Nearly two centuries after “Jane Eyre” first defied the conventions of Victorian England, China is requiring a new generation of teenagers to read her story.

The British classic has long been popular in China and was already recommended reading for schoolchildren. But this fall, ninth-grade students across the country are being required to read the novel in full, according to Chinese state media. One report in an official newspaper held it up as an anti-materialistic love story that young people could learn from.

The book, in which the young orphan Jane Eyre works as a governess in the household of the wealthy but elusive Mr. Rochester, is widely celebrated in China for its themes of independence and equality between women and men.

A Chinese translation appeared as early as 1925, and there have since been numerous translations and adaptations for stage and screen. A British film adaptation was shown in Chinese theaters in 1979, just a few years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, as China was reopening to foreign culture.

Ping Zhu, a literature professor at the University of California, San Diego, who researches Chinese feminism and literature, said the novel is compatible with the Chinese government’s vision of women’s equality — one that can coexist with traditional gender roles and the heterosexual nuclear family. Its inclusion in the ninth grade textbook comes as China struggles with population decline and the government encourages young people to marry and have children, she said.

“‘Jane Eyre’ is about an independent woman, but she’s not too outrageous in her challenge of patriarchal power,” Ms. Zhu said. By the end of the novel, Jane has married Mr. Rochester and had a child. “All these things are what the Chinese government wants the younger generation to do,” Ms. Zhu said.

Published in Britain in 1847, “Jane Eyre” was striking for its depiction of a poor young woman insisting on her independence, dignity and equality in a society in which women — particularly married women — had severely limited legal and economic autonomy.

The novel has long been celebrated in China for its feminist themes, with state media often quoting Jane’s declaration to Mr. Rochester: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart!” (Yan Zhuang and Li You) (Read more)

The garden takes its inspiration from the exposed landscapes of the Yorkshire uplands: dry-stone walls, moorland planting and the way plants and wildlife respond to sometimes unforgiving conditions. [...]

Mr Roberts, founder of Patterned Earth, a garden and landscape design practice in Netherton, said: “I wanted to take a little piece of the landscape I know and love in Yorkshire to Belvoir.

"The moors, dry-stone walls and plants that somehow thrive in quite unforgiving conditions have always fascinated me.

“Weathering Heights was a playful nod to Wuthering Heights, of course, but the ‘weathering’ was important too.

"The garden was really about how landscapes, plants and wildlife respond and adapt to the conditions around them.” (Steve Teale)

Two other movie adaptions are for me the clear template for this film. Firstly, 1999’s The Winslow Boy, a Terence Rattigan play adapted and directed by David Mamet of all people, which on the surface is about a miscarriage of justice against a schoolboy, but is actually about how his older sister chooses which of her three suitors to marry. In the USA it was also rated G, which remains possibly the most surprising thing Mr. Mamet has done in his career. The other is 2011’s Wuthering Heights, Andrea Arnold’s unhappy adaption of the famously melodramatic novel by Emily Brontë. Largely filmed outdoors, with a great feeling for the weather, it has a rawness and sense of danger that remains palpable fifteen years later. It’s clear that Ms. Oakley decided, possibly because of these two films, to push her heroines onto rocks and hillsides to make it as easy for us to connect to their raw emotion, and that those emotions would be expressed in language to which even the littlest ears can listen. (Sarah Manvel)

On the 2026 VMAs red carpet, things took a darker turn. A Victorian gothic flavour hit the carpet, with Charli XCX, in a midriff-baring bandeau and skirt ensemble by Saint Laurent, leading the charge.

Call it a hangover from Margot Robbie’s Wuthering Heights press tour looks, but outfits that took their cues from the neo-Victorian aesthetic peppered the carpet. Black and lace appeared in equal measure, as did sumptuous materials like velvet and a generally witchy vibe. (Noni Reginato)

A young woman embarks on an unexpected journey. Despite the excitement and possibilities of her future, there’s also fear. She boards a train that will take her to a new home atop a stormy cliff at the edge of the sea, a place defined by the fog and its history. She’s a governess, and she’ll be responsible for teaching and caring for a wealthy boy.

This premise might sound like it’s from a classic Gothic story like Jane Eyre or The Turn of the Screw. But it’s actually from 1991’s Dark Shadows: The Revival, an NBC series that distilled the long-running original Dark Shadows soap opera into a 12-episode melodrama. It’s the best way to enter the world created by horror icon Dan Curtis, and it’s streaming in full on YouTube. (Maria Loreto)

‘Jane Eyre’ 

“How about some Charlotte Brontë?” It’s no secret that Rory is a big fan of Charlotte Brontë, as showcased in several episodes of the series, and one of her preferred books is Jane Eyre. Rory frequently mentions the author and the 1847 novel is the perfect comforting read for fall. The author is discussed in a Season 1 episode when Dean asks how he can repay her for bringing him cookies and she responds by asking him to read Brontë. While she doesn’t specifically mention Jane Eyre, it is later seen in the spinoff series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and it should be on your fall TBR (to be read list). (Julianne MacNeill)

Most of us have already (thankfully) forgotten about the BDSM atrocity that besieged us in February in the form of “Wuthering Heights,” and while Nolan’s “Odyssey” was a decent standalone film, it did little justice (at least in my view) to Homer’s original creation. (Liza Libes)