I was worried that Jordi Mand’s Brontë: The World Without (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) might not suit an al fresco production at Scarborough’s Guild Festival Theatre. After all, it’s pretty much entirely set in the West Yorkshire house that the literary sisters Brontë — Charlotte (Laura Del Papa), Emily (Hilary Scott) and Anne (Lara Lucia) — shared in the 1800s. But director Helen Juvonen’s sensitive staging, a trio of passionate performances and the solid classical columns of the GFT stage give the production a grandeur and airiness it lacked in its rather cramped premiere eight years ago at Stratford’s Studio Theatre. (...) I think I was a little harsh on Mand’s play when it premiered in 2018. It doesn’t want to show where the Brontë’s works came from — how could you begin to depict the genesis of Emily’s impassioned, unusual Wuthering Heights? But it does capture the sacrifice and hard work that goes into artistic creation, especially when, as a woman, you’re expected to do so much else. It also nicely illustrates the bond that connects the three sisters, who are each so different and intimately know each other’s insecurities. (Glenn Sumi)
Broadway World announces a new production of Bronté Sistr House Party in Washington D.C.: Nu Sass Productions cordially invites you to the house party of the season, hosted by none other than the Brontë Sisters—Emily, Charlotte, and Anne, the famous writers of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall respectively. The Brontë Sisters are stuck in purgatory, suffering through party after party in an endless time loop, until they throw the best house party and reach The Point of Celebratory Reverence. For them, hosting is truly hell. Nu Sass presents Brontë Sister House Party, written by Courtney Bailey, which premiered at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival in 2021 for the Confluence Regional Writers' Project, and was awarded the 2022 St. Louis Theatre Circle Award.
Elsewhere, death serves as an explicit expression of moral or religious purity. Think Helen Burns in Jane Eyre. (Claire Allfree) The poet Ali Trotta presents her new book, Offerings for Ordinary Gods, on Whatever: I’ll never forget when, after reading and loving Jane Eyre, I read Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. If you’ve never read it, it focuses on Bertha Rochester before becoming Bertha Rochester. Rhys’ book not only gives her a different name, but an entirely full and rich history. In fact, Rhys was so furious about Bertha simply being the madwoman in the attic, she set out to write her a life. And I loved Wide Sargasso Sea for itself and for its intertextuality—how it existed on its own and in conversation with Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Another author, Amy Chozick, also chooses Wide Sargasso Sea as one of her favourite novels on Debutiful. Marie Claire lists the best romantic films of 2026, so far. And Wuthering Heights 2026 had to be on it, of course: Between Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Emerald Fennell has proven that her films are water-cooler conversation starters. This year, she took on Emily Brontë’s iconic gothic novel Wuthering Heights, with Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Fennell faced controversy, with some fans accusing the director of whitewashing Heathcliff and oversexualizing the source material. Still, it's a feast for the eyes—and who can resist a score by Charli xcx? (Abby Monteil Contributions by Sadie Bell) Coveteur asks some "fashion girls" what their reading list is for the summer. The Book: "I finished Eve Babitz's Sex and Rage while in LA and am about halfway through Wuthering Heights, so that will be coming with me to the UK and France." The Reasoning: "I’ve been really into pre-gaming my vacations by reading novels based on my next destination. I started it last year when I happened to read Patti Smith’s Devotion before going to Paris, and it made the anticipation of sitting at a Parisian cafe so much sweeter. A few months ago I picked up Deborah Levy’s The Cost of Living during a trip to London, and will be returning to the city with Wuthering Heights. I can’t say it’s a particularly relaxing read, but I am looking forward to being haunted by gothic literature while in London." (Tina Zhang)
Set in Sydney, Time Travel For Beginners centres on characters Anna, Jade and Teddy, each searching for answers in complicated lives, a quest that brings them to a nondescript shop called the Time Travel Agency. Here, customers are offered travel to wherever they wish in the past without altering the future in any way. Does meeting Charlotte Brontë walking on the moors sound interesting? Or seeing the construction of Stonehenge? Would revisiting their teenage self be intriguing? What moment in people’s lives would they travel to? And, how would it help them understand the present? (Lenny Ann Low)
The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever in Newcastle Live. An alert for tomorrow, July 23, at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: In-person 2pm Brontë Space at the Old School Room Online 7:30pm Zoom
In chapter three of Wuthering Heights, Mr Lockwood’s encounter with Catherine Earnshaw’s ghost is shaped by the sensory. What he thinks is the tapping of a fir branch famously turns out to be Catherine’s ‘little, ice-cold hand’ at the window. In this Thursday talk, Meg Duell and Claire O’Callaghan explore the senses in Wuthering Heights and discuss Duell’s award-winning article ‘No Atom Rendered Void: The Aerial and Alchemical Enchantment of Wuthering Heights’, winner of the Brontë Studies Early Career Essay Prize for 2025. Together, they will explore how Emily Brontë uses air, weather, and atmosphere to turn windows, mirrors and gates into ‘portals of enchantment’, creating the unique conditions for the earthly and spiritual worlds to meet.
CrimeReads lists some "LGBTQIA+ Crime Fiction To Check Out This Summer": Catherine Friend, The Lost Brontë (Bywater Books, August 18) In this Gothic-inspired novel about love and forgery in Brontë country, young Lilianne Loxley finds herself in service at the large country estate of Lord Bexton. She is devoted to the works of the Brontë sisters and is soon drawn into a conspiracy to write a ‘lost’ novel by Emily Brontë for Lord Bexton, a plot that can make or destroy fortunes. The house is haunted by lemon-scented ghosts and a portrait on the wall has eyes on her. Only the love of a housemaid named Wren disturbs her in a pleasant way. When Lily discovers a surprising connection between the Brontë family and Lord Bexton, she is forced to make dangerous decisions. You don’t have to be a Brontë fan to be drawn into the atmospheric story. (Queer Crime Writer)
Midway through Brontë: The World Without, three sisters clasp one another in what initially appears to be a passionate embrace. Look closer: they are actually wrestling. They chase and tug at one another, fighting over an envelope like rowdy, fussy children. Sibling love may last forever, sibling peace barely a heartbeat. That contradiction is the richest vein in Helen Juvonen’s final production as co-artistic director of Guild Festival Theatre. One of three sisters herself, Juvonen has chosen Jordi Mand’s domestic drama about perhaps the most famous siblings in Victorian literature, the Brontës. The result is an intermittently compelling family portrait that focuses on the fierce quarrels that can run alongside abiding tenderness. (...) One of the play’s most perceptive achievements is its layered portrait of the sisters’ relationship. In the Brontë household, rivalry and self-doubt live side by side — a tension most affecting in Anne. Overshadowed by her sisters and overlooked by critics, she carries the quiet pain of feeling herself the lesser talent. As Emily complains about hostile reviews, Lucia exposes Anne’s hurt with quiet, clear-eyed restraint as she quips in a puff of breath, “That’s better than being forgotten.” Juvonen’s farewell finds the human pulse beneath the literary legend: three women elbowing for room at the same table, set against one of Toronto’s most evocative backdrops. If downtown feels like a page crammed with noise and haste, this destination offers a change of edition. (Alessandro Stracuzzi)
Community Impact announces an upcoming local student production of Jane Eyre, The Musical by Gordon &/ Caird:
‘Jane Eyre’ Lone Star College-Tomball invites community members to attend its musical production of “Jane Eyre,” which tells the story of the governess’s life from childhood through adulthood. Tickets will be available for purchase at the door. Aug. 27-28, 7 p.m.; Aug. 29, 2 p.m and 7 p.m. Ticket prices TBD 30555 Tomball Parkway, Tomball
Heather Caliendo: What are some of your favorite novels?MJ Soni: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: In my debut mystery, The Masala Chai Mystery Club, my protagonist, librarian Neeti Shah, is inspired by Jane Eyre. And that part is autobiographical. I read Jane Eyre when I was about fourteen, and it was life-altering for me. I was surprised at how independent Jane was, and shocked when she refused to marry Rochester when he made an unacceptable proposition to her. It was the first time I learned what true courage and agency really mean. Her haunting cover of Kate Bush's Yorkshire-inspired Wuthering Heights was another standout moment, made even better when she led a call and response on who could do the spookiest callout to the moors beyond Halifax. (Jess Blissitt) An AI recommends historical romances in BookClub, including Jane Eyre. Mental Floss list some of the authors included in Ernest Hemingway's personal library, including Emily Brontë. More local newspapers cover Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever events: TopSouth Now, Greenfield Recorder, Great Yarmouth Mercury, Eastern Daily Press. .. The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 51, Issue 3, July 2026) is available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts: %20(1).v1.jpg) ‘A hot July day’: Editorial Introduction
pp 211-213 Author: O'Callaghan, Dr. Claire
Research Articles
Rediscovering Anne Carus Wilson
pp. 214-229 Author: Burstein, Moriam Elizabeth
Abstract:
This article recovers the work of Anne Carus Wilson (1787–1859), who was the wife of William Carus Wilson (1791–1859), the model for Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1847). Anne Carus Wilson has been ignored in accounts of the Brontës, despite her known involvement in the Clergy Daughters’ School. Now virtually forgotten, Carus Wilson was a successful children’s author in her own right, whose output during the 1820s and 1830s included short fiction, a novel, multiple devotional works, periodical articles and a children’s biblical card game. This article argues that analysing her surviving work clarifies how she and her husband may have disseminated their Evangelical Calvinism to students at their various schools, even as she sought to model forms of Christian activism for British children in general.
‘Let me try to wait His will in silence’: Silence and Faith in Jane Eyre
pp. 230-244 Author: Lewis, Ariadne
Abstract:
Silence in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) is often unfavourably contrasted with the power of speech and ‘telling the story’. However, the novel’s silences are much more complex than simple signs of oppression or roadblocks to self-expression. Silences in Jane Eyre reveal Jane’s spiritual growth and a narrative of transformation in her relationship with God and Rochester. Jane initially reads God as silent in response to her prayers, which reading shapes her understanding of divine providence and plan for her life. She sees a similar sort of silence reflected in her earthly relationships, and these experiences of silence shape how she uses silence towards those around her. However, when the ‘mysterious summons’ breaks God’s silence, Jane comes to believe that there is a providential purpose behind the silence of God, allowing her to redeem and repurpose silence in her relationships.
‘Amusing you with an old world story’: Relating to the Past in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
pp. 245-257 Author: Walters, Elijah
Abstract:
This essay revisits the topic of narrative structure in Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) by exploring similarities between Helen’s diary and John Bunyan’s The Life and Death of Mr Badman (1680). As Brontë’s novel shifts from the Gilbert frame narrative to Helen’s Gothic diary, she introduces her topics of reform through an interpolation of Bunyan’s seventeenth-century fiction. Brontë’s careful interaction with Bunyan’s text makes The Tenant of Wildfell Hall not simply a commentary on Victorian society but also a transformative engagement with literature from the past.
Why Trees Matter in Wuthering Heights
pp. 258-275 Author: Defant, Ivonne
Abstract:
Trees are not a remarkable feature of the Brontë moors—trees are indeed rare–yet their very dearth is rife with significance in terms of both gender and ecology. This article proposes that the trans-corporeal interplay between trees and Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter, Cathy, in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) foregrounds ideas of transformation, connection and preservation. The episode of the fir tree in Lockwood’s dream introduces the reader to Catherine’s past and therein the past of the moorland: ancient forests that once blanketed the landscape participating in its formation. Drawing upon an intersection between matrilineality and the ecological history of the landscape centred on the arboreal, this article demonstrates how Brontë interweaves the identity of the moorland with the identities of mother and daughter. While Catherine’s arboreal embodiment allows Cathy to retrieve the spirit of the mother and of the place, trees enroot the self of Catherine, Cathy and the land, interconnecting and enriching them.
The ‘Pets’ of Edward Fairfax Rochester
pp. 276-288 Author: Pope, Liam George
Abstract:
In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Rochester’s dog, Pilot, introduces Jane and Rochester, essentially setting into motion the main plot of the novel. To use Ivan Kreilkamp’s term, Pilot eventually becomes something of an anthroprosthetic seeing eye dog for his owner when he is partially blinded following the fire at Thornfield Hall. Anthroprosthesis refers to an anthropomorphic being that fits the role of a living ‘prosthesis’ for an injured or otherwise disabled human character. This article argues that Jane, upon returning to find Rochester at Ferndean Manor, willingly replaces Pilot in his capcity as Rochester’s ‘guide dog’, becoming an anthroprosthetic human guide dog parallel.
The Earliest American Reactions to Wuthering Heights: Some New Findings
pp. 289-297 Author: Evans, Robert C.
Abstract:
This Special Interest Article describes and quotes from over thirty ‘new’ responses to Wuthering Heights that were published in the United States immediately after the novel was first printed there in 1848 and in several later decades of the nineteenth century. These newly collected responses indicate that the book was at first strongly criticised, whereas other reviews offered occasional positive comments, although even these were often mixed with censure. In the decades following the novel’s initial American appearance, it was still sometimes described negatively; however, by the 1870s, opinion had clearly shifted, with Emily Brontë praised for her bold genius. Taken together, these reviews illustrate the vagaries of literary interpretation and the ways in which some books, initially condemned by their earliest reviewers, can eventually be fully accepted into the canon of great literature. Book Reviews
Anne Brontë and Lord Byron: Lost Echoes of Influence
pp. 298-300 Reviewed by Cook, Peter
Violence and the Brontës: Language, Reception, Afterlives
pp. 301-303 Reviewed by Curzon, Rachel
“Wuthering Heights”, a Film Directed by Emerald Fennell, Warner Bros., 2026
pp. 304-306 Reviewed by Seijo-Richart, Maria
The Edinburgh Companion to the Brontës and the Arts
pp. 307-309 Reviewed by Stoneman, Patsy
The High Flight: 50 Poems Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Hawk
pp. 310-312 Reviewed by Van Der Meer, Carolyne
A new mural of Charlotte Brontë has gone up on the strand-line walls of Kilkee beach in Co. Clare, marking the town's real historical link to the novelist: Charlotte and her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls spent a week of their honeymoon there in 1854. The mural was commissioned by Kilkee Civic Trust, the group behind the town's four-year-old Brontë Festival, with sponsorship from Creative Ireland Clare. It occupies one of four wall spaces on the strand that were once used for alley or racquet ball — a game associated with actor Richard Harris, who was known for playing it there decades ago, though the tradition has since faded. The artist behind the piece is Marcus Vallböhmer, a German-born muralist based in Farrihy, between Kilkee and Doonbeg, who moved to West Clare in 2023 with his Swiss wife after buying a farmhouse there. He described the Kilkee commission as an unusually demanding one, given the exposed conditions — weather, tides, and constant public visibility on a working beach — though he said passersby frequently stopped to admire the work and offer encouragement as he painted. (AI summary from the original by Sharon Dolan D'Arcy)
Los Angeles Times interviews Ewan Mitchell (Joseph in Wuthering Heights 2026... and Aemond in House of Dragons): Between Seasons 2 and 3 [of House of Dragons], Mitchell filmed Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights.” He had previously worked with the filmmaker on 2023’s “Saltburn,” for which he auditioned using a Harold Pinter monologue. For “Wuthering Heights,” Fennell simply texted Mitchell asking him to play Joseph, a servant in the Earnshaw house, whose sexual depravity electrifies Cathy. “I was like, ‘If you asked me to shine your shoes, Emerald, I would do that,’” Mitchell says. “All of her characters are so vibrant and so nuanced, and there is such a vision you see in her films. She’s a one-of-a-kind, singular visionary. I’ve learned so much working with Emerald that I’ve taken forward in my career.” (Emily Zemler)
"Wuthering Heights' (Warner), de Charlie XCX Mientras muchos esperaban este viernes su nuevo disco de estudio, son otros muchos los que consideran que el mejor trabajo de la revolucionaria y joven compositora británica que aceleró el pop es la banda sonora que este mismo año publicó para la revisión cinematográfica de 'Cumbres borrascosas'. (Javier Herrero) (Translation)
Olbia Punto (Italy) describes the new novel by Maria Laura Berlinguer, La Cena delle Anime, like this : Si è svolto di recente, il primo appuntamento della XV edizione della rassegna letteraria "Liberamente Sopra le Righe" nell'accogliente Piazza Duomo di Telti. Protagonista della serata Maria Laura Berlinguer con il suo nuovo romanzo "La cena delle anime" - una saga familiare che narra di una tormentata storia d'amore in pieno stile "Cime Tempestose" ma dall'ambientazione tipicamente sarda. Un viaggio tra memoria, tradizioni e segreti nella Sardegna del Meilogu. (Ilaria Del Giudice) (Translation) AnneBrontë.org publishes a post for the anniversary of Ellen Nussey's 1833 first visit to Haworth, built around her own vivid, decades-later recollections of the Brontë family, the parsonage, and a memorable moorland ramble with Emily and Anne. More Recent Articles
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