Other Wuthering Heights 2026 articles:
The Guardian is worried about the Wuthering Heights 2026 bizarre merchandise: Emerald Fennell’s lust-fuelled take on Emily Brontë’s novel has cued a hot flush of merchandise ranging from themed snacks to thongs. What exactly are they buying into? (...) That appetite for Emerald Fennell’s bodice-ripping adaptation of Emily Brontë’s yarn of doomed romance is high is not in doubt. Whether it’s high enough to sustain sales for an official Wuthering Heights açai bowl seems less certain. Yet this is exactly what is on offer in food aisles across the US, with two bespoke bowls churned up for hungry film fans with the explanatory slogan: “This is what happens when you turn yearning into flavour.” (...) The overtly erotic nature of many of these collaborations feels calculated to spin the story into a dark romance ripe for the BookTok audience. Posts from the official Wuthering Heights TikTok account use buzzwords like “yearning” and mention romance tropes popular on the platform such as jealous lovers. The overt sexuality of the trailer, the “Come Undone” body oil and candle made for dripping on to partners, the silk eye mask and lingerie edit with Lounge all lean into a vaguely BDSM aesthetic. It’s a particular take on the story and a way for fans to once again feel as if they are participating in something transgressive but in the most capitalist, and therefore normative, way possible. (Natalie Wall)
The Conversation thinks that Emerald Fennell was very well placed to adapt Wuthering Heights: While previous adaptations of the novel often emphasise the wildness of the landscapes, Fennell’s film has a heightened theatricality. The costumes, impressive set design and lighting all suggest an expressionistic take on the story which privileges the uncontrollable emotions of the characters, rather than the naturalistic approach of other filmmakers. This theatrical visual style also allows Fennell to follow the trend for recent period dramas to present a colourful and rather fantastical vision of the past (hello Bridgerton). Albeit with her own darker twist. Following on from Saltburn, which was set in the titular stately home, Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is also rooted in the British class system, once again following the fate of a seemingly underprivileged hero (Heathcliff) and his complex relationship with his social superior (the ambitious Cathy). (...) So, will Fennell’s Wuthering Heights find its audience? All the signs are there. The reception of her previous work has shown that there is an appetite for boundary-pushing, morally ambiguous characters, and her uncompromising ability to plumb the darkest corners of human nature makes her an ideal auteur to tackle this material. (Shelley Galpin)
ClassicFM explores the Wuthering Heights musical compositions. From Alfred Newman's 1939 score until Charli XCX's 2026 one. Passing through Bernard Herrmann's opera, Kate Bush's song, Cliff Richard's musical, Claude-Michel Schönberg's ballet... and forgetting, among many others, Michel Legrand's 1970 score, Ryuchi Sakamoto's 1992 score, and Carlisle Floyd's opera. Despite all three of the Brontë sisters achieving success in the literary world, it was Emily who was the virtuoso. She spent most of her life at Hayworth House (sic) where she became skilled in many disciplines and found serious acclaim as a brilliant pianist. After her father recognised her talents he sent her to study at Hegner (sic) Pensionnat in Brussels where she would tutor fellow students. She was known to play Beethoven sonatas with precision, and the Romantic themes of the German composer’s music inspired Brontë to explore similar ideas in her gothic romance. Emily sought to provoke reactions from the readers, aiming to transgress traditional fiction. Upon release, critics described Wuthering Heights as ‘irredeemably monstrous’ echoing similar reactions to Beethoven’s Symphony No.2, which was described as ‘a gross enormity’. (Jacques Richardson)
Maybe calling Emily a virtuoso is quite a bit too much. But who knows what could happen at Hayworth House? Using Color to Stir Emotion Much of Brontë's original text is unsettling, with the reader never quite knowing what our erratic characters will do next and what will be the consequences of their actions. To capture this feeling on screen, Davies and her team relied on rich red hues. Set design of a room with reflective flooring decorated walls and artistic embellishments "Red is always a powerful color on film—it carries instinctive associations with desire, vitality, and danger," Davies says. "That controlled use of red helped introduce an unease into the image—something visceral rather than literal—so the audience feels tension before they necessarily understand. We used it very sparingly yet with intention, never decoratively." Blending Time Periods to Tell a Story Forbidden love is a literary trope that transcends space and time—it's not bound to the confines of the Victorian era. "This film was never about documenting the 1800s in a literal or academic way," Davies says. "Instead, it was about capturing the essence of a teenage fever dream—the sensation of first encountering the book." While the upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation certainly pays homage to architectural trends from the late 18th century, the overall set builds on and pays tribute to several eras. "The design deliberately draws from multiple periods," Davies says. "In reality, buildings from the 1800s always carry the residue of earlier centuries—those layers exist subconsciously within the architecture. Even a contemporary space contains traces of Georgian, Victorian, or Edwardian thinking. We embraced that idea and even pushed beyond it, allowing moments of something more brutal and even contemporary to emerge." Architecture Helps Convey Characterizations At the heart of the Wuthering Heights story is the tale of two homesteads—Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange—along with the characters who inhabit them. "The architecture of Wuthering Heights was designed to physically deny Heathcliff ownership of the space," Davies reveals. "The ceilings are low—particularly in the kitchen—so that he is never able to stand fully upright ... The house never belongs to him; it resists him at every scale." Just four miles away, notoriously free-spirited Catherine Linton isn't sitting comfortably either. But for a different reason. "[Thrushcross Grange]'s architecture and design reflect Catherine’s attempt to reshape herself to fit in," Davies says. "It is ordered, decorative, and entirely man-made—the opposite of Wuthering Heights. While it appears more refined, it is also more artificial, and ultimately less aligned with who she truly is. Catherine belongs more to the raw, windswept landscape than to this constructed world, and the design reinforces that tension between aspiration and identity."
Emerald Fennell goes full queer and controversial on Attitude: “Isabella and Cathy – there’s a very strong feeling there,” Emerald told Attitude. “Also, what’s fascinating about the time is you did have really romantic, intense attachments to your friends then. “In a way, even now, that line is always very, very blurred. And it has to be.” The Promising Young Woman director went on to say: “The thing about Nellie and Cathy is, they’re like sisters, but they’re not. It’s the same as Heathcliff and Cathy. There is jealousy there. There is possessiveness.” “Similarly, Isabella is making Cathy a ‘book of friendship,’ which I think we have to admit, is extremely pornographic in nature! [Queerness] is part of the world of desire. It makes total sense.”
Also on Attitude, how Margot Robbie listened to Kate Bush on the film's set. The Yorkshire Post summarizes what the cast and the director have been saying about the film. AnOther Magazine has five things to know about Emily Brontë: This Gothic romance has haunted multiple generations of readers around the world, with Cathy and Heathcliff immortalised in the cultural imagination as avatars for dramatic, windswept love. From Sylvia Plath to Muriel Spark, Daphne du Maurier and Patricia Lockwood, Brontë’s brutal love story continues to fascinate writers. Cathy’s lament, “Let me in your window”, is the ghostly refrain from Kate Bush’s famous song, while Simone Rocha has cited Emily Brontë as an influence for her romantic designs. Emerald Fennell’s new film is just the latest in numerous screen adaptations, including the Bollywood remake, Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966), and a 1988 Japanese adaptation that reimagines the story with samurai in feudal Japan. The influence of Wuthering Heights is profound; it has permeated and altered popular culture, in the words of Cathy herself, “like wine through water”. (Emily Dinsdale) Hitc quotes the tennis player Coco Gauff, who also has something to say about the film: She admitted: “I’m really curious how they’re going to do the movie, because I saw that they’re marketing it as the greatest love story, and after reading it, it’s not a great love story. So I don’t really know if this is about to be like, I feel like it’s just going to be the director’s take on the movie, based off the marketing. We’ll see. It was a good book, but it definitely is not the greatest love story. It’s a lot of toxicity and abuse going on in that book.” (Callum Davis) WWD goes for Margot Robbie's press tour shoes and The Handbook praises Jacob Elordi's outfits, New Beauty, and Cosmopolitan are all about the looks of the tour. IndieWire questions if the whole press tour is "Messy Performance Art or Marketing Rage Bait". The choker is back, claims The Times and Margot Robbie knows it. Daily Mail goes to Wuthering Heights 2009's filming, which sparked Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley's love story. Woman and Home has a Wuthering Heights Quiz. Metro announces that the BBC is streaming the "sublime" Emily 2022 ahead of the Wuthering Heights 2026 premiere. Halifax Courier reports how "moorland supporters are set to gather on Valentine’s Day to celebrate Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights." Yorkshire Life discusses Wuthering Heights Yorkshire Dales staycations. Do you want to revisit Wuthering Heights 1992 in Haworth?
Brontë Event Space at the Old School Room Thu 12 Feb, 2:30pm
As we excitedly anticipate the release of Emerald Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights this week, why not join us for a screening of the 1992 film version. Directed by Peter Kosminsky and starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche, this adaptation chooses to include the second-generation story of the children of Cathy, Hindley, and Heathcliff, often omitted by many adaptations. Refreshments will be provided.
This is (sort of, anyway) the quiet before the storm. Reviews of Wuthering Heights 2026 are embargoed until later today and it seems we are all waiting with bated breath for them.
News Australia has a video interview with director Emerald Fennell, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. A contributor to The Heights aptly defends Wuthering Heights 2026 albeit half-heartedly. Fennell is not exactly my favorite director. Her work is shocking but often comes up short of any significant meaning. I have a little appreciation, however, for the fact that she does seem aware of the impossibility of her task. When asked about her adaptation, she has made it clear that her goal is not to adapt it faithfully. Instead, she is creating the version of Wuthering Heights that she imagined when she first read it. The quotations in the title are purposeful and serve as a sort of load-bearing. This is the aspect of the movie that I would like to defend. I think it is a fascinating and sort of genius idea to explore. Examining how young adults can change and shift plots based on how it impacts their lives is incredibly interesting. I distinctly remember making barely relevant characters more important in my head when reading classics in middle school. When we’re younger, imagination truly takes a life of its own. Things like fan fiction are often the arenas of young adults because they simply have a stronger connection to their imagination. Using this as inspiration for your art at an older age could have a really interesting effect. I would love the opportunity to explore the things I got “wrong” about the works I read when I was young. This movie is not a perfect adaptation. It definitely has offensive casting. But examining your own childhood imagination is an idea that I think deserves some respect, even if it upsets quite a few English majors. (Katie Spillane)
'It definitely has offensive casting', my goodness. Similarly, Far Out Magazine claims that 'Emerald Fennell’s ‘ Wuthering Heights’ casting defence is just another example of Hollywood’s glaring racial bias'. The thing is, if you’re reading a novel that actively describes a character as having dark skin and references him looking like he could be potentially Romani, Indian, or mixed race, and then you’re picturing a white man – that’s pure racial bias. Fennell’s vision of Heathcliff is one that she perhaps found more familiarity in, having grown up surrounded by affluent, white society, and that’s just not accurate. Hollywood’s incessant whitewashing only erases people of colour from narratives that they belong in, and with film serving as such a potent mirror to society, it says a lot about our world if, even now, a white character is cast in a role in a major film that is so intrinsically not white. [...] This is a perfect example of Hollywood’s dark history of racism – just look at the statistics when it comes to Black directors and actors winning Oscars – and Fennell shouldn’t be able to just cast whoever she likes without considering the consequences of what this means for on-screen representation. That role could’ve gone to someone else, but of course, Fennell handed it to the white boy of the moment, Elordi. With Wuthering Heights standing as a story so intrinsically about class and otherness, it’s interesting that someone as well-off as Fennell, who so disastrously attempted to explore class in Saltburn, has taken a crack at it. And already her vision of Heathcliff feels fetishistic, machismo and erotics emphasised above anything. But this is not an erotic romance – it’s one of abuse, tragedy, and trauma – and the least Fennell could do is get the casting of the book’s most important character right. (Aimee Ferrier)
Isn't it scary that there are people out there pretending to defend whatever they are pretending to defend (not artistic freedom, that's for sure) and claiming, just like that, that 'Fennell shouldn’t be able to just cast whoever she likes'? Isn't that a bit that F word they love to bandy about? Definitely 1937 Germany Degenerate Art vibes about it. And anyway, our copies of Wuthering Heights must be all defective as we can't find the bit where Nelly is described as having Asian features. And just for the record, we are all for Hong Chau playing her, but it works both ways. Just let a director choose the cast she wants for her own film, end of story.
Not without reason, then, Happy Mag describes it as 'the film dividing the internet' (most of which hasn't even seen it yet). But then again it also claims that it's a film about British high society, so perhaps take it all with a large pinch of salt.
SlashFilm recommends streaming Wuthering Heights 1939 before the latest adaptation. William Wyler's 1939 adaptation of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" can openly claim use of the adjective "sweeping." It's a sweeping romance, buoyed largely by Laurence Olivier's performance as the handsome, sweaty, belligerent stableboy Heathcliff. One can really sense the romantic angst in the film as Heathcliff constantly tries to connect with his beloved Catherine (Merle Oberon) and how angry he becomes when he is spurned. (Mirroring his character, Laurence Olivier wasn't very polite on set.) "Wuthering Heights" chronicles the stalled romance between Heathcliff and Catherine and how notions of class interfered in their potential relationship. Heathcliff was raised alongside Cathy but was never accepted by Cathy's angry brother, Hindley (played by Hugh Williams in the 1939 film). Heathcliff and Cathy have a youthful romance and sweep through the moors with big feelings in their hearts. Cathy, however, marries a richer man named Edgar (David Niven), rejecting Heathcliff because she believes that marrying a stableboy would "degrade" her. Heathcliff becomes rich as a matter of wooing her back, but she still spurns him. Many film adaptations of "Wuthering Heights," including Wyler's version, omit the second half of Brontë's novel, which involves Cathy's daughter and Heathcliff's son falling in love, intergenerationally patching up a romantic injustice. Wyler's film instead ends with the ghosts of the dead Heathcliff and the dead Cathy haunting the moors where they once enjoyed their most intense love. Olivier is marvelous, perhaps standing as the gold standard for all Heathcliffs to come after him. [...] If you were writing a book report on "Wuthering Heights," and you watched Wyler's film instead, you'd get a bad grade. A lot of time-shifting and narrative alteration was employed to make it more cinematic. But that doesn't mean it's not a great movie. It captures certain literary mannerisms that lend the film a note of melodramatic power. It was such a good movie that it became the high-water mark for all future "Wuthering Heights" adaptations. And there have been plenty of adaptations. The BBC adapted it for television in 1948, and CBS did a version with Charlton Heston in 1950. The BBC came back in 1953 and re-did the story with Richard Todd and Yvonne Mitchell. CBS, not to be outdone, also remade "Wuthering" in 1958 with Rosemary Harris and Richard Burton. There have been adaptations in 1959, 1962, 1970, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2022. Bafflingly, the 2003 and 2015 renditions were teen adaptations, with the 2003 version put out by MTV. The 2015 version was called "Wuthering High School." And those are just the English-language adaptations. There were many international versions of "Wuthering Heights" as well, not to mention a dozen radio adaptations. And, of course, there was a semaphore version on "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Brontë's novel is well-worn territory. But through it all, Wyler's version remains one of the most famous and well-regarded, and the fact that it's available for free on YouTube makes it easily accessible for newcomers. Time will tell if Emerald Fennell's version will become as popular, or if her "Wuthering Heights" will become a box office hit. This time around Margot Robbie will be playing Cathy, while the handsome Jacob Elordi will be playing Heathcliff. William Wyler's "Wuthering Heights" was highly celebrated by the Academy, and was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture (back when the category was called "Outstanding Production"), Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Screenplay. The only Oscar it won, however, was Best Black and White Cinematography, earned by the legendary Gregg Toland. It's worth remembering, though, that 1939 was a crackerjack year for movies, and "Wuthering Heights" was up against heavy-hitters like "The Wizard of Oz," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Stagecoach," "Of Mice and Men," and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." Oh yes, and all of those films lost to the supra-blockbuster "Gone with the Wind," which is still the highest-grossing movie of all time, when adjusted for inflation. "Gone with the Wind" was nominated for 13 Oscars and won eight. It was also granted two special Oscars, one for its use of color and another for Technical Achievement. These days, of course, "Gone with the Wind" is a bit of a tough watch. Really, a mere sweeping romance like "Wuthering Heights" didn't stand a chance in such an environment. Indeed, "Wuthering Heights," while a pretty great film, is often listed low on lists of the greatest films of 1939, merely because competition was so stiff. "The Wizard of Oz" is one of the most famous movies of all time, and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" is one of the most important American stories ever written. But, thanks to YouTube, you can now see the first ever feature film adaptation of Cathy and Heathcliff's sweeping love story. And you can swoon looking at the young Laurence Olivier's handsome face. Good God, is he ever hot in that movie. (Witney Seibold)
Gold Derby looks at 'how previous Brontë adaptations have fared in the awards race'. As we wait for Robbie and Elordi to descend into theaters next week, here's how the different versions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have fared at the Oscars, Emmys and other awards races over the decades. Wuthering Heights (1939) The first Hollywood studio-made Wuthering Heights adaptation in the Oscar era starred Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, and was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Actress, Art Direction, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Score. Olivier also received a Best Actor nomination, the first of many leading up to his eventual win for 1949’s Hamlet. However, the 1939 iteration had the disadvantage of releasing in the same year as Gone With the Wind, which famously swept the Academy Awards with 13 nominations and eight wins. (Funnily enough, Fennell’s iteration pays direct homage to Gone With the Wind — and not the 1939 Wuthering Heights — in one visually striking scene with Elordi's Heathcliff.) The William Wyler-directed film did win one Oscar for Gregg Toland's gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. At that time, the category was divided between color and black-and-white films, a tradition that continued until 1967. Jane Eyre (1970) The 1970 British version of Jane Eyre was directed by Delbert Mann, who previously won the Best Director Oscar for 1955's Best Picture, Marty. The film played theatrically in the U.K., but bypassed U.S. movie houses for an NBC broadcast in 1971. George C. Scott — who won the Best Actor statuette for Patton that same year — played Rochester and Oscar-nominated actress Susannah York pis Jane. Because of its TV airing, the film was Emmy-eligible and received a number of nods, including Best Actor and Actress for Scott and York. But it ultimately went home with only one prize for one of John Williams' pre-Jaws scores. Wuthering Heights (1970) Released the same year as Mann’s Jane Eyre, Robert Fuest's British-made Wuthering Heights starred Anna Calder-Marshall and Cathy and a pre-James Bond Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff. Fun fact: according to Kate Bush herself, this is the adaptation that inspired her own tribute to the Brontë book. While reviews were less positive from non-Bush viewers, the film did pull in audiences on both sides of the pond. And Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand scored a Golden Globe nod for Original Score at the 1971 ceremony. Jane Eyre (2006) The Sandy Welch-written and Susanna White-directed BBC miniseries received high praise for its potent storytelling and excellent casting, with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens playing Jane and Rochester, respectively. Airing in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theater, the four-episode series scored nine Miniseries/Movie nominations at the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards, including recognition for both Welch and White, as well as a number of crafts categories. Jane Eyre ultimately won two statuettes for art direction and hairstyling. In its native land, Wilson received a Best Actress BAFTA nomination, while Anne Oldham's makeup and hair design won the BAFTA in that category. Jane Eyre (2011) Cary Joji Fukunaga's extravagantly gothic adaptation of Jane Eyre starred Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender as the central couple. Released in March, the film was largely out of the running when the 2012 Oscar season commenced, but it is the first Eyre adaptation to ever score an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design for Michael O'Connor's period looks. (O'Connor had won that statuette two years prior for The Duchess, starring Kiera Knightley.) Fassbender was named Best Actor by the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, while Wasikowska was nominated for Best Actress by the British Independent Film Awards. Wuthering Heights (2011) 2011 was 1970 all over again with dueling Brontë adaptations. Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold was behind this stripped-down take on Wuthering Heights, the first version directed by a female filmmaker. In another first, James Howson became the first Black actor to portray Heathcliff — a choice that remains divisive among Brontë experts, despite textual evidence. Also starring Kaya Scodelario as Cathy, the film debuted at the Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Golden Lion and took home the prize for Outstanding Cinematography for Arnold's frequent collaborator Robbie Ryan. (Rendy Jones)
Yorkshire Live looks at locals' reactions to the new visitors to Haworth prompted by the film. Diane Park runs the Wave of Nostalgia book shop in Haworth, and said a decade ago, when the shop first opened, it seemed many people in the town had forgotten about the sisters. She said: "The Brontë sisters, sometimes people didn't even know who they were. "So they might read Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights at school, but they didn't realise there's three sisters, three geniuses in the same family, and four if you count Branwell. "I learned loads coming here because I thought it's really important for me to understand who and what the Brontë sisters did and wrote, so now I'm a bit of a geek!" However, with the announcement of the new film, there have been more visitors than ever. Diane said: "When a big event like this happens, which is not that often to be honest, it's great because it will bring tourists. "It brings people to the village who come and have a look, but volume of people doesn't mean volume of sales, because people just come to look and that's great, and they might come back again another time because it's a beautiful village." It's clear though that the Brontë's continue to be influential in the village, as next week there will be a book launch there for a new retelling of Wuthering Heights, called Catherine, by author Essie Fox. Other authors also continue to be inspired by the work of the three sisters, including Michael Stewart and Claire O'Callaghan, who both live locally. Claire has written a biography of Emily Brontë, who wrote Wuthering Heights, and works as a Senior Lecturer of Victoria Studies. Claire often finds herself challenging myths around Emily in particular, and her work, especially as there is a great deal of mystery around Emily herself. She also finds herself challenging the myth that Wuthering Heights is only a romance book. Michael has written for tv, radio, and theatre, as well as ten of his own books, including one called Ill Will, which tells the story of Heathcliff's missing years from Wuthering Heights. While writing this, and studying Heathcliff's racial ambiguity in the novel, he learnt about how slaves were brought to England, despite the practice being illegal. Claire explained: "For me, the kind of crux of it is that you've got deeply flawed, complex characters, who are so psychologically complex, so cruel to each other, so destructive, but tapping into those kind of feelings and yearning and desire, and ideas of love that everyone sees. "But what makes people return to it, is that Emily Brontë gives us this kind of story, of these characters who are interested in one another, do desire each other, do have lots of passionate erotic moments, without the sentimentality, without the clichés, without the happily ever after." Michael added: "I think on top of that, it's Shakespearean in its epic scale. Think about the themes, they're the big ones, it's love, it's hate, it's life, it's death, it's revenge, it's grief. "These are the huge themes that have lasted throughout our stories, and that's Shakespeare, and you go back to Greek times, these are the ones that persist also." For both, it's clear how somewhere like Haworth could inspire a story like Wuthering Heights. Claire adds: "They look out the front, and they've got a graveyard and then an industrial mill, this would have been full of workers, weavers, factories, all of those things. "But then turn around and walk back on your own and you're in those moors." Michael said: "In 1824, Emily witnessed a bog burst above Haworth, which made national headlines, the moors exploded. So she saw how violent nature could be, and Heathcliff, in a way, is a kind of personification of that violence." Locals though, can get a little fed up about the constant talk about the Brontës from tourists. Claire added: "We've been into bars where people have said 'don't mention them'. On the one hand, somebody famous said, 'if you took the Brontës away from Haworth, there'd be nothing there', and in a way, they are Haworth." But it's clear the Brontës remain popular, as when Michael launched an Emily Brontë summer school, it filled up almost immediately, with very littel advertisement, with people from America and Europe signing up. Both Michael and Claire are hopeful for the new film, and believe it might inspire more people to both come to Haworth, and to read the original book, despite their reservations over the decision to not film the second half of the book. Michael is hopeful for the production in terms of its filiming, saying: "It looks crackers, its clearly anachronistic deliberately." "I think this is going to be different to anything, I mean, Emerald Fennell is an auteur isn't she, and I think to me one of the genius strokes is the music, Charli XCX, that's going to bring in a different audience," he adds. As for non-locals, Jayne and Ian were visiting Haworth from Nottinghamshire, after having visited and loved the town in the past. Jayne explained she was familiar with some things about the Brontës, saying: "I know about Wuthering Heights, that's probably about it." But the town still had plenty to see for them, with Ian adding: "We came a long, long time ago, about 20-years-ago, and liked it very much. So as we were coming up this way, we thought we'd come and visit again, we didn't quite expect it to be so cold and wet!" It's clear that in Haworth, the legacy of the Brontë sisters remains strong. As Claire said: "We know that, Charlotte wrote after Emily's death, this book was inspired by the native community, by the people that lived in these parts." (Sebastian McCormick)
A virtual alert for tomorrow, February 10:
Tuesday, 10 February, 2026 via Zoom at 18.30
One hundred and seventy years have passed since the novelist Charlotte Brontë took her last breath, but astonishingly, witnesses to her life still survive. They were present as she penned the last lines of Jane Eyre, walked the cobbled streets of Haworth with her sisters, and joined Arthur Bell Nicholls at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies have remained unheard. Drawn from Dr Eleanor Houghton’s new book, Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes, this richly illustrated talk will give voice to the gowns, bonnets, corsets, parasols, boots, gloves and shawls that have outlived their famous owner. Through these garments, we will explore Charlotte’s life, her experiences and the fast-changing world that she inhabited. From clothing that speaks of grief, challenge, or the pressures of fame, to the tiniest baby garments worn in the house where she was born, these surviving pieces offer an intimate glimpse of the real, raw, thinking, breathing woman behind the myth.
Let's begin this long, long... long Wuthering Sunday news with a great article in The Sunday Times exploring previous Wuthering Heights adaptations and what their creators have to say about the book and the adaptation process: First things first: Wuthering Heights is a demented novel. If people lose their minds over Emerald Fennell’s sexed-up film adaptation, remember that Emily Brontë got there first. When she published it in 1847, under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, readers were appalled by its violence and immorality, and by the incestuous, narcissistic Cathy and Heathcliff. Fennell has taken the film in an S&M direction — a test screening featured “a bondage-tinged sexual encounter involving horse reins” — but it’s all there in the book: the floggings, the slappings, the cruelty and the shared death wish. Add a banging Charli XCX soundtrack, the Adolescence star Owen Cooper as young Heathcliff and a controversy over the leads, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi (too old, too white: Brontë’s Heathcliff is a “Gypsy beggar” and “a lascar”), and you have a hit tailor-made for the I-love-it-I-hate-it era of film consumption. The story, which is on the A-level English syllabus, is also fantastically complicated, but in a nutshell: Cathy Earnshaw’s father rescues the young Heathcliff from the streets of Liverpool and brings him to live in the family home on the Yorkshire moors. He and Cathy become close — but when they grow up Cathy is torn between Heathcliff and a more conventional life with their wealthy neighbour, Edgar Linton. After Heathcliff runs away she marries Linton; he returns three years later to seduce Linton’s sister Isabella, and all hell breaks loose: there are ghosts, howling storms, dug-up graves and murdered puppies. It’s a lot, which is what attracted the director of the equally unhinged Saltburn (remember what Barry Keoghan did with a dug-up grave). Last September Fennell told the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival that Wuthering Heights “cracked me open”: “I’ve been driven mad by this book. I know that if somebody else made it I’d be furious.” When she first saw Elordi in his Heathcliff sideburns she “wanted to scream” with excitement. (...) Despite its strangeness and deep Yorkshire roots, Brontë’s story has resonated at the level of myth — a story about crazy, stupid love that every generation wants another go at. (...) Anna Calder-Marshall was 23 when she played Cathy opposite the future 007 Timothy Dalton in the 1970 version. The film’s US producer, Louis Heyward, wanted to shake things up, telling reporters: “Olivier and Oberon portrayed him as a regular nice guy and her as sweetness and light. That was not the truth and Hollywood now goes in for the truth. Heathcliff was a bastard and Cathy a real bitch and that’s how they’ll be.” (...) What does [Peter] Bowker think Wuthering Heights is about? “If I wanted to piss everyone off, I’d say toxic masculinity. Really, it’s about a series of unfortunate men making very bad decisions, starting with Heathcliff being taken from Liverpool. It’s about class and generational pain — Heathcliff makes a decision to cause damage and sticks with it.” (...) The other star of Brontë’s book is the Yorkshire moors, lovingly shot for Arnold by her longtime cinematographer Robbie Ryan despite six weeks of unwanted sunshine. “We expected it to be miserably wet,” he says, laughing. “We needed rain for a scene where Heathcliff walks away, but the pipes froze and I had to do it with a watering can from behind the camera.” Even so, the location turned into a mudbath. “I was running around with a 35mm camera in rugby boots and a T-shirt that said There Will Be Mud.” There were animals everywhere. “Tons of dogs, tons of horses. Wuthering Heights is a love story, for sure, but it’s the environment that makes it for me — it should be a shot in the arm of nature.” (Melissa Demes)
The Guardian explores how Haworth residents feel about the expected Wuthering Heights hype. The four-mile trail from the village of Haworth to Top Withens in West Yorkshire is well trodden; numerous footprints squelched into the boggy ground by those seeking the view said to have inspired the setting for Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. The landscape rolls in desolate waves of brown bracken. A lone tree punctuates the scene. It’s bleakly, hauntingly beautiful. With the release of Emerald Fennell’s new film of the Gothic masterpiece starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi next week, Haworth and many of the filming locations in the Yorkshire Dales national park, where the book is set, are braced for a slew of visitors. The local residents, though, seem distinctly unfazed by the attention. “We’re used to crowds,” shrugs Craig Verity, the landlord at the Kings Arms, a pub at the top of Haworth’s steep cobbled Main Street, just steps from the parsonage where the Brontës were raised. Brontë country has been milking the connection for decades. On a wall in the Kings Arms, a board promotes a selection of Bridgehouse cask ales named Charlotte, Anne, Emily and Branwell, the latter being the lesser-known Brontë brother. In the surrounding streets, there’s the Brontë Hotel and the Brontë Bar and Restaurant, as well as – somewhat tenuously – Brontë Balti. (...) For this new film, the cast stayed at Simonstone Hall, a sumptuous country house hotel in Yorkshire Dales. It’s a 20-minute drive from here to Swaledale, where many of the scenes were shot. “They were lovely people, and brilliantly undemanding,” said the owner, Jake Dinsdale, noting that Robbie had since been back for a stay with her husband. “Although they’d booked out all 20 rooms, our restaurant was still open to the public, and the cast enjoyed being around the firepit to toast s’mores, or sitting down to a roast dinner or afternoon tea.” Haworth, pictured here, and many of the filming locations in the Yorkshire Dales national park are braced for a slew of visitors. Photograph: grough.co.uk/Alamy His own attitude is equally relaxed. “I don’t know what the film will do,” he said. “It could all be a flash in the pan, and that’s fine. If it sticks, that’s also great. What I do know is that I won’t be renaming any rooms as ‘The Jacob Elordi Room’ or ‘The Heathcliff Room’. (...) Tony Watson, head of economy and tourism for North Yorkshire council, said: “The area has featured in so many films and series; we’re experienced in managing that. Post-Covid, we were already seeing more younger people getting outdoors and exploring the county, and this demographic will doubtless grow as the film showcases the area’s beauty and authenticity. “We’ll have to wait until the release to see whether there’s some iconic shot that people want to replicate. If there is, hopefully it will be somewhere like Aysgarth Falls, which has all of the necessary infrastructure in place – otherwise, we’ll need to suggest alternatives that don’t make mountain rescue unhappy.” Back at The Kings Arms, Jack Greatrex, who lives in the area, is sanguine. “The Brontë sisters shaped this village for future generations, and for lovers of landscape and literature,” he said. “This film could mean that they continue to do so.” Whatever effect the new film has, said Watson, they’re ready for it. “I’m the luckiest head of tourism imaginable – the film is going to do my job for me.” (Sarah Rodrigues)
For the upcoming visitors, we have some guides:
The moody moorland and pretty villages of Yorkshire are the romantic backdrop of the film Wuthering Heights, which is set to be released in Australia on Thursday, February 12, 2026. Based on Emily Brontë’s novel, it stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, and is directed by Emerald Fennell. Wuthering Heights film locations are in both the Yorkshire Dales and the West Yorkshire countryside. It was filmed in Arkengarthdale, Swaledale and the village of Low Row. Yorkshire Dales National Park has a starring role. The Visit England team have come up with a two-day touring itinerary to immerse yourself in the movie, its mood and locations. There are plenty of good places to stop — Haworth, Hawes, Arkengarthdale, Low Row and Top Withens. Alongside confirmed filming locations, it includes places closely linked to Brontë’s life and the landscapes that inspired the novel. (Stephen Scourfield)
Tucked away into a corner of West Yorkshire, Top Withins stands proud against the elements it has been battered by for hundreds of years. As a self-proclaimed big fan of Wuthering Heights, I was eager to complete the pilgrimage popular with Brontë fans. Top Withins has long been rumoured to be the inspiration behind the classic novel, and it's easy to see why. Standing high on the moors, the ruined farmhouse is exposed to wind and rain, a landscape of moorland and hills surrounding it. Top Withins is a stone's throw away from Haworth, where Charlotte, Emily and Anne lived with their brother Branwell and father Patrick. The bustling village is now home to pubs, boutique shops and the Bronte Parsonage, which stands proud in front of the graveyard. (Sophie Corcoran)
The team behind the venue – Writers’ Bloc – said they are inviting visitors not just to experience Haworth, but to actively contribute to its story. A spokesman said: “Founded by real-life couple and creative entrepreneurs Jamila Juma-Ware and Matthew Wignall, the space blends literature, cocktails and community under the ethos ‘come as strangers, leave as friends’.” (...) To coincide with the film’s release, Writers’ Bloc is launching a Creative Love Letter Competition, encouraging guests to write love letters to Haworth itself, which celebrate the village’s power to inspire creativity. Selected letters will be displayed in the venue, with winners receiving dinner and drinks. (Greg Wright)
Vogue publishes a Wuthering Heights-Coded Guide To Brontë Country:
Haworth is a 20-minute drive through the Pennines. At the top of its cobbled high street sits the Brontë Parsonage, the house where Charlotte, Anne and Emily lived with their brother Branwell. Nestled next door is St. Michael and All Angels Church (where their father Patrick was curate) and its deeply atmospheric graveyard. Charlotte and Emily are buried in the family vault in the church; on show inside is Charlotte’s marriage certificate; she is listed with no profession despite being renowned then as the author of Jane Eyre.
The house itself is hauntingly close to when the family were in residence. The front parlour room is laid out as if they’d just broken for tea, the small dining room table they worked at scattered with a writing block and ink, newspapers, cups and saucers. But tragedy, too, isn’t far from sight; against the wall is the sofa where Emily died from Tuberculosis, aged 30. (Victoria Moss) I’ve been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to immerse myself deeper into the story, with a visit to a replica film set of Cathy’s Thrushcross Grange bedroom, which was used for shooting the new Wuthering Heights adaptation. It was here, in the book, where some of the biggest moments happened – particularly in the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. (...)ç It’s a lavish, sumptuous space, with a silk canopied bed and an ornate dressing table, which encapsulates the grandeur and refinement of the Linton family’s estate, perhaps illuminating what captured Cathy’s attention as a young woman and subsequently were her reasons for marrying Linton – sealing hers and Heathcliff’s fate. In the film, the bedroom was decorated by her husband Linton, whose design choices were an ode to his wife and her untamed spirit. The room is apparently painted the exact Pantone shade of actress Robbie’s skin, with vein detailing across the wall panels which deepen as the film continues, representing Cathy’s intensity and wild nature. (Sophie Goodall)
Deutsche Welle has a ten-minute video piece about Wuthering Heights 2026 with particular emphasis in the alleged non-whiteness of Heathcliff. Among others, the video features Mithu Sanyal, author of ,
Air Mail publishes an interesting article about what is and isn't Wuthering Heights 2026. The article is almost a review of the film, but not quite: The wonder of it is that Wuthering Heights, which was declared to be “unquestionably and irredeemably monstrous” upon publication, exists at all, its creative origins forever obscured by the brief and enigmatic life of its author. The novel, published in 1847 under a male pen name (Ellis Bell), was written by Emily Brontë, a 27-year-old virgin so reclusive she makes Emily Dickinson seem positively sociable, who lived in a parsonage together with her gifted sisters and alcoholic brother in the tiny village of Haworth in Yorkshire, England. (...) For all its heaving drama, the plot of Wuthering Heights is remarkably simple, even primitive. It is the age-old one of a soured romance, of childhood sweethearts who are foiled by the adult reality they grow into. Boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl; boy loses girl. And then, if the boy in question happens to be Heathcliff, with his “satanic nimbus,” as one writer put it—the romantic antihero par excellence—all hell breaks loose. (...) While watching the latest film adaptation, I kept wondering what Brontë would have made of this version of her stark, doomed story, with its graphic scenes of masturbation, B.D.S.M., and doggy-style penetration. Would she have recognized her novel at all? And what about Cathy’s outlandish, anachronistic wardrobe, replete with a red latex gown, German milkmaid corsets, and Elton John sunglasses? (...) Influenced by the aesthetics of soft porn and high fashion, this is a movie with its sights firmly fixed on Gen Z. It works, in its edgy stylistic way, and it should sell heaps of tickets. But by simplifying the arc of the original story, ending the narrative with Cathy’s death and leaving out her ghostly haunting of Heathcliff, and by making explicit what was implicit, this Wuthering Heights is, curiously, a less subversive and radical rendering of the otherworldly, inexorable desire that Emily Brontë captured almost two centuries ago. (Daphne Merkin)
The London premiere, the bracelet, the Boucheron brouches, Brontë bun, Margot Robbie's nails... all that old news from 24 hours ago still linger on in Indulge Express, Something about Rocks (and another one), The Fashion Spot, Hello!, AzatTV, TV Azteca Chihuahua, BBC, American Salon, Daily Mail, Great British Life, Metro, The Mirror, Times of India, Grazia, Instore, The Tab, Times Now News, News18, Harper's Bazaar, Forbes...
Over the course of the movie, "Cathy's in her mid-20s to early 30s, which puts so much more pressure on the marriage situation," Robbie tells USA TODAY. "A bunch of people telling an 18-year-old, 'Oh, f---, you better hurry up and get married!' That doesn't really hold the same weight to a modern-day audience member." Whereas now, "particularly for women, there's suddenly this checklist that society has given you and you better have it all ticked off by the time you're 30: get married, get a house, have your career figured out, and start thinking about kids," Robbie continues. For Gen Z and millennial moviegoers, "watching an older Cathy have that pressure might carry more weight." (Patrick Ryan)
Barbie + Kim K’s gothic dress + Mills & Boon paperback = Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights El Día (Argentina) explores the original novel by Emily Brontë: En los páramos desolados del norte de Inglaterra, donde el viento no solo azota la tierra sino también los ánimos, Emily Brontë levantó una de las novelas más inquietantes y perdurables de la literatura universal. Cumbres Borrascosas, publicada en 1847 bajo el seudónimo de Ellis Bell, sigue siendo una obra incómoda, feroz y profundamente actual, capaz de sacudir al lector incluso más de un siglo y medio después de su aparición. No es una historia pensada para tranquilizar ni para ofrecer consuelos fáciles: es, ante todo, una exploración descarnada de las pasiones humanas llevadas al extremo. La novela se desarrolla en un escenario áspero y hostil que no funciona como simple decorado, sino como una prolongación emocional de los personajes. Los páramos, el clima violento y la casa que da nombre a la obra conforman un universo cerrado, casi opresivo, donde el amor, el rencor y la obsesión crecen sin freno. Allí se forja el vínculo entre Heathcliff y Catalina Earnshaw, una relación que desafía las categorías tradicionales del romanticismo. No hay idealización ni ternura permanente: lo que los une es una fuerza primitiva, absoluta, que ignora las normas sociales, la razón y hasta los límites de la vida y la muerte. ( Translation)
TVO (Ontario) broadcasts the dramatized documentary In Search of the Brontës 2003. StageTalk interviews Sally Cookson, and her Jane Eyre adaptation is mentioned several times. BookClub includes Jane Eyre in a list of "books about happy women with happy endings". Only an AI could have written that. Giornale della Danza (Italy) interviews prima ballerina Silvia Selvini: Michael Olivieri: Un romanzo da trasformare in balletto? Postcard collector, the late Norman Ellis of Ossett enthusiastically gathered as many images of West Yorkshire as he could find. Campaigners against proposals to build a giant windfarm on West Yorkshire moorland believe they are winning the battle – but the fight isn’t over yet. The Stop Calderdale Windfarm campaigners oppose Calderdale Energy Park proposals to put giant turbines on Walshaw Moor, above Hebden Bridge. The say in a presentation to local parish councils this month the developers revealed the have scaled back their plans for the second time. Their original proposal in September 2023 was for 65 turbines, reduced to 41 in April 2025. They have now reduced that number further to 34 after widespread criticism and public opposition, claims the campaign group. The group adds the timescale for the project has also slipped, with Statutory Public Consultation previously scheduled for January now being put back to April 2026. Despite believing it shows the developers might be on the back foot, the group warns the fight is far from over. “The developers are clearly on the defensive, but the latest proposals would still be incredibly damaging to the carbon-rich blanket peat bogs on Walshaw Moor and the endangered ground-nesting birds which breed on this internationally important Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA). (John Greenwood)
Jane Eyre A sweeping, atmospheric love story that feels timelessly tender, Jane Eyre is for romantics who adore emotional intensity wrapped in quiet strength. Jane and Mr. Rochester’s bond is slow, smoldering, and full of moral complexity, the kind of love you root for even when they stumble. It’s haunting, passionate, and beautifully earnest. Every chapter feels like a heartbeat you can hear, not just read. (Simran Sukhnani)
[Valerie] Martire’s Lucy shares more in common with Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre than her original fictional counterpart. She desires for adventure and a place in society in which her knowledge and accomplishments can be celebrated, not buried under the weight of matrimony. ( Misha Davenport) 5. Hathersage, Derbyshire “High banks of moor were about me; the crag protected my head: the sky was over that.” So narrates the eponymous Jane Eyre in Charlotte Brontë’s beloved novel. Having stayed in Hathersage in 1845, Brontë set her story in the charming Hope Valley village. Also inspiring her, as per that quote, was the surrounding, brooding Dark Peak scenery, and not least Stanage Edge — a four-mile gritstone ridge that offers memorable vistas for miles. Modern-day Hathersage has a heated outdoor pool, but you may just prefer its churchyard. Little John, Robin Hood’s loyal outlaw companion, is supposedly buried here, as a gravestone attests. (Oliver Perry)
Nice Bastard Blog (in German) posts about how Emily Brontë's poems and a French anorexic novelist inspired a small publishing house. The Behind the Glass podcast's latest guest is Elizabeth The Thisty: Mia and Sam are joined by THE drag queen historian Elizabeth the Thirsty. We share our love for making history fun, imagine a Brontë-themed drag show and learn about a secret language used by the Georgians...
More Recent Articles
|
%20(1).jpg)
