An online alert from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
Thu 12 Mar, 7:30pm Online via Zoom
From Shakespeare to Brontë, Anna Calder-Marshall has brought to life many iconic characters over her illustrious career on stage and screen. As well as a long career in theatre, Anna’s select television credits include Bodies (Netflix), Strike: Troubled Blood (BBC) and This England (Sky); with film credits including Queen at Sea, which will premiere at Berlin International Film Festival 2026. Join us as we welcome Anna to the Brontë Lounge as she reflects on the production of Robert Fuest’s Wuthering Heights (1970), recalling what it was like to bring Emily Brontë’s heroine to life on the big screen opposite Timothy Dalton. As always, there will be time to ask questions on the night.
The Week discusses 'the rumoured demise of English literature'. While [Matthew Oliver, head of English at Bede’s in East Sussex] believes the “canon is still relevant as an idea”, he thinks some exam boards have been “quite narrow at GCSE” and wants to teach the best of literature in English – whether that’s a Nigerian novel, an American play or a text in translation. “We must give the sense that literature is still being written about the world we live in now,” he says. So, if his pupils are studying the urban poverty of “Jane Eyre” or “David Copperfield”, Oliver might also get them to read “Shuggie Bain” by Douglas Stuart or “Only Here, Only Now” by Tom Newlands. “What I insist upon is the freedom to combine what we believe to be the best of our canonical classical texts with something that is contemporary and brilliant. I think that combination is incredibly powerful.” (Amanda Constance)
Re-reading the novel recently, though, after years of dating discourse, red-flag literacy, and too many TikToks dissecting toxic men, was a shock. What once seemed romantic now felt like emotional manipulation and abuse. Heathcliff’s obsession, guilt-tripping, and rage seem to be the foundation for modern “problematic faves”. [...] But in today’s world, the novel makes clear quite a few things. Heathcliff isn’t a misunderstood dream lover. He is cruel, bitter, and abusive. His love for Catherine may be “deep and unshakable”, but it is also possessive and punitive. When Catherine marries the neighbouring landowner Edgar Linton, Heathcliff doesn’t simply grieve; he disappears, returns wealthy, and spends decades effecting a vengeful campaign that devastates two families and spills into the next generation (a reckoning most screen adaptations conveniently minimise). His most famous outbursts sound romantic until you really listen. “Haunt me then!… drive me mad!” is less a plea for love than a demand for emotional ownership. “You teach me now how cruel you’ve been” reads like an early template for manipulative guilt. Heathcliff’s fury at Catherine’s autonomy is the crux of the novel, and his sense of entitlement to her love is repeatedly framed as justification for cruelty. And yet, for generations, Heathcliff has been sold as passion incarnate. The question is why. Why have we been taught to read violence as depth, volatility as intensity, and obsession as destiny? Heathcliff exposes how patriarchy dresses cruelty up as romance, teaching women that love should hurt — and that pain is proof of meaning. That legacy is everywhere. From Gothic literature to dark-romance paperbacks, from brooding immortals in Twilight to today’s morally grey BookTok obsessions, Heathcliff’s DNA persists. He is the original red-flag romantic hero, the man whose damage is framed as allure, whose trauma excuses his harm. (Teja Lele)
Fennell is under no obligation to produce a faithful adaptation, yet she offers little new critical insight. It feels frustratingly one-dimensional, failing to engage meaningfully with the novel’s concerns of class mobility, generational trauma, and patriarchal constraint. Heathcliff’s rise to wealth remains underdeveloped, displaced by an emphasis on his humiliating, BDSM-tinged relationship with Isabella, played with comic flair by Alison Oliver. While entertaining, moments such as her crawling on all fours undermine a character who, in Brontë’s 1847 text, embodies resilience. Isabella’s escape – culminating in her declaration, ‘I’ll smash it!’, as she casts away her wedding ring – constitutes one of the novel’s most radical assertions of female autonomy within nineteenth-century patriarchy. Comic exaggeration reduces such defiance to spectacle, eliminating the novel’s interrogation of gendered power. Despite these inconsistencies, the adaptation has reignited interest in the novel, surging book sales and thus prompting a renewed readership. If Fennell’s film achieves anything, I would hope it is in renewed attention to the novel itself. Readers returning to Brontë will encounter a work of far greater moral extremity and narrative daring than its stylised reinterpretation suggests. Ultimately, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is best approached with caution. However visually striking, the adaptation fails to capture Brontë’s structural and psychological daring. In watching the film, we learn that appearance alone cannot sustain a story of such emotional and thematic depth, and what remains is a version that gestures towards Brontë’s vision without ever fully grasping its power. (Sophia Elston)
Rova has a video review of the film. A contributor to Indian Express goes round and round the same old topic: 'Why Wuthering Heights’ lovers are angry with Emerald Fennell’s ragebait'. A contributor to Medium's Papel en blanco (in Spanish) discusses love vs passion in Wuthering Heights 2026. Hollywood Outbreak shares an audio clip of Jacob Elordi on the 'costumes that helped him become Heathcliff'.
Wuthering Heights Obsessed "Heathcliff! It's me, I'm Cathy, I've come home and I got you a really good birthday card. Let me in your windowwww". If you're willing to walk across the foggy moors of North Yorkshire for someone because you're totally obsessed with them, this is the card for you. Whatever your souls are made of, yours and theirs are the same. Duh. - Environmental Board
- Eco Ink
- Repurposed Envelopes
And now, the podcast: Inklings Book Club February 2026
Well, it’s safe to say the whole world is talking about Wuthering Heights. Hello and welcome back to the Inklings Book Club where this month we are reading Emily Brontë’s gothic classic, just in time for the release of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation. And so… who better to speak to than Emerald herself? I caught up with Emerald to chat all things Wuthering Heights, as well as her favourite books and poems.
Dear reader, this is not just a fundamental misreading. No, this is a deliberate bastardization of the story, which, at worst, serves the purpose of being a fantasy for Fennell, or at best, an extremely shallow take on a very complex story. (Juliet Pieters) Along with its amazing cinematography, the actors brought the characters to life. Robbie and Elordi did a beautiful job bringing a romance full of toxic obsession into reality. One of my favorite scenes was when Heathcliff grabbed Catherine’s corset and lifted her to be eye level with him. The actors did such an amazing job in creating chemistry between their characters that you could feel the electricity between the two. Another reason this movie is a masterpiece is because it makes you feel every emotion. You feel anger watching the dominos fall leading up to Catherine’s downfall. You feel the love and the obsession between Heathcliff and Catherine, even when they hate each other. But most importantly, you feel the story’s darkness, like a chill that never fully goes away. (Addie Gerber)
Some love stories are sweet. Some are messy. Then there’s Wuthering Heights. Few novels are as haunting and emotionally complex as Wuthering Heights, which makes its film adaptation feel distant. By only covering the first half of Emily Brontë’s novel and reshaping the central themes, Emerald Fennell’s movie sacrifices the elements that make the original unforgettable, creating, in essence, a whole different story. Brontë’s novel is not a conventional romance but rather an exploration of the effects of abuse on children and the lasting effects of trauma on their relationships. While the movie appeals to some audiences, booklovers are likely to find it disappointing. [...] If you came for the film’s sweeping romance, the book might break your heart, but its passion, obsession, and unforgettable story will captivate anyone who doesn’t need a happily-ever-after. (Niya Desai and Lucia Rose)
A contributor to Her Campus shares some 'Thoughts on Wuthering Heights'.
“Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys “She’s mad but mine, mine.” The madwoman trope can be traced back in literature to Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.” Readers are introduced to Bertha Mason: the deranged woman locked in Mr. Rochester’s attic and the ghost that frequents Thornfield Hall. But aside from her role in threatening the marriage of Mr. Rochester and Jane and committing acts of destruction, little else is revealed of the haunted character. More than a century later, in response to “Jane Eyre,” Jean Rhys wrote “Wide Sargasso Sea.” Rhys’ novel is a reimagining of Bertha’s life, acting as a postcolonial prequel to the popular classic novel. Rhys gives Bertha the name Antoinette Cosway and places her in 1830s Jamaica. We follow her mother’s descent into madness after she’s married off to an Englishman and faces trauma and neglect, knowing that Antoinette is doomed to a similar fate. The novel explores the theme of madness as a consequence of patriarchal and colonial oppression, with Mr. Rochester — an intentionally first-nameless character — being the embodiment of these structures. “Wide Sargasso Sea” brings a new perspective to this madwoman in the attic, critiquing the systems that strip Antoinette of her agency and identity while developing a complex and intersectional backstory that has been overlooked. After reading Rhys’ novel, it’s impossible not to view Mr. Rochester, and all that he represents, as the true monstrous figure of “Jane Eyre.”
Getting to some of Yorkshire's towns and villages can be a little awkward due to a lack of rail travel, but thankfully, if you're planning a day out to one of Yorkshire's most famous towns, you're in luck. BrontëBus services, which are run by the Keighley Bus Company, start from Keighley Bus Station, and you can travel in from further afield making use of the Aireline 60 from Leeds, the Shuttle 662 from Bradford, the 62 from Ilkley, and other services from other towns. As a result, it's pretty easy to get started on your journey. The BrontëBus runs every 20 minutes Monday-Saturday, and every 30 minutes on Sunday, with three separate services taking three different routes. However, each takes you through the town of Haworth. [...] For any literary fans, there are plenty of Brontë-based attractions around. If you want to know about their lives growing up, or even visit the home where Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were written, then you can take a trip to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Inside you can find artefacts from their lives as well as some information on the sisters themselves, and the long lives of their famous works. Nearby, St Michael and All Angels' Church welcomes visitors, and has engravings dedicated to the Brontës themselves. Their father, Patrick Brontë was once the perpetual curate there, and is remembered on the list of incumbents. There is also a Brontë Memorial Chapel inside, and you can see a marker for the Brontë Family Vault, where a number of the family were buried. If you're looking for something else, then the famous Main Street is filled with shops and things to do. From curiosity shops to book shops, and even pubs. What better way is there to end a trip out than with a coffee and some food, and places like the Haworth Old Post Office, which was still a post office when the Brontës were around. (Sebastian McCormick)
After her recent talk at the NPG on her latest book, The Brontës in Brick and Mortar (cowritten with Ann Dinsdale, now Sharon Wright gives a talk at the Brontë Birthplace about her previous book, The Mother of the Brontës:
Speaker: Sharon Wright Date: Tuesday,10 March, 2026 in-person at 18.30
Maria Branwell Brontë, who gave birth to Charlotte, Emily, Branwell and Anne Brontë, was an educated, well-heeled Cornishwoman who married a penniless curate for love. She moved to Thornton with two little children – and left with six. Hear how this often-overlooked Georgian gentlewoman was the very heart of the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton from Sharon Wright, author of Mother of the Brontës: The Life of Maria Branwell. Sharon reveals how her research throws light on the remarkable woman who put the ‘Birth’ into ‘Birthplace’. This talk will be followed by a book signing.
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