Collider announces that Frances O'Connor's Emily will be available for streaming on Netflix starting October 21st. The critically acclaimed film that marked Australian actress Frances O'Connor’s directorial debut is officially coming to Netflix this month. Set in 19th-century Yorkshire, England, the film tells an emotional story about one of the most popular classic authors, offering a more fictionalized account than a straightforward biopic. It premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in September, then Warner Bros. Pictures released it theatrically in the UK the next month, and indie label Bleecker Street released it in the U.S. in 2023. Often described as Little Women meets Black Swan, Emily partly focuses on English writer Emily Brontë, a fiercely reclusive woman who channeled her intensity into writing her literary masterpiece, Wuthering Heights. Like Little Women, it features a sibling dynamic where a rebellious, free-spirited sister aims to become a classic author while navigating life in a small town. As for the Black Swan twist, Emily delves into darker themes, highlighting the heavy, isolating toll of raw creativity and genius. Viewers gain insight into Brontë's troubled, anxious mind as her internal passion, mental struggles, and defiance of societal norms gradually shape her reality. On October 21, 2026, just two weeks from now, Emily will be available on Netflix, marking four years since its theatrical debut. This release is expected to attract new viewers, particularly those who became interested in Brontë after the 2026 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. (Lade Omotade)
Collider also reports that Wuthering Heights 2026 is available for streaming on Amazon Prime since October 2nd. One adaptation particularly stands out because of its highly controversial reception, releasing a day before Valentine's Day. As the year's most divisive book-to-screen adaptation so far, Wuthering Heights drew immediate criticism for its unfaithful reimagining of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel, particularly for Heathcliff's casting, the character's romanticized portrayal, and major plot omissions. The controversy ultimately sparked public curiosity, driving the film to $241.7 million worldwide against an $80 million budget and pushing the novel to the top of the Goodreads most-read classics chart. After a successful theatrical run, Wuthering Heights found its way to streaming, which most recently includes Prime Video, where it became officially available to watch on October 2, 2026. The romantic adaptation currently streams there for viewers who missed it in theaters or want to revisit the reimagined gothic classic. (Lade Omotade)
Ranker has ranked fans' favourite quotes from the movie.
Cine con Ñ (Spain) finds echoes of Jane Eyre in the film La mala madre. El planteamiento conecta con diversas tradiciones, desde el gótico femenino literario, quizá con Jane Eyre en el recuerdo, hasta un cierto thriller psicológico donde se cultiva la tensión y la incertidumbre sin necesidad de que el contador de cadáveres se multiplique. (Ignasi Franch) (Translation) The Brontë Parsonage Museum has also recorded a rise in visitors. Rebecca Yorke, the museum’s director, said visitor numbers had increased by 25 per cent during the past financial year. Ms Yorke said: “The new Wuthering Heights film has been a big part of that, and we have been careful to maximise its success at the parsonage.” Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum (Image: T&A) Emerald Fennell and Margot Robbie visited the parsonage in 2025, while the museum’s social media following doubled over the same period. Ms Yorke said: “All of these things help put Haworth on the map.” The museum also sold 4,808 copies of Wuthering Heights during the last financial year, an increase of 80 per cent compared with the previous year. Ms Yorke said: “The Brontës are still relevant, through film and social media.” (Daisy Couture)
Elle (France) recommends Wuthering Heights as a perfect autumn read. 'Harvest Poetry By Emily Brontë' on AnneBrontë.org. The Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre adaptation currently touring the UK comes to Kingston, London:
A Rose Theatre, Mercury Theatre Colchester, and Storyhouse Chester production in association with Northern Stage Based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the Original Company’s adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Directed by 2025 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award-winner Lily Dyble Rose Theatre, Kingston, London One woman’s fight for a life that is worthy of her courage and a love that is worthy of her heart. Orphaned as a young girl, the passionate and sensitive Jane longs to escape the clutches of her cruel aunt.Freedom beckons when she is offered the job of a governess in the house of the brooding and secretive Mr Rochester. As intrigue turns to attraction, Jane finds herself drawn in by Rochester’s mercurial charm. But when the truth finally comes out, she will be forced to choose between the man she wants, and the woman she wants to be.
A contributor to The Miami Student has breaking news for you: the classics are individual books and if you like one that doesn't mean you are going to like them all. Isn't it mind-blowing? It can also be difficult to compare classics to each other because today, people will use certain classics to measure their greatness beside another piece of media to review it. Classics, especially when discussing literature and film, create the taste that people use to judge and criticize them. Someone may enjoy “Pride and Prejudice,” yet not enjoy “Wuthering Heights” simply because of the writing style, the period or the characters. (Veronica Dallas) Similarly, Times of India has an article on Gen Z reading classic novels. Vanshika Mohnani, president of Wordcraft, Literary society of Ramjas College, notes, “I feel our generation is not ignorant of things, they have this hunger of knowing everything. Even these trending bookstagram reels and other videos make people interested in reading more. I have read a lot of classics like Mrs Dalloway, Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Macbeth, Jane Eyre, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein.” (Sara Siddiqui) They cite two favorite works of classical literature, Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji” and Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” as famous examples of love stories that also reveal deep hierarchical divisions within society. Similarly, Yamazaki’s characters often struggle to forge relationships within the constraints of Japanese culture. (Kris Kosaka)
Far Out Magazine quotes Kaya Scodelario on her role as Cathy in Wuthering Heights 2011. Regardless, Scodelario finally managed to prove to herself that she could do a period piece, but only after her agent convinced her to watch Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, and she met the director for the drink that she agreed to Wuthering Heights. She said, “I really wanted to open up and tell her everything about me. And the film she’s created isn’t a period film: it’s a new genre that is timeless”. Unlike Emma, which caused the actor to feel she didn’t match the aesthetic of a Victorian literature adaptation, Arnold’s Wuthering Heights was gritty and realistic, but the crucial thing for Scodelario had to do with casting, as she said, “The biggest thing I think Andrea has done was keeping the characters young. If you fall in love at that age, it’s very different to falling in love later”. Comparing these feelings to her fervid two-year affair with Skins co-star Jack O’Connell, she understood exactly what Cathy was going through, similar to her relating to Effy’s experiences, about which she said, “I was completely in love with him. If he’d told me to jump off a bridge, I would have. We were so young and going through so much, it was a strange togetherness we had. It was intense and magical and horrible.” (Gaby Shedwick)
An amateur production of Underdog: The Other Other Brontë opens next Tuesday, October 13, in York:
York Settlement Community Players present by Sarah Gordon Director: Claire Morley With Lara Stafford, Jess Murray, Millie Rhodes, Nick Patrick Jones, Jon Cook, Maggie Smales, and Pamela Gourley. Tuesday 13 to Saturday 17 October. Theatre@41, Monkgate
Charlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol, and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one… Anne. York Settlement Community Players present Sarah Gordon’s new and exciting play, which premiered at The National Theatre in 2024. Underdog is an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters like you’ve never seen them before! This is not a story about well-behaved women. This is a story about the power of words. It’s about sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition. An Amateur production presented by special arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd.
PEN America has the explanatory article we had been hoping for since we found out that Jane Eyre was now banned in some public schools in the US. The schools where it has been banned are in Texas. Women in Texas were once in the thrall of Charlotte Brontë and her literary masterpiece Jane Eyre. Back in the mid-1800s, Texans, along with the reading public as a whole, made the novel an immediate bestseller when it was published in 1848. Seven years later, a schoolteacher organized the Texas Brontë Club, a milestone that created a literary gathering place and boasted a lending library that years later evolved into the Victoria Public Library. Though it ultimately became a civic organization that did good works in communities, books continued to hold a prominent place in the society’s programs. The group thrived well into the 20th century, retaining its standing as the oldest literary group in the state and even once hosting a lecture by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Fast forward to 2026. Today the great Victorian-era romance novel with a pioneering feminist message has earned a new place in Texas history —an infamous one— with four school districts banning it as unsuitable for younger readers. This is happening, it’s worth noting, at the same time that China made Jane Eyre compulsory reading for 14 and 15 year olds. Why? As a counter to social media and its touting of “materialistic culture and money.” You’re not alone if the Texas ban on Jane Eyre is a head scratcher. After all, the book is consistently near the top of major literary canons, has been on school reading lists, likely for over a century, has no steamy content at all, and has been adapted for as many as 25 to 30 movies and television series, most rated PG. [...] So why did four school districts in Texas decide to remove this celebrated, classic novel from its libraries, picking up the aging thread of distaste from Victorian critics? The 19th century’s favorite orphan is likely a casualty of the Texas legislature. Since the passage of the SB 13 law in 2025, school administrators and librarians have found it impossible to confidently interpret the labels “profane” and “indecent” — part of the new, lower bar for what makes a book bannable in Texas. As a result, some districts have placed restrictions on anything written for adults, including classics. Restrictions across four districts include banned pending investigation (removed from shelves, sometimes indefinitely); restricted to upper grade levels; and limiting only to AP English students. Some people will say age restrictions are normal, even good sense. The case of Jane Eyre shows the harm these measures can do. Young readers who become lifelong readers often benefit from reading above grade level, reading challenging prose that gives them a window into history. Denying them that opportunity limits their horizons. “Generations of young people, especially young women, have discovered a love of classic literature through the works of the Brontë sisters, reading above grade level to do so,” said Philomena Polefone, a senior manager of PEN’s Freedom to Read team and an author of the recent report. “Jane Eyre is a book that inspires young people to love reading and brings them into the library. What continues to be clear during Banned Books Week and every week is that book bans pose a threat not only to literacy and education but to democracy and pluralism. At PEN America, we believe that all students — and all parents — benefit when kids are given more choices of what to read, and encouraged to read freely. To those who spend time concocting dubious reasons to ban books, or (this being the 21st century) having AI do it for them, perhaps it’s time to heed the advice of Jane Eyre’s friend Helen Burns, who says: “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” (Suzanne Trimel)
It's so sad to have come to this. Still, Charlotte Brontë herself replies to those who would ban her book. From the preface of Jane Eyre: Having thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided and approved me, I turn to another class; a small one, so far as I know, but not, therefore, to be overlooked. I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as “Jane Eyre:” in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry—that parent of crime—an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth. I would suggest to such doubters certain obvious distinctions; I would remind them of certain simple truths. Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ. There is—I repeat it—a difference; and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark broadly and clearly the line of separation between them.
Anyway, back on the other side of the pond there's a musical on stage based on this now-banned book and a contributor to The Conversation reviews it. The reviewer is an 'Emeritus Reader in English' who takes issue with the musical missing 'the novel’s darkness' yet can't spell Brontë properly consistently. Caird’s justification for this reduction is compelling. In an interview, he described Jane Eyre as “fundamentally an intimate, emotional, small-scale work”, pointing to the novel’s first-person narration and its intensely interior focus. But Jane Eyre is not a “small-scale work”. Certainly, Jane’s journey takes her through only a handful of Yorkshire houses and a school. Yet Brontë’s imagination repeatedly exceeds these confines. The novel conjures supernatural forces, wild landscapes and sweeping moorland. Its emotional world is equally expansive, moving from the warmth of passion to the terror of fire and freezing wastes. Its Yorkshire landscapes convey a strange, almost supernatural power. The result is a novel that constantly stretches beyond the limits of Jane’s confined domestic world. [...] Taking my seat at Southwark Playhouse, I was struck by how effectively Morgan Large’s set balances intimacy with gothic grandeur. It captures the small scale Caird sought for this chamber production, while suggesting a much wider and eerier world beyond the stage. The palette is black and white. The set backdrop is a video screen showing a slowly moving landscape of clouds, bare trees and wintry moorland. There is even a bit of mist rising. Stage right and left are clothes horses draped with everyday cloaks, pristine white shirts, nightshirts and caps. These have a prosaic quality and bring the audience close to a theatrical version of Brönte’s domestic realism. However, even these well-starched clothes are imbued with a ghostly quality, bereft as they are of wearers and lit in sharp contrast to the black backdrop. It is a clever combination of the ghostly and the mundane, which renders the most familiar things uncanny. Jane Eyre: a Musical abounds in excellent performances, exciting staging and orchestration, but despite the verve of the ensemble cast and the vocal crescendos, the heart rarely skips a beat in fear – and certainly not in gothic terror. This is largely due to the awkwardness and confusion in the representation of Bertha, who is little more than an obstacle in Jane and Rochester’s romance. Played by Hannah Lindsay, she appears veiled in pale lace wedding clothes, her face obscured. Even when she attacks Rochester, Lindsay’s long blonde curls hide her face. Brönte’s creation of the violent, swollen-featured, monstrous Bertha who also has bad breath and hasn’t brushed her hair is problematic to a modern audience. She is Creole and she is insane. What may once have appeared as a gothic representation of madness, now raises difficult questions about race, colonialism, gender and confinement. Even without having read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) or the seminal feminist study The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), modern audiences approach Bertha with a different understanding of colonial history than that of Brontë’s time. However, the answer is not to erase Bertha as a gothic force, which this production does. At one point we even see Bertha carrying a doll. If directors John Caird and Megan McGinnis choose to depict her as a childish innocent our sympathies must lie with her – but this sympathy goes nowhere and she is still removed as an obstacle to the romantic plot. Jane Eyre is so rich in imagery and intricate plot that three hours can never do it justice. However, more could have been done in this production. The musical offers a touching love story and a moving tale of a young woman’s struggles. Yet the novel’s much darker narrative is absent. Brontë creates this shadow narrative through gothic elements including dreams, Bessie’s local folklore and folk song, premonitions and monstrous night visitations, mysterious voices and uncanny laughter. A reference to Bessie’s folksong about the “orphan child” crossing the cold moors could have enriched the music. Most crucially, Brontë mirrors Bertha and Jane throughout the novel, but this mirroring is largely absent from the production. That is particularly striking because of the set’s prominent bird imagery. A plinth around three sides of the stage bears Jane’s declaration to Rochester: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” [...] The production’s confused portrayal of Bertha leaves little room for this gothic threat. Yet the novel repeatedly uses images of wildness and savagery to align the two women. These connections matter, particularly when Bertha’s role is so heavily downplayed. The musical misses the alignment of the two women. In Sweet Liberty, Jane (played beautifully by Charlie Burn) sings of “boundless skies” and declares: “I will fly.” Yet there is no reference to Bertha, the woman literally confined at Thornfield who ultimately flies from its roof. Bertha has no voice, and she certainly does not get a song. (Sophie Gilmartin)
And yet the musical is an adaptation of the actual novel, not of its afterlife and different readings and retellings.
According to Looper, Jane Eyre 2011 is one of '5 Movies To Watch If You Like Anne Hathaway's Verity'. Jane Eyre (2011) It's quite possible that Cary Joji Fuku[n]aga's 2011 adaptation of "Jane Eyre," the massively influential dark romance written by Charlotte Brontë, flew under your radar upon its release. If you love "Verity," though, this is another pick — like "Rebecca" — where you can clearly see the story's influence on writers like Colleen Hoover. Mia Wasikowska plays the titular Jane, who endured a difficult childhood as an orphan and thinks that her life will be forever changed when, as an adult, she meets the dashing and wealthy Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender) while working as a governess at his property of Thornfield Hall. Despite Mr. Rochester's apparent betrothal to the beautiful Blanche Ingram (Imogen Poots), Jane finds herself developing feelings for him, and he returns them ardently. There's just one small problem, and it has to do with an attic and a spate of small fires — and even though "Jane Eyre" is an old story that's probably familiar to most people, we won't get into the specifics just in case you don't know how this wonderfully twisted story ends. Wasikowska and Fassbender are excellent and flanked by great performers like Dame Judi Dench, Jamie Bell, Sally Hawkins, Tamzin Merchant, and Simon McBurney, making this adaptation of "Jane Eyre" a worthy watch once you're finished with "Verity." (Nina Starner)
Vulture recommends 'The 12 Must-See Movies on Prime Video This Month,' and one of them is Wuthering Heights 2026. The divisive adaptation from the director of Saltburn and Promising Young Woman is finally on Prime Video for anyone looking for something other than horror this October. How does one even begin to describe this lavish, arguably ridiculous film? You kinda need to see it for yourself and decide what you think of the work of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in a movie that equal numbers of people loved and hated when it dropped in February of this year. (Brian Tallerico) A contributor to Coast Community News does a round-up of some book-to-film adaptations and gives Wuthering Heights 2009 an 8.5/10 and Wuthering Heights 2026 a 5/10. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The only published novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights is the beautifully crafted, haunting story of the enthusiastic love between the tortured Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, the daughter of Heathcliff’s benefactor. First published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights was remarkable for its unflinching and honest portrayal of obsessive love and its accompanying cruelty, which was out of character for novels of the era. It’s been adapted for the stage and screen many times, most recently as a major motion picture starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. For me the adaptation was a step too far away from the original. I love Margot but she can no longer pass as a 20-year-old, and the wardrobe was not something you would have seen from a wealthy family in the Yorkshire Moors. There must be an authentic honesty to our classics, and if you do want to watch an adaptation, I would go for the Tom Hardy 2009 version. I give this latest adaptation 5/10 and the 2009 adaptation 8.5/10. (Julie Chessman)
Epigram has a review of Sense and Sensibility 2026, and yes, there's a random passing comment about Wuthering Heights 2026 in it. Sense and Sensibility (2026) proves you don't need a varnished scene of oral sex backed by the latest Charli XCX track to demonstrate an undying passion between lovers. Georgia Oakley's Austen adaptation has everything Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights (2026) lacked. (Alice Lewis)
You would think no one ever adapted a book before Emerald Fennell, as it seems to have turned into a benchmark. And we will add something else now that Jane Eyre is a banned book (surely--and sadly--Wuthering Heights will eventually find itself on the list too unless things change radically, which doesn't seem likely at this point): all the pruddishness and pearl-clutching displayed in reviews ever since Wuthering Heights 2026 premiered in cinemas back in February is only fodder for book banning. Condemning a film director's artistic decisions in the terms we have been seeing since February is only a step away from condemning an author's artistic decisions and having their books banned. Criticise creative liberty at your own risk.
A contributor to La Prensa (Nicaragua) compares Jane Eyre to Gioconda Belli's Las fiebres de la memoria.More Recent Articles
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