejor funciona en un vídeo cortito de TikTok, para la promoción y tal y tal. Pero luego vas al cine y la película vista del tirón se te hace larga y tediosa. Quien busque las emociones fuertes que el marketing promete, las encontrará antes en un cruce de miradas entre Humphrey Bogart e Ingrid Bergman en Casablanca, que en el señor Elordi tirándole del corsé a la señora Robbie. (Anna Grau) (Translation) Cumbres Borrascosas (2026) es una película fallida con momentos de belleza real, pero entre la megalomanía estética y la superficialidad emocional termina siendo una linda y tóxica forma de romantizar la dependencia sin el valor de explorar por qué eso duele. (Luis Zúñiga) (Translation) Buro247 gives the film a 4 out of 10: Where “Wuthering Heights” ultimately fails is her inability to replace the core themes and messaging in Brontë’s novel, which she stripped away with material that makes for a new, provocative, and unique interpretation. Rather, Fennell did not care for the character’s interior and exterior lives, only wishing to “smuttify” a beloved literary classic in the hopes that audiences would be satisfied with watching two beautiful people get steamy in beautiful backdrops. (Marissa Chin)
Raio Ángulo (Cuba) reviews the new(?) film, but clearly, they have not seen it. The author of these new articles in Her Campus and El Generacional, at least, did. The RNE podcast, Tres en la carretera also reviews the film. Die Welt (Germany) explores the GenZ reactions to the novel or the movie. Movie-Locations fittingly explores Wuthering Heights 2026's locations. The Telegraph & Argus lists a top ten of tourist attractions around Bradford, including the Parsonage, of course. In Emerald Fennell’s rendering of Wuthering Heights, Latif plays Edgar Linton, the well-to-do textiles merchant who marries the story’s protagonist, Cathy, played by Margot Robbie. Traditionally, Linton is a dull, sensible foil to Cathy’s true love, Heathcliff, butFennell and Latif had other ideas for their version of the character.“We wanted to make him less of the pathetic guy he comes across as in the book,” he says, “and more of a real rival to Heathcliff.” Linton’s visceral devotion to his new bride is apparent when Cathy arrives at his dreamlike manor house, where one bedroom wall is decorated, complete with veins and moles, to mimic her own skin. (...) One of the numerous controversies surrounding Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is an accusation of whitewashing. In Brontë’s novel, Heathcliff is described as a Lascar, a term for a sailor from India or south-east Asia; the casting of Elordi, a white man, in the role has raised eyebrows in corners of the internet. When I bring it up, he says, “If anything, it shouldn’t be on me, or any person of colour, to comment on this. It’s one for the industry. What is cool, to me, is being able to play these roles. We’re adding colour back into period dramas becausewe’ve always been there.” Understandably, he would rather focus on the ease with which his own heritage was woven into the narrative.“We were able to flesh out this backstory, which included the Linton family being from South Asia and adopting Isabella, who is white, as a ward. It adds another dimension to the story.” (Michaela Makusha)
And The Times does the same with Martin Clunes, Mr. Earnshaw in the film: In Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Clunes is the one dishing out the floggings, in a bravura performance as Cathy’s dissolute father. He looked like he was having enormous fun, with his mouthful of terrible teeth, and also on the red carpet, where he was the one person grinning alongside Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi and Charli XCX. “I loved it, loved it,” he says. “My wife trod on Charli’s dress at the premiere, but it didn’t rip.” (...) When Clunes was working on Wuthering Heights, Fennell told him the audience needed to like Mr Earnshaw, even though he was cruel. (Melissa Denes)
Melissa Dumpleton: The first book you ever remember reading: L.S.: There’s no way this won’t sound ridiculously pretentious, but I think it was Jane Eyre, when I was around six. I was staying at my grandparents’ apartment that summer, and it was one of the few books on my grandfather’s bookshelf that wasn’t about engineering. All I remember is having recurring nightmares about the scary lady who lived in the attic.
The iPaper recommends Jane Eyre... as a psychological thriller: “It was only while re-reading this book a few years ago that I realised this wasn’t just the coming-of-age story I’d always assumed it to be. First published under the pen name of Currer Bell in 1847, Jane Eyre is also a masterclass in psychological suspense with all the hallmarks of the genre: the first-person narrator with a dark past, the creepy old house, the strange noises and goings-on in the dead of night, the twists and turns, the lies, deceit, and fear. “When Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall to be a governess, she soon picks up that there is something strange about both the mansion, with its rambling corridors and forbidden spaces, and its elusive master, Mr Rochester. Is the house haunted? And what is the secret in the attic?” (Anna Bonet)
Mae's Food Blog reviews Jane Eyre. For the release of Wuthering Heights, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi challenged Chef El Spinler to create a dessert following two specific rules: it had to use egg yolks, and the dough had to be thoroughly kneaded. Rising to the occasion, the chef devised a cocoa ravioli filled with a caramel-marinated egg yolk — a technique where pulverized caramel gently cures the yolk over 72 hours, giving it just enough structure to hold inside the ultra-thin pasta shell without fully cooking. The dish was completed with praline paste, lemon gel, and a Gianduja chocolate sauce. Prepared over several days at the chef's kitchen and then brought to the actors in Paris. The encounter also sparked a rich conversation about food as storytelling in the film itself, with Jacob Elordi reflecting on how the contrast between the raw, visceral meals at Wuthering Heights and the lavish, decorative spread at Thrush Cross Grange was used to signal class, power, and containment — a reminder that, as Margot put it, food is something we can all relate to.
The Art of Costume February 2026
Costume nerds... It is time. This week on The Art of Costume Podcast, we brave the windswept Yorkshire moors for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. First, Spencer and Elizabeth call to order the gathering of costume nerds to discuss the debate regarding period films and costume accuracy. Then our hosts dive headfirst into this passionate, chaotic, and beautifully toxic love story, unpacking Heathcliff and Catherine’s destructive devotion, the moody atmosphere, and, of course, the stunning costumes designed by Jacqueline Durran. It’s stormy, it’s dramatic, it’s a little unhinged—and we absolutely have thoughts.
Le Monde seems to be on a Terry Eagleton high when it claims Wuthering Heights is a 'political novel' that has been turned into 'a lifeless romance' aka Wuthering Heights 2026. Fennell is not the first director to transform the darkness at the heart of this novel into a romantic film. In 1939, William Wyler released an adaptation produced by MGM, which became a global success and received eight Oscar nominations, establishing Wuthering Heights as a revered pop culture icon. In this version, Heathcliff – played by the devastatingly handsome Laurence Olivier – is a lovelorn, disappointed romantic, far more sympathetic than the character in Brontë's novel. Gone, for example, is the abuse inflicted on children, on his own wife Isabella – whom he marries purely out of revenge – as well as on various animals, especially dogs. In the novel, Brontë often uses cruelty toward animals as a metaphor for domestic violence. "To show battered women directly would have been considered too shocking at the time. So what Emily Brontë does is transfer that violence from the woman's body to that of an animal," explained Athéna Sol, a literature teacher and researcher, in a YouTube video on the subject. The original Heathcliff hangs Isabella's spaniel from a hook before marrying her – a grim foreshadowing of what he will later put her through. In Fennell's film, these acts of violence have not disappeared entirely, but have instead been reframed as part of a consensual sexual game with Isabella, in the vein of the soft-core erotic romance Fifty Shades of Grey, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and released in 2015. What is entirely left out, however, is the racist violence suffered by Heathcliff. In the novel, he is described as a "gypsy" and "dark-skinned," whose appearance unsettles everyone. He is found by Catherine's family in Liverpool, one of England's main slave-trading ports in the early 19th century. Given that Brontë grew up amid fierce debate over the abolition of slavery, that detail is no mere accident. The film industry has often ignored it, instead casting White actors – from Olivier to the Australian Elordi. Only in 2011 did British director Andrea Arnold cast a Black actor for the role. Her version also included the hanging of Isabella's spaniel, scenes of domestic violence and a necrophilia sequence that is strongly suggested in the novel. In short, the work's deeply political elements remain largely ill-suited to the Valentine's Day tie-in. (Margaux Baralon)
Stylist recommends a stay at Denton Reserve in Yorkshire. I find it quite serendipitous that my first ever trip to Yorkshire coincided with the cinematic release of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. As a Brontë-obsessed teen (and later, swoopy Kate Bush kitchen disco fan), I always had romantic notions about the stark landscapes these literary sisters existed within, holed up in their parsonage at the edge of the moors scribbling about doomed love while the wind howled around them like restless ghosts. A whimsical image some would say, but let’s face it, indulging in a little bit of whimsy these days is good for the soul, which is why spending a weekend at Denton Reserve in the heart of the Yorkshire countryside was the perfect getaway for this Brontë superfan – if only to escape the scandalised chaos of Wuthering Heights content being unleashed on social media, and indulge in the fantasy that I’d be looking out across the same vistas that backdropped Emily’s gothic masterpiece over 150 years ago (albeit in a far more luxurious setting than some drafty old parsonage). (Amie-Jo Locke)
The i Paper has writer Claire Douglas recommend her 'Five best psychological thrillers' and one of them is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë “It was only while re-reading this book a few years ago that I realised this wasn’t just the coming-of-age story I’d always assumed it to be. First published under the pen name of Currer Bell in 1847, Jane Eyre is also a masterclass in psychological suspense with all the hallmarks of the genre: the first-person narrator with a dark past, the creepy old house, the strange noises and goings-on in the dead of night, the twists and turns, the lies, deceit, and fear. “When Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall to be a governess, she soon picks up that there is something strange about both the mansion, with its rambling corridors and forbidden spaces, and its elusive master, Mr Rochester. Is the house haunted? And what is the secret in the attic?”
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