The Bookseller reports that Essie Fox’s Wuthering Heights retelling has been acquired by Orenda Books. Orenda Books has signed Essie Fox’s “dark, seductive gothic masterpiece” Catherine: A Retelling of Wuthering Heights. Karen Sullivan, publisher at Orenda Books, acquired world English-language rights from David Headley at DHH Literary Agency. Publication is scheduled for 12th February 2026. “Essie Fox – Sunday Times bestselling author, queen of the gothic and master of atmospheric, dazzling historical fiction – has reimagined Wuthering Heights from a new angle, in Catherine Earnshaw’s own voice,” the publisher says. “Revealing scenes, moments and emotions Nelly Dean was not privy to, Essie breathes new life into the greatest tragic love story ever told, transforming a gothic masterpiece into a haunting confession of madness, grief, obsession and a love that even death cannot end." Its synopsis reads: “With a nature as wild as the moors she loves to roam, Catherine Earnshaw grows up alongside Heathcliff, a foundling her father rescued from the streets of Liverpool. Their fierce, untamed bond deepens as they grow – until Mr Earnshaw’s death leaves Hindley, Catherine’s brutal brother, in control and Heathcliff reduced to servitude. “Desperate to protect him, Catherine turns to Edgar Linton, the handsome heir to Thrushcross Grange. She believes his wealth might free Heathcliff from cruelty – but her choice is fatally misunderstood, and their lives spiral into a storm of passion, jealousy and revenge … and ultimately ruin. Now, 18 years later, Catherine rises from her grave to tell her story – and to seek redemption." Sullivan said: “Essie’s Catherine isn’t just a retelling – it’s a resurrection, a revelation. Nelly Dean told only half the story… there’s more. What if Heathcliff raised the spirit of the woman who has obsessed him since childhood, when he desecrates her grave to hold her in his arms once again? What would the ghost of Cathy recall from her life, from the moments that Nelly Dean was not present to describe? What would she see and feel when she observes the cruelty and wickedness of the man she once loved – with Heathcliff now intent on destroying the innocent daughter who was born when Cathy died? “Bringing gothic richness, profound emotional depth and a modern clarity to this story, Essie has created an extraordinary novel with all the atmosphere, darkness and passion of the original, and from a convincing, devastating new perspective. This is the defining Essie Fox novel – the story she was meant to write, to tell – and we’ll be publishing it as a significant literary event, with the highest-spec hardback imaginable and our biggest marketing campaign ever, two days before Valentine’s Day and the new Wuthering Heights film." Fox said: “I’ve been obsessed with this story since I was five years old, when I first saw the old film of Wuthering Heights starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. Since then, I’ve read the book more times than I can say, and it’s long been my passion to try to write about events that Nelly Dean had never seen, to relate in her account. This is the story of Catherine. But Catherine as a ghost, looking back into her past and her enduring love and passion for the abused and orphaned boy who shared her home at the Heights... then moving forwards as she follows her own daughter through the nightmare of the hell he creates from grief and revenge.” Headley added: “I’ve loved Wuthering Heights since I first read it as a teenager, but Essie Fox’s retelling genuinely astonished me. She brings new depth, urgency and emotional power to Cathy’s story while honouring the soul of the original. It’s both a love letter and a revelation.” (Lauren Brown)
GQ lists the '8 albums to get hyped for in 2026' and one of them is Wuthering Heights by Charli XCX (13 February) Soundtrack albums don’t usually make a big splash, but Charli XCX’s soundtrack album for Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell’s big, buzzy film with Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, will inevitably be different. It’s already been teased in a Substack post by XCX herself, in which she writes about how the end of the Brat era felt like “squeezing blood from a stone” and working with Fennell was a creative “lifeline”. The first song from Wuthering Heights is certainly not very Brat: “House” features the Velvet Underground’s John Cale reading a poem over screeching strings. Less lime green, more pitch black. (Josiah Gogarty)
Science & Culture Today shares an extract from Neil Thomas’s new book, False Messiah: Darwinism as the God That Failed. [Ronald Hutton in his Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe] also points to the remarkable example of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, whose eponymous heroine, finding herself one night alone and sleeping rough on a moor, is comforted by the thought of Nature, conceived of as a maternal figure, and by that of a loving God, as Nature’s creator. A contributor to Real Simple tells about '11 Books That Sparked the Most Debate in My Book Club' and one of them is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Obviously, there are more than enough new books to read—so why throw back to something you've probably already read back in high school? We found that reading Jane Eyre in a different era of our lives—and without the pressure of prepping for tests and quizzes—had us finding all new levels in the book that were worthy of spirited conversation. (Feel free to think back to all of your other English class assignments for some more book club fodder!) (Lisa Milbrand)
The Eyre Guide presents a new and original card game based on Jane Eyre: “Eyre & Flame” is a new card game I created with some similarities to my previous game “Jane Eyre: Fate & Fortune”. It’s a solo card game, with the goal of having just the Jane and Rochester cards left in your hand. This game though was inspired by the gum box games made my Pack O’ Games because I love how small and portable they are. And I wanted a Jane Eyre game that I could carry in my purse or play a quick round on the couch while I am watching TV. I have such specific requirements for a card game! 😊 This is a very quick game - it takes about 3-5 minutes for one playthrough. And it is mostly held in your hand, so you don’t need much table space. It’s also just 12 mini-cards, so super portable. I’m really happy with this one - the cute size and easy gameplay is so satisfying to me.
On her Etsy shop, you can check it out, and in this video, you can see how to play it. The Mancunion discusses Charli XCX's decision to soundtrack Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights. The follow up to a career-defining album is one of the most challenging projects of an artist’s career. Charli xcx, born Charlotte Aitchison, now faces the problem of producing a work that stands up next to BRAT, one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the twenty-first century; an album that sparked the type of monocultural event which is growing increasingly rare in the age of algorithmic media consumption. Her decision to soundtrack Emerald Fennel’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights was clever in sidestepping this problem – rapacious fans are satisfied, whilst the question of their acceptance of the album into the official Charli xcx canon can be kept tactically unclear until it is confirmed beyond doubt. That being said, the album’s first offerings suggest that neither her critical appraisal, nor her ethos of artistic innovation are at an end. The lead single, ‘House’, featuring The Velvet Underground legend John Cale, is everything anyone could hope for from such a high-calibre collaboration – brooding, string-laden, and appropriately gothic. The track positions itself as the evil sibling of ‘Everything is romantic’, BRAT‘s techno-inspired centrepiece. Both culminate in a repeated lyrical refrain, but while the former commands its listener to “fall in love again and again”, the new track ends with a foreboding chant by Charli and Cale: “I think I’m gonna die in this house”. Again, the sacred duo of art-pop instrumentation is employed – synths and strings – but to evoke a much darker sonic landscape. The strings creep and scrape instead of gliding, rising to a thundering crescendo rather than a euphoric climax. Here, Charli trades her beloved vistas of Pompeii and Capris for those of the desolate Yorkshire Moors – and she has never sounded better. Follow up single ‘Chains of Love’ is the milder of the two offerings. Producer Justin Raisen, who worked on her debut and sophomore albums, is tapped to co-produce with Charli and Finn Keane. The thudding drums and synth swells recall her earlier work (think 2014 smash ‘Boom Clap’) but this isn’t to say the track feels stagnant. In fact, it is refreshing to hear the songwriter rediscover her aptitude for composing an out-and-out ballad, putting the full theatricality of her voice, which is often minimised on BRAT, to good use. The teasers so far suggest that we can expect the Wuthering Heights soundtrack to be light on serotonin, but heavy on sentiment. As she steps out of the club and into the countryside, Charli XCX demonstrates that she is a musical chameleon whose trademark green is making its transition to murkier hues effortlessly. (Jack Davison)
A contributor to Her Campus has just read Wuthering Heights for the first time. A book that I’d always wanted to read was Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. From its picturesqueness, to a whirlwind romance, to the vast descriptions of the moors of northern England, this novel captures the beauty of the fall aesthetic. The novel explores the complicated love of Catherine and Heathcliff as their dynamic defies social conventions and personal identity. I finally read this famous classic after many years of hearing many tidbits of the story. If you’ve never read it like me, or want to get back into this novel, it’s a perfect one to blend with colder weather. Wuthering Heights invites readers not just for the plot, but for the mood that is haunting and passionate with its characters and depictions of nature. (Sienna Foster) Express includes the novel on a list of 'The top 6 classic fiction books you’ve never read'. Forbes (Spain) discusses the big-screen comeback of classic stories such as Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein and Dracula.
The Busan Museum (부산광역시립박물관) is currently hosting " Secrets of the Masters: From Shakespeare to 500 Years of Literature and Art," running through January 18, 2026, in collaboration with the UK's National Portrait Gallery. This exhibition brings together 137 items, including portraits of 78 British literary giants, along with handwritten manuscripts, letters, and rare first editions. The exhibition features works by Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, and J.K. Rowling, among others. Visitors can see Shakespeare's First Folio, Dickens' handwritten manuscript of " Great Expectations," and Rowling's first edition of Harry Potter with her own illustrations. At the exhibition's conclusion, visitors can listen to poetry readings through headphones and transcribe favorite passages from the displayed works onto postcards.
The exhibition includes several Brontë-related items. The pillar portrait, for instance. In the middle of the exhibition hall, visitors will find a recreation of the sisters' dining room at the Haworth parsonage, complete with period furniture, patterned wallpaper, bookshelves, a fireplace, and a dining table set with teacups and manuscripts—offering a glimpse into the space where the novels were written. Although the "window" gives a far too joyful view.
Sources: Busan.com
Aleteia lists "The books on BBC’s 'Top 100' list that no Catholic should miss," including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and And we’d also add The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Brontë, 1848), which is not only a gripping story but also an important piece of history, as it was among the first novels to grapple with domestic violence, alcoholism, and other critical social issues from a woman's perspective — showing how a good person might have responded to such problems in that place and time. (Theresa Civantos Barber) And, of course, we still have news outlets talking about the Wuthering Heights trailer, poster or the Charlie XCX songs: t2online, El Diario, Bleeding Cool, Moclova, Music is to Blame, musically, The Playlist, Entertainment Now, Minuto Uno ... Ultimately, the success of this adaptation depends on whether Fennell’s erotic, hyper-stylised approach can illuminate, rather than overshadow, the novel’s psychological and emotional complexity. Wuthering Heights is not just a story of passion; it is a study of trauma, social suffocation, generational damage, and the impossibility of love under violence. If Fennell can channel these themes without reducing the narrative to spectacle, her version may genuinely reintroduce Brontë’s wildness to a contemporary audience. If not, it risks becoming another example of her excess in visual style leading to a controversial, but thematically hollow film. Either way, she is taking a modern approach to the tone and mythology of Brontë’s works. The only question now is whether the moors will bend to her vision or simply swallow it whole. (Daniella Adetoye in Varsity) El Confidencial (Spain) repeats the idea that the Brontë waves are a new hair trend.
Wuthering Heights also plays with us at a deeper emotional level. We know it must all end very badly but we’re entranced. The star-crossed lovers will destroy one another and everyone else who comes into their orbit – here is the very antithesis of transactional dating and swiping left. Writing about the anti-hero Heathcliff in British Vogue this week, author Olivia Petter said she just might be craving Bronte’s maddening breed of passion. “I can’t tell you how many mediocre dates I’ve been on this year, swapping the same insipid stories about siblings and pets, hoping for a sudden spark of excitement and settling for its not being a complete disaster,” she said. This is living, breathing, pulsating desire set against the backdrop of one of the wildest of places on earth, the moors which are almost a character in themselves in every depiction of Wuthering Heights. This wildness too is one of the story’s greatest appeals: this is not safe, cultivated territory. The moors are alive and spirited, the perfect backdrop for the wildlings of Heathcliff and Cathy to get lost. More than anything, it’s a story that taps deeply into a vein of fear, showing us what happens when we choose one thing over another. Cathy chooses a path of privilege and wealth when she forsakes Heathcliff and chooses Edgar Linton over the wildness of Heathcliff; the result is carnage. (Kathy Donaghy)
The Spectator dares to ask what if Wuthering Heights 2026 results are not good?: Every few months or so, a new film comes along and anyone interested in the art of cinema braces themselves, because The Discourse will inevitably accompany it. There is no clearer candidate for fevered discussion next year than Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which is released, with smirking predictability, on Valentine’s Day. Ever since the film was announced, there has been controversy over everything from the casting of the Caucasian Jacob Elordi to play Heathcliff (who is referred to in Emily Brontë’s original novel as a “a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect”) to the excessively clean and stylish-looking clothes worn by Margot Robbie’s Catherine Earnshaw. When reports of strong sexual content, including BDSM and hanging-induced ejaculation, leaked from a test screening, word got out: Fennell had made her film again. (...)
So there is every chance that Wuthering Heights could be another artistic wash-out. But it could also be like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette or even the don of all period films, Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon: a fascinating, breathtakingly original take on the material. Not long to go now, in any case, and then The Discourse will have its day. And until then, we’ll always have Kate Bush: “Heathcliff, it’s me! Cathy!” Etc, etc. (Alexander Larman) According to The Times, Brigitte Reimann’s 1956 novella, Woman in the Pillory:This dark wartime love story reads like a German Wuthering Heights. (...) Predictably, something bubbles up between the nervy blonde woman and the dark, brooding stranger (a pairing of the Wuthering Heights variety) and as the two find time to talk out of Frieda’s earshot, with Alexei “carefully putting one word on top of the other so that his shaky blocks of language didn’t collapse”, their affections grow. (Ceci Browning)
AnneBrontë.org has an extra post on 'Charli XCX And Wuthering Heights' and on YouTube, The Brontë Sisters has a video of an overnight stay at the Brontë Birthplace in a Casper (sorry, Garry) mood. More Recent Articles
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