BrontëBlog

Matt Gibbons: Photographic Exhibition at the Brontë Birthplace

2026-11-08T02:25:17.728+01:00

A photographic exhibition at the Brontë Birthplace:

Matt Gibbons: Photographic Exhibition
6 November – 18 December 2026
Exhibition in the Posh Parlour, Brontë Birthplace

We are delighted to welcome Matt Gibbons as the newest Artist in Residence at the Brontë Birthplace. Matt has worked closely with the house for many years, documenting every stage of our journey—from the renovation process and our opening months to our grand Royal opening. His dedication, care, and eye for detail have shaped our of our story.
Based in Thornton, Matt Gibbons a photographer, draws his inspiration from the landscapes and wildlife of Yorkshire and further afield. Matt captures a wide variety of landscapes throughout the seasons, focusing on particular how different light impacts on the natural beauty of the landscape. Matt is often found taking long hikes on the moors and dales with his spaniel, Dexter!
One of Matt’s proudest achievements as a photographer was photographing the restoration of the Bronte Birthplace between 2024 and 2025 which then culminated in being invited to be the official photographer for the Birthplace for the official opening of the house by HM Queen Camilia in May 2025.
For this new exhibition, Matt turns his lens toward Thornton, Brontë Country, and the striking natural landscapes and wildlife of Yorkshire. His work captures the quiet beauty, character, and atmosphere of “God’s Own Country,” offering visitors a thoughtful visual journey through the places that shaped the Brontë family.
Matt’s exhibition will be displayed in the Posh Parlour, a fitting setting for work that has been so integral to the life of the house. We are honoured to celebrate his artistry in a room that has witnessed so much of our history.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre on stage

2026-11-07T10:59:20.851+01:00

Love London Love Culture announces a stage production of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for September 2027. The poster is a bit weird, though.

The production is set to open at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford on 9th September 2027 before embarking on a UK tour.
The Yvonne Arnauld Theatre and Shared Experience their co-production of a new stage adaptation of Anne Brontë’s pioneering novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which has been adapted for the stage by Katherine Moar and directed by Joanna Read.
Following its run at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, the production will then head to Oxford, Bath, Blackpool, Eastbourne and Malvern with other venues to be confirmed.
With tickets set to go on sale on the 6th November, casting and creative team has yet to be announced.
Commenting on the announcement, Joanna Read says: “It is with great pleasure that we can announce this new production in partnership with our co-producers, Shared Experience. Katherine is a dazzling writing talent, and we were thrilled to commission her to adapt Anne Brontë’s trailblazing novel about a woman’s fight for domestic independence and creative freedom. We look forward to bringing this emotional, gripping and shockingly relevant story to life on stage, both here at the Yvonne Arnaud and in theatres up and down the country.”
Who is the mysterious tenant of Wildfell Hall? High on the Yorkshire fells, isolated from society, Helen lives with her son in the ruined and desolate Wildfell Hall. Content until the intrusions of her gossiping neighbours and the affections of local farmer Gilbert force her to reveal her devastating story.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the compelling story of a woman fleeing a perilous marriage to find safety for her child and her pursuit of a self-sufficient life, eventually finding love on her own terms. Written in the mid-19th century, Anne Brontë’s radical and redemptive novel challenged contemporary notions of a woman’s place in society and is now considered to be one of the first feminist novels.

Still on stage, Great British Life recommends the Sally Cookson e production of Jane Eyre which opens on November 10th at Storyhouse in Chester.

A fresh stage adaptation is bringing new energy to a literary classic.
Jane Eyre will open at Storyhouse in Chester on November 10, 2026 and run until November 21, 2026, offering audiences a bold retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s iconic novel.
The production is a co-production between Storyhouse, Mercury Theatre Colchester, and Rose Theatre, in association with Northern Stage, supported by a grant from the Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST).
Suzie Henderson, creative director at Storyhouse, said: "Excitement is building with just two weeks to go until this thrilling new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s much-loved masterpiece opens on the Storyhouse stage as one of the undoubted highlights of our autumn season.
"Jane Eyre is a Storyhouse Originals production in partnership with the Mercury Theatre at Colchester and Rose Theatre at Kingston, and it’s been an exhilarating collaboration, creating a very special piece of live theatre which under Lily Dible’s exciting direction is both powerful and utterly compelling."
Directed by Lily Dyble, winner of the 2025 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, the production is based on the acclaimed adaptation by Sally Cookson, Mike Akers, and the original company. (Matthew Dougherty)

News and Star announces the Wordsworth Grasmere Gothic fiction book club programme.

The series runs throughout the winter and into the spring, exploring Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White on November 14, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla on February 6, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea on March 13, and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man on April 24. With just 12 places per session, tickets cost £7 per person.

Brontë Sisters Marathon in Torino

2026-11-07T04:59:45.181+01:00

Maratona Sorelle Brontë is a cultural event organized by the Circolo dei Lettori in Torino (Italy), taking place today. A whole day of lectures and readings on the Brontës:

Maratona Sorelle Brontë
November 7, 2026 |15:30 h
Il Circolo dei lettori, via Bogino 9, Torino

Le sorelle Brontë hanno scritto romanzi immortali, capolavori della narrativa ottocentesca pieni di pathos ed emozione. Ai romanzi si aggiungono i versi, nei quali emerge il fascino della natura selvaggia delle brughiere dello Yorkshire, tra distese d’erica, roccia e foschia. Un pomeriggio per riscoprire le loro voci, tra incanto, disperazione e il desiderio insopprimibile di affermare la propria identità.
>> h 15.3o
Catherine e Heathcliff. Il cuore selvaggio dell’amore
con Liliana Rampello
Due protagonisti indimenticabili e un amore travolgente: in Cime tempestose Emily Brontë racconta il fantasma dell’eros e dell’eccesso, e un desiderio indicibile che la società vittoriana perbene tiene sepolto nelle sue viscere. È un’attrazione irresistibile, suggellata nell’infanzia, che diventa il destino di due famiglie per tre generazioni.

>> h 16.30
Jane Eyre. Amare senza perdersi
con Carolina Capria
«L’ho sposato, lettore»: con queste parole – una delle citazioni più celebri della letteratura inglese – Charlotte Brontë compie una rivoluzione. Attraverso Jane Eyre e Mr Rochester esploriamo una relazione che sfida le gerarchie del suo tempo e immagina un amore fondato sulla parità, la libertà e il riconoscimento reciproco.

>> h 17.30
Il giardino e la brughiera
con Susanna Basso
Dopo aver lavorato alle edizioni italiane di Jane Austen, la traduttrice si è incamminata nella brughiera in compagnia di Jane Eyre, affrontando il capolavoro di Charlotte Brontë. Il lavoro non è stato semplice e lo racconta in questo incontro condividendo pensieri e sensazioni che l’hanno accompagnata nel corso di questo lungo viaggio.

Further information in La Repubblica.

Literature Cambridge: The Poetry of Emily Brontë

2026-11-07T04:51:18.401+01:00

Dr. Greta Colombani presents a live online lecture and seminar on The Poetry of Emily Brontë today, Saturday, November 7, 2026, as part of the Brontës Season series hosted by Literature Cambridge.

The Poetry of Emily Brontë
by Dr. Greta Colombani
November 7, 18:00 GMT
Zoom

Greta Colombani on the strange and powerful poetry of Emily Brontë.
During her short, private life, Emily Brontë agreed to share with readers outside her family only twenty-one of her poems, which appeared in the first book published by the Brontë sisters under pseudonyms and at their own expense: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846). Far from spontaneous, this act of sharing was prompted by a violation that had at first infuriated her. Charlotte had come up with the idea for the collection after discovering the notebooks where Emily had been secretly transcribing the poems she had been writing since her teenage years.
While the book ended up only selling two copies one year after publication, Emily’s poetry continues to attract and captivate readers today as a possible window into the soul of one of the most elusive and mysterious figures in English literature. This lecture will offer a journey through the lyrical depth, visionary intensity, and rich variety of Emily’s published and unpublished poems, from her fierce confrontations with loss, confinement, and her own mortality, to her evocations of the sublime, solitary wildness of the moors, to the several tales of violence, passion, and betrayal set in Gondal, the mythic country that she had invented with Anne as young adolescents and that never ceased to haunt her imagination.
Set text: Emily Brontë, Complete Poems, ed. Janet Gezari (Penguin, 1992). Greta will focus on particular poems from this volume; details will be sent to everyone who books.

A very ironic plot twist

2026-11-06T07:32:12.292+01:00

The Christian Science Monitor calls the fact that Jane Eyre is now mandatory reading in China and banned in some US school districts a 'plot twist!'

“We are talking about the Victorian period, after all,” says Sue Newby, learning officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England. But even still, these critics were the minority. The book was an immediate bestseller, and has only grown more popular in the nearly 180 years since.
That’s why Ms. Newby – and many parents – are so stumped by the novel’s recent debut on PEN America’s banned books list. This year, at least three Texas school districts restricted access to the novel as state lawmakers try to rid public school libraries of what they consider explicit content.
Even more perplexing is where the book is being celebrated: China. The country known for its strict internet and literary censorship just made “Jane Eyre” required reading for ninth graders from Beijing to Chengdu. The mixed reception hints at authorities’ shifting priorities in both countries.
“Maybe this isn’t the truth anymore, but we still think of America as being this kind of bastion of liberal values, and we think of China as being the opposite,” Ms. Newby says. “It’s very ironic.”
Reader, nobody knows.
Two Texas school districts – McAllen and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City – have announced plans to move “Jane Eyre” out of middle school libraries, citing compliance with Senate Bill 13. That’s a law passed last year that redefines what qualifies as harmful, indecent, or profane content in library books. New Braunfels’ school district went a step further, restricting the title to advanced literature students only.
Yet supporters of the bill, which also gives parents and school districts greater oversight of school library catalogs, say that books like “Jane Eyre” were never the intended targets.
“‘Jane Eyre’ is not profane, it is not indecent,” says Bonnie Wallace, a grassroots activist who helped lead the campaign to scrutinize the content of public school libraries. She suspects that some school districts “are going well beyond the intention of SB13 and trying to make it seem like [the law] is overreaching or exclusionary or reactionary.”
Another theory: These districts have all used AI “pretty extensively,” says Anne Russey, co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, which might have erroneously flagged “Jane Eyre” as problematic.
To be sure, the novel tackles some heavy themes, including mental illness. But Abigail Gordy, a mother who recently moved with her family from Schertz, Texas, to San Antonio because of the book bans, says these things are part of life.
“There’s nothing in there that’s too dark for an intermediate child to read. They see way worse online,” she says, adding that restricting children’s access to books “makes us closed-minded.”
Ms. Newby calls it a “perfect transition novel,” teaching teens resilience, compassion, and the importance of speaking truth to power as they start to confront the adult world for the first time. [...]
Her story has taught generations of young readers “to love ourselves and other people around us,” says Zhao Dongqing, a mother and physician in Beijing. “It’s very good for teenagers to read – as well as for adults.”
For Ethan Huang, a ninth-grade student who recently finished reading “Jane Eyre,” it was the childhood scenes that resonated the most – particularly when a young Jane stood up to her principal. “This made me think,” he says, standing outside a large bookstore in the Xidan neighborhood of Beijing. “I can take the initiative. When the teacher says something wrong, I will point [it] out.”
“How students respond to Rochester has changed quite a lot,” says Ms. Newby. “Young girls are much less romantic about him than I used to be.”
Instead, they’re more likely to see Jane’s marriage as “a cop out,” and say she “should have blazed her own trail and gone off traveling” at the end. (Lindsey McGinnis)

West End Theatre reports that Sadler’s Wells has announced its 2027 season, and it includes:

Wuthering Heights (Northern Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, 4 to 8 May): David Nixon’s gothic classic returns 25 years after its Bradford premiere, with a score by Claude-Michel Schönberg. (Julianna Barnaby)

Also on WhatsOnStage and The Stage.

Leamington Observer announces that

The public's ‘One and Only’ novel has been revealed by Stratford Literary Festival after its most successful festival yet.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the novel most people would keep if they were only allowed one book on their shelf, with Warwickshire native George Eliot’s Middlemarch taking second place.
The results of the nation’s One and Only novel were revealed at the end of a packed Autumn event, with bestselling novelist John Boyne and Shakespeare scholar Professor Emma Smith discussing the top five most chosen novels.
The other three were Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. (Philippa Mingins)

CulturizArte (Chile) reviews the play Las hermanas del viento.

Las hermanas del viento es una obra que emociona. La actuación de las tres actrices resulta armónica, afiatada, contenida; y por eso mismo, hermosa. Sus voces manejan perfectamente el tono íntimo, porque pareciera que los espectadores tenemos el privilegio de entrar en la casa parroquial de Haworth para ser testigos de sus rutinas de lectura y escritura, de sus pausas para tomar té, de sus dudas.
En total consonancia con el mundo emocional de las tres escritoras, el vestuario que evoca la época: negro, sobrio pero sutil gracias a las adecuadas transparencias; los detalles de la escenografía minimalista, como los taburetes que sirven de escritorios; la luz que conversa con cierta dimensión fantasmática de la puesta en escena; todo el lenguaje parateatral brinda una experiencia estética que merece ser vista, que se queda con el espectador cuando las luces se encienden regalándole una reflexión de alto vuelo lírico sobre cómo la escritura tiende un puente entre las almas y brinda un camino hacia la libertad. (Ana Catalina Castillo I.) (Translation)

Underdog in Mountain View

2026-11-06T02:03:06.869+01:00

Sarah Gordon's Underdog. The Other Other Brontë Sister opens in Mountain View, CA:

Underdog: The Other Other Brontë
by Sarah Gordon
Directed by Wynne Chan. With Raven Douglas, Aleisha Lew, and Naomi Murray
November 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 22 at 8:00pm
November 8, 15, 21 at 2:00pm
November 12 at 7:30pm
The Pear, 1110 La Avenida, Suite A, Mountain View, CA 94043

Anne Brontë steps out from the long shadow of her famous sisters in this inventive and fiercely intelligent play. As she confronts the literary machinery that elevates some voices while silencing others, Anne wrestles with ambition, legacy, and the cost of being overlooked. Blending humor with pointed insight, this work reclaims a narrative often left untold, inviting us to reconsider who gets remembered—and why.

Further information on Metro Silicon Valley.

The Road to Resilience

2026-11-05T07:44:08.786+01:00

Yesterday the Brontë Society had great news to share.

The Brontë Society, the charity that has protected and preserved the legacy of the Brontë family for over 130 years, has been awarded a grant of £232,058 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. As the Brontë Parsonage Museum looks towards its centenary in 2028, this funding will safeguard the Brontës’ internationally significant heritage for generations to come.
As the Brontë Society’s collection has outgrown its current storage capacity, more comprehensive, secure and maintained storage is needed. Plans for the necessary creation of a new, purpose built, environmentally controlled space will now be progressed with the support of this funding, alongside the development of a site-wide masterplan that will include the Museum and a trio of buildings on West Lane, Haworth.
The funding project, entitled ‘The Road to Resilience’, will support several key elements for the Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum, through:
The creation of new, bespoke storage and the relocation of what is an Arts Council England ‘Designated’ collection of over 8,000 objects - and the world’s largest collection of Brontë-related material
Exploring the viability of conserving and re-using spaces in the recently acquired nearby historic buildings on West Lane.
Documenting specialist curatorial expertise for the long-term benefit of staff, volunteers, researchers and visitors.
Rebecca Yorke, Director of the Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: “As we approach the Brontë Parsonage Museum's centenary in 2028, we have a responsibility not only to celebrate everything that has been achieved over the past one hundred years, but also to ensure this remarkable collection is protected for the next century and beyond.
“’The Road to Resilience’ is about laying those foundations. Through developing plans for improved, bespoke storage and preserving the specialist knowledge of our team through dedicated time spent capturing decades of expertise from the curatorial team, we can ensure the Brontës' extraordinary legacy continues to inspire staff, researchers, visitors and future generations.”
A part-time Project Curator has been recruited to oversee the sensitive relocation of the collections, coordinate updates to curatorial records and lead the capture of institutional knowledge as part of ‘The Road to Resilience’. During the process of transferring, logging and digitising the extensive collection, which features items used during the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne including early writings and drawings; poetry manuscripts and diary papers; correspondence; clothing; jewellery; locks of hair and household possessions; there will be opportunities for volunteers to engage with the collection.
Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “The Brontës hold a special place in the literary heritage of England, so we are delighted to support the Brontë Society with a grant to work towards a strong and resilient future for the organisation and the Brontë Parsonage Museum. It is fantastic news that thanks to National Lottery players, the Society can now develop plans to shape its future and continue to inspire the next generation as it approaches its centenary.”
‘The Road to Resilience’ project is due to be delivered between autumn 2026-2027, ahead of the centenary year celebrations for the Museum.

Also reported by The Telegraph and Argus.

We have three reviews of the production of Jane Eyre at Northern Stage, Newcastle. Northern Arts Review gives it 5 stars:

Olivia Marcus as Jane Eyre was astounding. Her mannerisms perfectly portrayed an honest, “poor, obscure, plain, little Jane”. Her depiction of this wonderfully peculiar and lonely character had all the confusion and frustration of someone trapped in the wrong circumstances and time. Her Mr Rochester (Gabriel Akuwudike) was wickedly manipulative with a marked dark streak, although Akuwudike managed to add complexity in the way he depicted Mr Rochester’s underlying affection and vulnerability. Special mention must go to Andrea Gatchalian, who absolutely dazzled the audience with her multiple roles as Helen and Adele. Adorable Adele (Gatchalian) brought some much-needed opportunities for lightness and laughter, and her bouncy childish joy and silliness gave the performance a balance. Leo Wan as Brocklehurst was as sinister as can be and had me quaking in my boots. Overall, the cast were incredible and made the production seamless and captivating.
The staging was sparse, featuring almost all the action on huge steps. This allowed, and indeed needed, a well thought-out and clever use of the space. The steps allowed hierarchies to be immediately clear, as well as allowing the small cast of eight to hustle and bustle around, using vertical space to make the supporting cast seem more numerous. The choreography (Natasha Harrison) was stylised and worked really well to add a dreamlike quality to the production. Movement and repetition were also used very cleverly to mark the passing of time and depict the gruelling and thankless routines that built the early part of Jane’s life.
It’s so tricky to translate a novel to a stage, especially one that’s so heavy with inner monologue and a central, isolated character. However, the genius way that this production tackled that not only successfully achieved this goal, but it demonstrated a new depth to Jane Eyre’s character. Even with a relatively small cast, it often felt like there was a larger chorus due to the ever-changing costumes, characters and frequent stylised movement. Shadows and clever lighting (Sánchez Roldán) often enhanced the feeling that the cast were more numerous. Cast members also frequently stood at the sides, observing the action, giving the whole performance an eerie feel of some unknown spectator.
I will not give out any spoilers, but the climax of the performance was heart-stopping – even if you’re a Jane Eyre nerd like me and already know the ending! This show was all-out genius; from the direction to the adaptation, and from the lighting to every single member of the cast. A true-to-text production, with ongoing and occasionally explosive airs of madness, loneliness, self-doubt and secrets. This was truly a triumph! (Melina Turner-Deeks)

Voice gives it 3 stars out of 5:

It was during Jane’s wedding and Bertha's revenge that the set finally had its moment. Jane, wearing a long trailing veil, seamlessly gliding up to the top of the stairs, cut a striking image. Additionally, during Bertha’s last hurrah, the black staircase lit up as she stood basking in the flames, accompanied by a monologue from RAYE's Click Clack Symphony. Not only did this moment give Bertha’s character more depth and integrity, but it was also one of the most beautiful and memorable stage visuals I’ve witnessed.
Ultimately, the production's intimate performances captured the tension and tenderness of Jane and Rochester's relationship and delivered some theatrical spectacles. I only wish that, for a story so rich in atmosphere, landscape and emotional depth, it had shown the same imagination and ambition in realising the world around Jane. (Ella Massey)

From Cultured. North East:

And suddenly, appearing as a light in the darkness, there’s a small figure in white ascending the staircase: Jane Eyre, about to relate her tale, or a shorter, impressionistic, techno-enhanced version of it.
Dear, indomitable Jane, dealt a poor hand in life but so sensible and likeable. Possibly my favourite literary heroine and possibly Charlotte Brontë’s thinly disguised self, since her novel was originally subtitled An Autobiography… and under the name Currer Bell, this being an age when female writers seeking publication had to bow to the patriarchy.
There is, you’ll be relieved to hear, acting as well.
I did, I confess, miss a few utterances amid the audio-storm, but Olivia Marcus quickly won me over, conveying Jane’s plucky forthrightness to the back of the auditorium. (David Whetstone)

We also have a couple of reviews of Lila Hassaine's JE. From L'Orient (France):

Jean Rhys avait déjà entrepris, dans La Prisonnière des Sargasses, de donner âme et voix à Antoinette Cosway. Quelques décennies plus tard, Lilia Hassaine tente, à son tour, de réhabiliter cette figure longtemps reléguée dans l’ombre. Revisiter un classique aussi emblématique que Jane Eyre est un défi considérable. Hassaine en restitue l’atmosphère gothique, mais son style peine parfois à traduire toute l’intensité du tumulte intérieur d’Antoinette, frôlant par moments le surplus d’informations au détriment d’un potentiel effet saisissant. (Roudy Darwich) (Translation)

From Biba:

Alors que la tendance est au thriller psychologique, l’autrice française Lilia Hassaine a frappé fort. Après son roman Panorama, elle vient de sortir son nouvel ouvrage aux éditions Gallimard, Je. Dans ce livre, elle aborde des sujets forts comme la manipulation mentale, le fameux gaslighting et les comportements pervers narcissiques, notamment dans la relation de couple. Une œuvre qui se situe à mi-chemin entre roman victorien et thriller intimiste contemporain. Pour cet ouvrage, elle s’est inspirée du personnage de la première femme de Rochester dans Jane Eyre, le roman culte de Charlotte Brontë. Elle lui donne ainsi une voix, un corps, une destinée. (Ava Skoupsky) (Translation)

Far Out Magazine looks into the influences of the film The Handmaiden on Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. According to Koimoi, Jane Eyre 2011 (though it's a picture of Jane Eyre 2006) is one of the '5 Best Movies To Watch If You Loved Verity'. Jane Eyre is one of '8 Classic Books That Are Still Perfect From Start to Finish' according to Collider.

Moonlight Shadow in Shanghai

2026-11-05T00:36:06.040+01:00

There has been a new chance to see the Huju opera Moon by the Lake, inspired by Jane Eyre in Shanghai:

临湖明月 (Moonlight Shadow )
Director: Yi Tianfu
With: Wang Bin and Zhu Zhen
Hongqiao Art Center, No. 888 Tianshan Road, Changning District, Shanghai
November 3-4, 2026

The polished revised edition of Huju opera Moonlight Shadow, produced by the Shanghai Changning District Huju Opera Heritage Preservation Center, premiered on Tuesday night at the Hongqiao Art Center.

It adapts Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre into a Shanghai folk-opera performed in Shanghainese, the intangible cultural heritage that bears distinctive Haipai cultural genes.

Belonging to Huju's iconic "suit-and-cheongsam" drama genre, the story is reset in early‑20th‑century Shanghai, a city deeply embedded in the Jiangnan cultural sphere. It traces orphan governess Feng Mingyue and Lu Peiyan, master of Linhu Manor. The pair goes through conflicts and misunderstandings before developing a sincere love built on mutual dignity and equality. The adaptation preserves the spiritual core of the original novel while infusing strong regional Shanghai and Jiangnan artistic charm. (Zheng Yiran in China Daily)

A new Wuthering Heights musical

2026-11-04T07:33:22.852+01:00

According to Seoul Economic Daily and others, we can expect a new Wuthering Heights musical in January 2027.

Shin Choon-soo, chief executive and producer of OD Company who has been active on Broadway, will unveil "Wuthering Heights," a new musical aimed at the global market, in January. It is his first global project in three years, following "The Great Gatsby," which opened on Broadway in 2024.
OD Company said at a news conference at SKY31 in Lotte World Tower on the 3rd that the original musical "Wuthering Heights" will have its world premiere at the CJ Towol Theater of the Seoul Arts Center from Jan. 26 to Feb. 28 next year. The production is a new adaptation by a Korean creative team of the novel by British author Emily Brontë.
"I remember staying up all night, overwhelmed with emotion, after reading the work as a middle school student," Shin said. "Turning such a well-known classic into a musical does carry some pressure, but I chose it because the source material is so compelling — it is hard to find a story this absorbing, with such deep interior lives and narrative power."
The production goes beyond the love and revenge between Heathcliff and Catherine that form the core of the novel, extending into the tragedy and passion carried on by the next generation. Where previous films and stage works focused mainly on the love, conflict and revenge surrounding Heathcliff, Catherine and Catherine's brother, this production widens the story to ask how the wounds of the parents' generation affect the one that follows.
Notably, one actor plays both Catherine and her daughter, portraying a figure who witnesses and consoles Heathcliff's loneliness and madness. "It poses a fundamental question about whether the wounds left by the parents' generation and the cycle of destructive revenge carry on into the next," Shin said.
Another distinguishing feature is that Korean creators led the development of the work. "I believed that the delicate emotional shading characteristic of Korean creative teams, and a musical language that maximizes narrative, could bring out the explosive energy of the original," Shin said. The book and lyrics are by Han Jae-eun, known for the musicals "Fan Letter" and "Time of Dogs and Cats," with music by Jo Woo-in, who composed the scores for "Nambeol" and "SPECIAL S."
Joining them are Michael Fentiman, a director who has worked in London's West End, and Jason Howland, an arranger active on Broadway. Howland is also known as the composer of the Korean original musical "Swing Days: Codename A." OD Company plans to present the work to Korean audiences first before taking it overseas. Specific overseas performance schedules and destinations have not yet been confirmed.
Shin has expanded his presence in the global musical market since bringing "The Great Gatsby" to Broadway in 2024. "The Great Gatsby" is still running on Broadway in an open-ended engagement, and has drawn about 1 million theatergoers and recorded about 200 billion won ($136 million) in revenue through its Broadway run and North American tour.
High production and operating costs mean the show has yet to break even. "Musicals are a genre where you can only turn a profit by sustaining performances over the long term through open-ended runs and tours," Shin said, stressing that productions must be developed and managed with a long-term view. The plan for "Wuthering Heights" is likewise to build competitiveness in the global market through continued performances rather than short-term box-office success. (Lee Hye-jin)

From The Korea Herald:

Producer Shin Chun-soo took “The Great Gatsby” from its 2024 Broadway premiere to London and Seoul. His next musical, another classic novel adaptation developed alongside “Gatsby,” carries the same global ambition but reverses the route.
“Wuthering Heights,” based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, will have its world premiere in Seoul in January, rather than in London, as Shin had once considered.
The 58-year-old veteran producer told reporters Tuesday that he decided to bet on a Korean writer and composer — and on Korean audiences, whom he described as deeply engaged and discerning.
“I really wanted this one to have its world premiere in Seoul,” he said. “I hoped to show it to these audiences first, then take it out to the world.”
The decision comes as “Gatsby” gives Shin a footing few Korean producers have had on Broadway. [...]
With “Wuthering Heights,” he has put a Korean writer and composer at the center, joined by Korean designers and an international team that is largely British.
“With ‘Gatsby,’ I read the English script and the translated script over and over, and fighting over every single line was really hard,” Shin said. “Working with Korean writers, the density of the story and the detail of the emotions really pile up. That is the solid core of this piece.”
The book and lyrics are by Han Jae-eun, known for intimate musicals “Fan Letter” and “It Rains Cats and Dogs.” The score is by Cho Woo-in, a classically trained composer who studied at Hanyang University and in US. Cho is not yet a mainstream name, but Shin said he recognized the Korean composer’s musicality long ago, and the two writers have been developing the show together since 2020.
Costume designer Kim Hwan, who works in Germany, and makeup designer Kim Nam-sun round out the Korean side. They are joined by British director Michael Fentiman, choreographer Alexzandra Sarmiento, set designer Max Jones and lighting designer Tim Lutkin, who designed “Life of Pi.” Jason Howland, who composed “Gatsby,” is the music supervisor and orchestrator.
Shin is also bringing a Broadway-style development process to a Korean stage. Most productions, he said, move quickly from setup to previews to opening night, leaving little time to fix what does not work.
For “Wuthering Heights,” OD Company has rented the 1,004-seat CJ Towol Theater for three months, though the show will run for only five weeks. The rest of the time goes to setup, technical and dress rehearsals and closed previews. (Park Ga-young)

We are not leaving the stages in Asia yet, as China Daily reports that a Huju opera called Moonlight Shadow is based on Jane Eyre.

The polished revised edition of Huju opera Moonlight Shadow, produced by the Shanghai Changning District Huju Opera Heritage Preservation Center, premiered on Tuesday night at the Hongqiao Art Center.
It adapts Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre into a Shanghai folk-opera performed in Shanghainese, the intangible cultural heritage that bears distinctive Haipai cultural genes.
Belonging to Huju's iconic "suit-and-cheongsam" drama genre, the story is reset in early‑20th‑century Shanghai, a city deeply embedded in the Jiangnan cultural sphere. It traces orphan governess Feng Mingyue and Lu Peiyan, master of Linhu Manor. The pair goes through conflicts and misunderstandings before developing a sincere love built on mutual dignity and equality. The adaptation preserves the spiritual core of the original novel while infusing strong regional Shanghai and Jiangnan artistic charm.
Helmed by Yi Tianfu, professor at Shanghai Theatre Academy, this upgraded version comes four years after its 2022 debut. National first-class actor Wang Bin takes on the role of Lu, while Zhu Zhen — the city's young Huju-opera intangible-cultural-heritage inheritor — plays heroine. The cast has refined vocal tunes, stage visuals, and character interactions to achieve more nuanced psychological expression.
"Onstage, every gesture, glance, and pause must convey unspoken inner thoughts, rather than merely reciting lines," Wang said. "For this revival, we have dug far deeper into subtle, progressive emotional shifts between our two characters to avoid flat performances."
Zhu pointed out the real-world dilemma facing Shanghainese inheritance. "Many young Shanghai residents can understand the dialect, yet feel too shy to speak it," she said. "Live theater gives us a vivid, public channel to hand down this precious linguistic heritage to younger generations." (Zheng Yiran)

On Literary Hub, Schneider K. Rancy writes about his Haitian retelling of The Odyssey, Beyond the Baths of Stars.

It’s hard to understate the importance of the classical tradition to postcolonial literature. The Puerto Rican playwright Luis Rafael Sánchez recast Sophocles’ Antigone in La pasión según Antígona Pérez, set in the fictional Caribbean republic of Molina, to portray the United States’s extreme economic and political suppression of 1960s Puerto Rican nationalist movements.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys’s response to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the Dominican-British novelist fabulated a Creolized backstory for the “mad wife” Rochester abuses and keeps stashed away in his attic, painting a picture of colonial detest and neglect. The Martinican poet/playwright Aimé Césaire brilliantly adapted and enriched Shakespeare’s The Tempest into Caliban’s existential drama after having his name, language and identity stolen from him upon Prospero’s arrival in Une Tempête, dramatizing the colonial dilemma of all Caribbean island nations. More contemporaneously, Jamaican poet and memoirist Safiya Sinclair viscerally wrote to and through Césaire’s own seminal rewrite in her guttural poetry collection Cannibal to reframe the issue of postcolonial identity for one who has immigrated to the metropole of the imperial power, in this case the United States. This Caribbean tradition of literary hybridity, intertextuality, and relation is long.
In college, I didn’t know or care about any of that.

In an interview for Cadena Ser (Spain), journalist Ana Mellado mentions Emily Brontë as one of her influences.

Nelly's Version

2026-11-04T00:30:00.000+01:00

A new edition of Eva Figes's 1977 retelling of Wuthering Heights from Nelly's point of view was published a few weeks ago:

Nelly's Version
by Eva Figes
Introduction by Susan Faludi
Dalkey Archive Press
Paperpack: 9781628976618
eBook: 9781628976625
Publication Date: August 16th, 2026

Eva Figes' inventive reshaping of the psychological thriller, Nelly's Version—part dark comedy, part mystery novel—offers an unsettling journey into the mind of a witty woman stuck in a pastless present.
A middle-aged woman suffering from amnesia checks into a small-town hotel under the pseudonym Nelly Dean with a suitcase full of cash and no idea where it, or she, came from. Distrustful of everyone from the waiter who serves her lunch to the store clerk who claims to know her from grade school, Nelly fears she is part of a conspiracy. At the same time, however, she remains strangely indifferent to the clues that might explain her puzzling circumstances and is unaffected by the many assaults, robberies, arsons, and other crimes occurring around her.
Named after the housekeeper in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean is an endearingly unhinged character who will fascinate and excite readers in this deranged literary thriller, featuring an introduction by Susan Faludi.

Tunstall church is in need of repairs

2026-11-03T07:32:16.119+01:00

The Westmoreland Gazette reports that Tunstall church has launched a £500,000 appeal for repairs.

St John the Baptist Church in Tunstall, located in North Lancashire and famed for its links to the Brontë sisters, hopes to raise the funds for specialist conservation of its windows, stonework and parapets.
A recent survey found that several stained glass windows are in urgent need of repair, including those depicting Joan of Arc, St George, and St Michael. [...]
The Grade I listed church was attended by the Brontë sisters during their time at school in nearby Cowan Bridge and later appeared as Brocklebridge Church in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Sonia Veneziani-Rocha)

Variety and others announce that House feat. John Cale by Charli XCX for Wuthering Heights 2026 has been nominated for the Song - Feature Film category of the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Also, Nicolette Di Dia for Music Supervision - Film.

Speaking of Wuthering Heights 2026, The Guardian can no longer discuss films without mentioning it. In an article about the film Wicker getting the 4DX treatment:

The undeniable success of Wicker in 4DX (if many giggly “getting that wick” TikToks are to be believed) raises the question: is there a future for 4DX in erotic movies? Could we next see a Fifty Shades of Grey or Basic Instinct rerelease in 4DX? Could the format have saved Emerald Fennell’s should-be horny Wuthering Heights? Wicker may have opened fifth in the North American box office, but it has already achieved the improbable: unlocking new, tantalizing and ridiculous possibilities in the realm of cinema. (Adrian Horton)

Cosmopolitan recommends watching the 2009 adaptation of the novel starring Tom Hardy and Sarah Lancashire. While BBC announces that its Christmas streaming on iPlayer will include both Jane Eyre 2006 and To Walk Invisible.

Times Now News describes The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as 'The classic book that exposed the dark side of marriage long before modern feminism'.

Lord of the Heights

2026-11-03T00:30:00.000+01:00

A Wuthering Heights fae romantasy. Of course it is.

Lord of the Heights. A Wuthering Heights Fae Romantasy
Scarlett J. Thorne
CAEZIK - Showrunner Press
ISBN: 9781647102074 (paperback)
October 29, 2026

Booklist calls Lord of the Heights "a dangerously romantic journey" and says Scarlett J. Thorne takes "classic gothic romance to new heights....dark retelling with a searing love story that fans of Rebecca Yarros, Rachel Gillig, and Sarah J. Maas will devour."
The moors do not forget. They hunger.
James Lockwood came to Yorkshire looking for silence. Instead, a storm kills his car, the road vanishes, and Wuthering Heights opens its door as if it has been expecting him.
Nelly Dean knows why he has come. Behind the stone walls waits the true story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff: a girl with fire in her blood, a boy carried home in a storm, a blood oath carved between worlds, and a love fierce enough to tear the veil apart.
This is Wuthering Heights reimagined as dark gothic fae romantasy: haunted moors, ancient bargains, a sentient manor, ghosts that are never only ghosts, and a romance as dangerous as it is unforgettable.
Catherine tried to seal away her magic by choosing a mortal life. Heathcliff returns as something older and darker than the orphan the world remembers. As the solstice nears, the past begins repeating, and Lockwood must decide whether this house is asking him to witness a tragedy or help break the curse.
A standalone gothic fantasy romance for readers who want classic atmosphere, fae magic, morally gray obsession, and a haunted love story that chooses healing over revenge.
One manor. One curse. One chance to break it.

Let's judge whan young women are reading

2026-11-02T07:53:08.676+01:00

A columnist from The Telegraph wonders 'Why are young women so into fairy porn and sexy monsters? The answer can’t be good' (There are increasing numbers of young men absorbing all sorts of far-right messages, but by all means let's focus on judging what young women are reading for fun).

Maas and co are clearly wonderful, almost psychic conjurors and entertainers, but they are no Charlotte Brontë or Edith Wharton, authors who gripped and entranced me in my own turbulent, disillusioned and yes, "heteropessimist" early days.
Of course people should enjoy and consume romantasy if that's what fires them up. And no wonder that it does: the genre is, at heart, both crude and obvious, which chimes perfectly with the sensibilities of the social-media age. But I can't help but feel that its rise marks both the end of the heyday of English literature, and perhaps of maturity itself. (Zoe Strimpel)

We sort of went through this with Twilight back in the day, didn't we? Women are never reading what they are supposed to be reading for their own good. Even in the days of Charlotte Brontë, of course, women weren't supposed to be reading her books.

A contributor to Hindustan Times writes about 'Reading Nobel Winner Anne Carson in the Kullu Valley'.

Ten of us are on two long rectangular tables set side by side –a bookshop owner, a chef, a snowboarding instructor, a wildlife conservationist, a Wall Street banker turned photographer, a retired Indian Administrative Services officer, a therapist, two writers and a librarian. We are trying to understand this complicated poem, this pastiche of memoir, of descriptions of the landscape, of dreams and an obsession with Emily Brontë. [...]
Running through these landscapes of grief and loneliness, is our narrator’s obsession with Emily Brontë whose collected works she carries around with her. The fifth Brontë sibling, a motherless girl who wrote poetry and but one novel – Wuthering Heights, which was published when she was 29. A year later, she was dead.
“Emily Brontë was good at cursing”, our poem’s narrator tells us.
Elsewhere she puzzles “How did Emily come to lose faith in humans?”
What did Emily know of evil and heartbreak? How could she write poetry and a novel like Wuthering Heights, so full of savagery and passion? Our narrator wonders.
Sitting at the table, we are trying to make sense of these interwoven worlds as well.
“What do the ‘hanged puppies’ in the poem mean?” the snowboard instructor says.
“It’s a line from Wuthering Heights,” someone replies.
“But hanging puppies-why?” the chef says.
“Emily Brontë was an animal lover, maybe that’s her way of showing villainy and the wildness in human nature, to have characters like Hareton and Heathcliff hanging puppies,” I say. I have wondered about this myself earlier and, naturally, have already researched it online.
Someone orders a black bean burger, someone else an avocado sandwich. The food arrives, the bread is broken and passed around. The conversation flows on, drifting through Brontë’s dark moors, Carson’s dreams and her grief, and back into our own lives.
I look at my watch. Somehow, three hours have passed. (Sonya Dutta Choudhury)

Young Hollywood recommends '5 Classics To Read To Get In The Mood For The Colder Months' and one of them is

1 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Starting off strong with one of my all-time favorite books we have Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Filled with secrets and a moody, gothic atmosphere, the book follows Jane after she takes a job as a governess and falls deeply in love with her employer, the mysterious Mr. Rochester. Tormented by her past, her current situation, and the dark secrets coming to light in this haunting manor, Jane is forced to face her reality and learn how to grow, making this novel a classic coming-of-age story. Considered one of the first feminist novels (as I further argued on in my AP Lit exam), Jane Eyre is a book about discovery, both of the self as of what lies beneath of what’s in front of your eyes. Full of substance, beautiful language, and one of the greatest twists in literature, Jane Eyre is just one of those books that haunts you long after finishing it and can enhance the tone of these months to come. (Renee Caballero)

Discussing film adaptations of Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, a contributor to Collider claims that

There is no guarantee that a great book will also become a great film, as it’s actually seldom that they are equivalent in quality. There has certainly been no shortage of amazing classics of literature, the likes of which everyone had to read in high school, that were absolutely ruined when they were adapted to the screen. This year’s Wuthering Heights is only the most recent example, as Emerald Fennell only adapted half of the novel and seemed to entirely miss the point of what Emily Brontë was trying to say. (Liam Gaughan)

AnneBrontë.org posts about 'Charlotte Brontë’s Ghost At Stonegappe'.

Jane Eyre in Newcastle

2026-11-02T00:30:00.000+01:00

The Sally Cookson adaptation of Jane Eyre is coming to Newcastle:

Jane Eyre
Adapted by Sally Cookson, Mike Ayers, and The Original Company
Directed by Lily Dyble
November 3-7
Stage 1, Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RH, UK

A Mercury Theatre Colchester, Rose Theatre Kingston and Storyhouse Chester production in association with Northern Stage and supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.”
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.
Nearly two centuries on, Charlotte Brontë’s groundbreaking story is as thrilling and relevant as ever in this bold production directed by 2025 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award-winner Lily Dyble, based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company’s trailblazing adaptation.
Audio described and British Sign Language interpreted: Thu 5 Nov, 6pm
Interpreted by Caroline Ryan
Captioned: Sat 7 Nov, 2.30pm

Approaching a Haunting

2026-11-01T11:38:04.678+01:00

The Rumpus reviews Deborah Lutz's This Dark Night:

A lifelong Brontë reader, I received the book eagerly, but did not take its editor’s words literally. Having read it, I realize she meant them that way. There are biographers desperate to know a life from the outside in and the inside out, and there are biographers aware that their subject is fundamentally unknowable. Lutz is the latter, and she works instead to produce a social and domestic history of those closest to Emily, a natural history of the West Yorkshire moors Brontë immortalized in Wuthering Heights, and a material history of Emily’s writing practice which, in the hands of Lutz’s meditative attention, approaches the mystical. “Expertise,” dry and academic, is the wrong word to characterize Lutz’s understanding of the Brontës. Victorianists tend to work exclusively with the established texts of their subjects, but Lutz spent several years immersed in Emily Brontë’s hand-written manuscripts (detailed photographs of these are included in the book) and inhabiting Brontë’s hometown of Haworth, West Yorkshire, and Brussels, where she studied alongside her older sister Charlotte at the Pensionnat Héger. Lutz pored over the local weather reports of Emily’s lifetime and learned the flora and fauna of the moors so integral to Brontë’s life and work (Emily could identify local birds by their song and kept a collection of their feathers she found on her daily walks). In This Dark Night, Lutz’s deep knowledge of Emily Brontë transcends biography and—appropriate for her subject, who wrote one of the most famous ghost stories in Western literature—approaches a haunting. (Emily Van Duyne)

The Jane Eyre performances at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, London: get a review by a young student in London Now:

Jane Eyre, the classic novel by acclaimed author Charlotte Brontë, has been beautifully reimagined by director Lily Dyble, as it tours across England, where it made its second stop at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, from 13th - 24th October 2026.
What captured the imagination of its spellbound audience, was the accuracy to the timeless storyline, which is what makes it one of the most read novels of our age, whilst also portraying Jane in an incredibly genuine and down to earth way, which could perhaps be argued is missed by the countless movie adaptations of the book.
When asked about her thoughts on the play, actress Aamira Challenger, who played both Grace Poole and Diana in this production, commented, "There are so many angles that a director could choose to explore and, in our production, director Lily Dyble wanted to highlight Jane’s capacity for emotion and self-determination. Jane has big feelings, strong will, and the tenacity to challenge the society she is within".
Moreover, the staging and special effects utilised in the play, while at first appearing quite modern for such a classic, allow for thought-provoking ideas on dynamics between various characters, as well as showcasing Jane's internal struggle throughout the play. (Ava Sims)

GBOpera reviews the Wuthering Heights performances in Roma:

Nella scrittura di Brontë, il paesaggio non accompagna i personaggi: li determina. Il vento, l’isolamento e la natura ostile costituiscono un’estensione delle loro contraddizioni. Evocare la brughiera non basta; occorrerebbe farne una presenza drammatica. Altrimenti lo Yorkshire diventa una cartolina piuttosto malinconica, con il vantaggio di non richiedere neppure un viaggio. Il limite maggiore dell’operazione rimane tuttavia l’incapacità di distinguere la passione dalla sua rappresentazione esteriore. Il tragico nasce dalla tensione fra ciò che viene espresso e ciò che resta impronunciabile. Quando ogni sentimento pretende immediatamente il proprio culmine, la progressione drammatica si annulla. Persino Wagner, che aveva una certa familiarità con gli amori impossibili, sapeva alternare il fortissimo al silenzio. Qui l’intensità rischia di diventare una condizione permanente, con il prevedibile risultato di non impressionare più nessuno. Cime tempestose richiederebbe una regia capace di interrogare l’ambiguità morale dei protagonisti, anziché illustrarne incessantemente le sofferenze. Brontë non aveva scritto un manuale di educazione sentimentale, ma un romanzo nel quale l’amore diventa una forma di sopraffazione. La differenza è sostanziale. Quando il tormento si trasforma in maniera e la crudeltà in convenzione melodrammatica, anche la più feroce delle passioni perde la propria capacità di inquietare. Heathcliff, in fondo, non ha bisogno di gridare per essere terribile. Gli basta esistere. Il resto è meteorologia. (Davide Oliviero) (Translation)

Haworth is a popular destination this Halloween, according to the BBC:

With its dramatic landscapes and links to the Brontë sisters, Haworth has long been a popular destination for tourists.
But recently, the West Yorkshire village has been busier than ever, according to some residents and business owners, and is now attracting a new type of visitor - one brought in by how picturesque the place looks on social media, particularly during autumn.
A quick search on platforms like TikTok or Instagram shows a whole host of content promoting Haworth as a must-visit this October.
Posts also highlight the queues that can form outside shops, especially during the weekend. (...)
Karen Roberts has worked at The Cabinet of Curiosities for nearly 20 years and says the shop has been especially busy this year.
"It suddenly started about six weeks ago to the point where we've had queues outside every weekend waiting to come in," she says.
"This week, with it being half-term, we've literally had people outside every day."
An old-fashioned shop front with large windows showing a Halloween display, with pumpkins and autumn leaves. A queue of people can be seen standing outside the door.
Although the business previously had a social media presence, she thinks the reason it "all blew up like this" is due to the sheer amount of people posting independently about the shop, and the village, on their own accounts.
"We've always let people film, we've never had a problem with that, but definitely people are asking me now, can they come in and film?," she explains.
"Then they share it, and every day you turn on Facebook and you go, 'oh my God, there is more'."
Many customers know about the connection to the Brontë family, and the parsonage where they lived is now a museum.
Emerald Fennell's 2026 adaption of Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, also sparked an interest in Brontë country. (...)
Enjoying a day off work, Ella and Brian Thomas travelled from Greater Manchester to visit Haworth, inspired by a friend's Instagram post.
"With Wuthering Heights coming out, I think a lot of people have been seeing it on TikTok and making videos, so it was me who suggested to come here," Ella says.
The couple wanted to find somewhere "nice and autumnal" for a walk, and say they've previously visited York and Edinburgh for a "similar vibe".
"I knew it was the home of the Brontës, but I didn't know much more of the history than that," Brian explains. (Fiona Callow)

Leicestershire Live insists in the wonders of Haworth, "Britain's prettiest village":

Haworth has been hailed as one of Britain's prettiest villages, drawing visitors with 70 independent shops, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and stunning autumn countryside walks to the Brontë Waterfall. (...)
Haworth is inextricably linked with literary heritage, having been home to the Brontë sisters, whose celebrated works including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have left an indelible mark on English literature. The village is currently adorned in its autumnal finery, though visitors keen to soak up its seasonal splendour are fast running out of time. (Jamie Barlow and Alycia McNamara)

And, of course, being Halloween and all, we cannot avoid having the usual spooky stuff with ghosts, hauntings, and, well... the usual suspects of the season. The Telegraph is full of them in this article about the Brontë Birthplace:

Wandering through the Birthplace, one can imagine the young Brontës scurrying around, conjuring up stories. Their move to Haworth, then a poverty-stricken town on the edge of the moors, helped to inspire some of the greatest works in literature – but also brought huge tragedy as death and disease destroyed the family. So it’s no wonder their father, Patrick, always associated Thornton with joy.
The recent paranormal occurrences may be a figment of people’s overactive imaginations – a trait abundant in the magnificent Brontë brains. But perhaps the property’s ambitious restoration has inadvertently disturbed the spirits of the country’s most famous literary dynasty, desperate to return to the place where they were happiest and where the spark of genius was first lit. (Lisa Byrne)

Well, if you know us for some time, you probably know what we think about all this hogwash. It makes for some nice nonsense laughs, but the moment people take it too seriously, we don't play the game. Sorry. No.

Polish horror films are vindicated in TVP World:

Indeed, Janusz Majewski’s 1970 classic Lokis is widely credited as Poland’s first color horror film and a cornerstone of Polish genre cinema after World War II. (...)
In a Jane Eyre-esque scenario, the Count’s mother (Zofia Mrozowska) has been locked away for decades, having suffered a mental breakdown after being mauled by a bear on her wedding night. (Maria Kamińska)

La Vanguardia (Spain) talks about the new trends in period dramas:

La nueva Cumbres borrascosas ha transformado la novela de Emily Brontë en una fantasía gótica-pop de vestuario deliberadamente anacrónico, erotismo exacerbado y banda sonora de Charli xcx. Ya no se trata únicamente de encontrar nuevas lecturas de los clásicos, sino de remodelarlos abiertamente según los códigos estéticos y emocionales del presente. (Carlos Jonic) (Translation)

La Libre (Belgium) interviews Lilia Hassaine, author of JE:

En prêtant sa voix à Antoinette, enfermée et présentée pour folle dans "Jane Eyre" de Charlotte Brontë, Lilia Hassaine signe avec "JE" un roman subtil, sombre et contemporain. (...)
Quelle est la genèse de "JE" ?
C'est suite à une situation vécue que j'ai repensé à ce personnage féminin et que j'ai relu le livre parce que je me suis demandé pourquoi elle se rappelait à mon bon souvenir. Je me suis rendu compte des correspondances et des liens qui m'attachaient à elle. (...)
Et pour faire du personnage d'Antoinette la porte d'entrée pour évoquer ces drames dont sont toujours victimes les femmes et de montrer que, finalement aujourd'hui, rien n'a vraiment changé ?
Effectivement, ça existe encore aujourd'hui. Il y a des choses qui ont évolué, mais encore une fois, dans la mécanique, dans ce système d'horlogerie qui permet de mettre une femme sous cloche, il y a des mécanismes communs. Comment s'y prend-on pour isoler une femme ? Je voulais vraiment comprendre comment on s'y prenait de manière très concrète.
Vous avez eu l'occasion de répéter à plusieurs reprises que vous détestiez les appellations "pervers narcissique" et "emprise" pour décrire ces mécanismes. Pourquoi ?
Parce que la littérature n'a rien à faire avec ces mots et ces concepts. On n'a pas besoin de mettre une étiquette. En littérature, je trouve qu'ils n'ont pas nécessairement leur place. Cet homme, Rochester, c'est un manipulateur, un homme dangereux et un minable. C'est pour cela que la littérature est utile. Elle universalise. Quand on se rend compte à quel point c'est banal, on se rend compte aussi à quel point c'est grave, paradoxalement. Ce n'est pas parce que ça ne touche qu'une personne que c'est plus grave. C'est précisément parce que ça se reproduit, parce qu'il y a tout un système qui rend ça possible, que c'est très grave. (Philippe Manche) (Translation)

POV (Denmark) reviews the Cathy Marson's Jane Eyre ballet as performed in Copenhagen:

Stærkt understøttet er balletten af dens musikalske underlag i form af en mesterlig og respektfuld behandling af Mendelssohn-søskendeparret Fanny og Felix’ klaverkompositioner og strygekvartetter, der yderligere perspektiveres af Schubert-værker for samme besætninger. Ikke blot er disse musikalske kilder vævet tæt sammen af komponisten Philip Feeney med stemningsfulde og kontrastfyldte effekter, men samtidig sætter det hele samtiden, hvori dramaet udfolder sig, ind i et sitrende musikalsk lydrum, som løfter både sindet og opmærksomheden.
Der er således mange gode takter, musikalsk såvel som koreografisk, i denne ballet. Alligevel reduceres indtrykket noget af den lidt for store trinmæssige monotoni i bevægelsessproget, som med sit forcerede ekspressionistiske udtrykstempo i begge timelange akter fortegner de stærke underliggende følelser. Sikker dans og godt scenisk håndværk er der dog til stede fra først til sidst i dette voldsomme sjælsdrama. (Knud Arne Jürgensen) (Translation)

Far Out Magazine lists the best songs of Jim Steinman. Including It's All Coming Back Now:

The first version came from the girl group Pandora’s Box, assembled by Steinman, and was followed by Dion’s version, with Meat Loaf releasing the final recorded version in 2006 for Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. For its story, Steinman parsed Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, imagining the characters in an alternate universe dominated by morbid obsession.
“Heathcliff digging up Cathy’s corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight,” as he described. Dion’s version is a modified rendition of Pandora’s Box’s recording, and leaves the presence of Roy Bittan’s grand piano; elevated with her signature, soaring vocals and overarching theatrics, as Steinman’s productions typically captured, ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ hears her transform the song into a proper rock opera. (Paulina Subia)

The scariest works of literature in The Toronto Guardian:

Spine-tinglingly eerie, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) is a masterpiece of slow-burn storytelling, and the scariest non-horror novel.ç
Heavily inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (itself pretty spooky at times), Rebecca is a mystery and Gothic romance wrapped up in one, with first-person narration – by a never-named narrator, no less – which expertly draws readers into its finely drawn world of creaky mansions, forgotten boathouses, and whispers in the night. (Steven Lantier)

Jane Eyre is revealed as one of the main influences of María Sanguino's narrative, as mentioned in Vanguardia (Colombia). Ciudad Valencia (Venezuela) publishes an article about Wuthering Heights. The Sun and others publish pictures of Helen Flanagan dressed as Catherine Earnshaw (the Cathy of Emerald Fennell's film, probably) at a Halloween party:

Drawing inspiration from lovelorn Wuthering Heights character Catherine Earnshaw, Helen, 36, commanded attention in a cleave-enhancing corset and red skirt as she let her hair down at Soho venue The Box. (Jason Chester)

Finally, The Eyre Guide reviews Marian Yee's 4 Janes, "a fascinating read".

What Haunts The Moor?

2026-11-01T00:30:00.000+01:00

A walk around Haworth and Brontë country:

What Haunts The Moor?
1 Nov 2026
11:00 - 13:00
Meet outside The Old School Room, Haworth

Join Penistone Hill artist-in-residence, poet Kristina Diprose, and explore the folklore, natural and industrial history of the Haworth moors.
Discover how bog bursts, bog bodies and barghests inspired the Brontës, which birds are missing from our skies, and how old quarry and coal mine sites are rewilding.
The walk is approximately 2 miles and is expected to take 2 hours. Bring shoes suitable for hilly, uneven terrain and be prepared for wuthering weather!
This guided walk is inspired by Kristina’s new audio trail over Penistone Hill called ‘How to Talk to the Moor’, being launched on 26 October.

Bog lore

2026-10-31T10:36:39.413+01:00

The Telegraph and Argus reports that tomorrow November 1st, 'A ghost walk with a literary twist will explore the haunted moors that inspired the Brontë sisters'.

The guided walk, taking place in Haworth on Sunday, November 1 from 11am to 1pm, will explore the folklore, hauntings and industrial history behind some of Yorkshire’s best-known literary works.
Led by poet and Penistone Hill artist-in-residence Kristina Diprose, the event is titled 'What Haunts the Moor?' and will take participants from Haworth to the Penistone Hill trig point.
Ms Diprose described the event as a "A ghost walk with a twist.
"We'll be going on a short walk from Haworth up to the Penistone Hill trig point, exploring what haunts the landscape from bog lore, its industrial past, and from the archives of the Brontë Parsonage Research Library."
The walk will explore stories of bog bodies, ghostly black dogs, forgotten industries, and the enduring mysteries of the moorland that helped shape the imagination of the Brontë sisters.
The event is inspired by Ms Diprose’s audio trail, How to Talk to the Moor, which was created during her residency on Penistone Hill.
Ms Diprose said: "I've been artist in residence on Penistone Hill from August to October and have loved learning about the hidden history of this iconic landscape.
She said "It offers a chance to share some of the stories and facts I've been inspired by in my writing, and to get to know Brontë country as you've perhaps never seen it before."
The walk will also touch on the moor’s literary legacy, including references to the supernatural black dogs of Yorkshire folklore, known as the barghest and gytrash.
Ms Diprose said: "I love how Charlotte Brontë weaves Yorkshire gytrash folklore into Jane Eyre, using the black dog myth to give Jane's first encounter with Mr Rochester a sinister edge of foreboding."
In addition to ghost stories and folklore, the walk will highlight the environmental importance of the Haworth moors as a carbon store and nature reserve.
Ms Diprose said: "The Haworth moors aren't just a historical or a literary curiosity – they're a vital carbon store and habitat, including for threatened species of ground nesting birds like the curlew.
"Art is one of the ways that we can shine a spotlight on why these places are worth celebrating, exploring and cherishing for future generations."
The two-mile walk is expected to take around two hours.
It is free to attend, but booking is required.
Walkers will meet outside The Old School Room in Haworth. (Amelia Short)

Broadway World reviews the stage production of Jane Eyre at Ottawa Little Theatre.

The Ottawa Little Theatre knows how to set the stage for spooky season in the city by selecting a play that falls into the realm of the macabre. This year, OLT chose Charlotte Brontë's gothic romance, Jane Eyre, as its Halloween offering. Adapted for the stage by Erin Shields, this version of the literary classic focuses less on the romance between Jane (Lauren Reisig) and Rochester (Josh Sparks), and more on Jane's intellect, confidence, and free spirit in the face of disparagement and despair. [...]
This set, designed by Lindsay Laviolette and Venetia Lawless, is more stripped down than is common for OLT these days. The stage contains a large staircase with an open platform representing the upstairs portion of the house; the far right and left areas are also used to extend the space into a bedroom on one side and an outdoor area on the other. Because the staging is so open and scaled down, it leaves much to the imagination; however, since there are multiple locations in the story, this is a logical way to ensure that the narrative can flow without the need for elaborate sets. Even though I understand why the designers took this route, I still lament the missed opportunity to create a lavish, gothic estate.
Dawn Fanjoy’s costumes are period appropriate, and I particularly enjoyed young Jane’s quick change into a pinafore when she left for school. The use of a puppet, designed by Chelsey Prince and Damian Piper to represent Rochester’s dog, Pilot (puppeteered by Prince and Gabrielle Dumonceaux), is unique, even though the dog’s role is limited. Some microphones seemed underpowered on opening night, making certain cast members difficult to understand. This was especially true with Gordon’s singing voice. Hopefully, mics will be adjusted in future performances, and this will not be an ongoing issue. The sound of horse hooves is cleverly paired with a wheeled stagecoach prop, creating a convincing illusion without causing any noticeable disruption to the set (sound design by Jana van Wyk). Roxane Boucher’s lighting design is also highly effective, especially when combined with the boom of clapping thunder to set the scene. Scene changes done after the lights have faded allow them to be accomplished seamlessly.
There are many characters in Jane Eyre and as a result, there are multiple double and even triple roles; but because of the story’s distinct chronology, aided by good direction (Lindsay Laviolette), the audience is never in doubt as to who is who.
Despite their obvious acting abilities, the chemistry between Sparks and Reisig was a bit stiff on opening night, but it did warm up as the show progressed. Conversely, the chemistry between Reisig and Herrejón, who portrayed St. John, a competitor for Jane’s affection, was immediately apparent.
Although not without its flaws, Jane Eyre is a well-executed play that provides an appropriately spooky vibe for this Halloween season. The decision to keep the feminist dimensions of Jane's character at the forefront helps the story remain engaging for modern audiences, as well as literature aficionados. (Courtney Castelino)

According to Elle, 'Victorian-Style Lace-Up Boots Are Autumn’s Most-Wanted Shoe'.

The trend arrives as 2026 has reached a new peak of period drama fever, with remakes of Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice arriving on our screens this year, with the latter two’s costume designers leaning on a range of references from Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian dress to create the show-stopping pieces spotted on screen. (Chiara Wilkinson)

The Brussels Brontë Blog shares 'photos from a very special weekend in Brussels with an Irish Brontë theme'.

The (Spanish) Night is Darkening Around Me

2026-10-31T06:38:01.314+01:00

An illustrated and bilingual anthology of poems by Emily Brontë has been published in Spain. The book contains the twenty-one poems published in her lifetime and nine others (as a matter of fact, the book seems to be a de facto translation of Penguin Little Black Classic's The Night is Darkening Around Me) and a prologue by Gabriela Mistral (originally published in 1930) and illustrations by Elena Ferrándiz.

La noche me envuelve
by Emily Brontë
Translated by Jordi Doce
Illustrated by Elena Ferrándiz
Prologue by Gabriela Mistral
Nórdica Libros
ISBN: 979-13-87922-41-2
October 2026

Una preciosa edición bilingüe ilustrada por Elena Ferrándiz que reivindica la obra poética de Emily Brontë.
Los poemas de Emily Jane Brontë, una de las escritoras más relevantes del siglo XIX, son apasionados y poderosos y transmiten la vitalidad del espíritu humano y del mundo natural. Tan solo veintiuno de sus poemas se publicaron en vida. Este volumen, en edición bilingüe, reúne dichos poemas y nueve más que se le atribuyen, con evocadoras ilustraciones de Elena Ferrándiz.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), amaba los poemas de Emily Brontë y pidió que se leyera «No Coward Soul», incluido en este volumen, en su funeral.

Further information in El Feminista. Illustrations published in Nórdica Editorial's X account.

Enter Thornfield Hall to uncover the mysteries in store

2026-10-30T08:58:18.027+01:00

Apt613 reviews Ottawa Little Theatre’s Jane Eyre.

A stellar cast lets the audience fully absorb the story, and the roles of Young Jane (Meara Gordon), Jane (Lauren Reisig), and Mr. Rochester (Josh Sparks) were especially key in this production. In their period costumes and with their accents, we’re brought into their world, their time, their culture, and their struggles.
The set and staging were beautifully done, while the music and sound design allowed for seamless transitions, beautiful montage moments marking the passing of time, and added texture to the storytelling. There are a few large tragedies that arise in the story that are represented in strong and creative ways to ensure audiences feel the impacts of these moments. [...]
Even if you’re familiar with the story, you’ll appreciate this adaptation and director Lindsay Laviolette’s shepherding of this production.
While times have changed in many respects, the themes of the story are still relevant and resonant today. Grab your tickets and enter Thornfield Hall to uncover the mysteries in store. (Samara Caplan and Laura Gauthier)

More Jane Eyre on stage as Northern Arts Review shares the first images of Storyhouse's take on the novel. The play opens at the Chester cultural venue from Tuesday, 10 November to Saturday, 21 November 2026.

Storyhouse Creative Director Suzie Henderson said today: “Excitement is building with just two weeks to go until this thrilling new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s much-loved masterpiece opens on the Storyhouse stage as one of the undoubted highlights of our autumn season.
“Jane Eyre is a Storyhouse Originals production in partnership with the Mercury Theatre at Colchester and Rose Theatre at Kingston, and it’s been an exhilarating collaboration, creating a very special piece of live theatre which under Lily Dible’s exciting direction is both powerful and utterly compelling.”

Politis discusses A Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke.

When I was at university, I developed a quiet resistance to a particular kind of novel. I found myself increasingly irritated by reading lists populated by women who unravelled. Women in attics. Women in unhappy marriages. Women drifting towards breakdown. Women whose inner worlds became more and more fractured until they could no longer function within the worlds around them.
Somewhere among them was Birgit Vanderbeke's The Mussel Feast. [...]
Many of the books I resisted at university have stayed with me nonetheless. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Bell Jar. Wide Sargasso Sea. Different books, different women, different circumstances. Yet all return in one way or another to the relationship between power and distress. (Emmelia Georgiou)

Author of Call Off the Dark, Hallie Shepherd discusses the Gothic genre on Oprah Daily.

Walk into a bookstore today, and you’re likely to see a gothic classic like Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House on a display table alongside new gothic novels. On screen, films like Wuthering Heights and Nosferatu remind us of the enduring appeal of gothic romance and horror. And in music, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter blur the line between bliss and ruin, making love songs feel like psychological landscapes to survive.
Why all this darkness lately? I think it’s partly because the genre taps into something emotionally relatable. In a post-pandemic world, so many of us work from home or feel isolated in other ways. We’re tired of being online all the time, and there’s so much uncertainty about what lies ahead. Basically, you don’t have to live in a shadowy castle to feel a little gothic in your head and your heart. Gothic fiction gives voice to our loneliness and dread.
On the flip side, gothic stories offer an escape hatch from the ordinariness of our own world. They transport us to richly imagined places that feel deliciously sinister and dramatic. We don’t just read gothic fiction because we’re afraid of the dark. Sometimes we read it because the dark is more interesting.

Vogue recommends '28 Entertaining Book Adaptations to Watch (or Revisit) Now' and one of them is

Wuthering Heights (2011)
Emerald Fennell’s recent madcap take on Emily Brontë’s operatic tragedy was fun, but if you’re after a more grounded interpretation, consider Andrea Arnold’s blustery, acutely observed vision of Cathy and Heathcliff’s doomed love. It’s the first adaptation to cast Black actors as the Byronic hero—James Howson and Solomon Glave portray his older and younger selves, respectively, opposite Kaya Scodelario and Shannon Beer as Cathy—and captures the rain-soaked, muddy bleakness and beauty of the Yorkshire moors in a way that chimes with the source material. This is a strange, twisty book which, with its layers of narration and disturbing coda, feels almost impossible to translate to the screen—but this adaptation comes close, at least in echoing its wild, unruly spirit. (Radhika Seth, Michelle Ruiz, Chloe Schama, Kristin Auble, Alexandra Hildreth , and Donya Momenian)

Yorkshire Life shares 'A guide to Yorkshire autumn walks for colourful days' and one of them is to Top Withens.

In Brontë footsteps
A walk that’s full of history as one that the Brontë sisters would have been familiar with on the wild moors.
Start at Stanbury bus terminus and walk uphill on Back Lane.
At the first road junction, continue following the road as it changes from a hard surface to a rough track. Just beyond a parking area, the rough track divides. Here, take the right-hand track uphill to the gate and cattle grid at the top of the incline.
Go through the gate and on to open moorland to where the track divides into three – follow the right-hand track and continue uphill all the way until you reach the ruin of
Top Withens farm, thought to have inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
At this point, you can head back down to Stanbury or go a little further for some incredible views. Walk to the rear of the building and take the narrow well-defined path leading steeply uphill and slightly to the right, in a north westerly direction. Follow this narrow path across moorland and keep right when you reach a point where another narrower path bears left. You will shortly see the Delf Hill trig point ahead. At the trig point take in amazing views all around, from Boulsworth Hill and Pendle Hill to the left, across the Yorkshire Dales, and beyond.
Back in Stanbury, head to traditional village local, Wuthering Heights Inn.
The pub also has a campsite with spectacular views.
Top Withens
Distance: Around two miles
Start/finish: Stanbury bus terminus, Hob Hill, at the western end of Stanbury Main Street
Difficulty: Suitable for most reasonably fit occasional walkers
Parking: Limited parking near the bus terminus, but there is an informal parking area 300 yards up Back Lane, where the walk route passes. Parking is also available in Haworth village, around 1.7 miles away
Pub: Wuthering Heights Inn, Stanbury
See the full walk: With longer route options, at visitbradford.com

The Telegraph and many other news outlets report that a Romanov crown jewel is to be auctioned on November 11th, and also to be auctioned is

Cartier’s Devonshire black opal tiara and necklace, which is expected to fetch up to £998,000. This item’s last public appearance was at the London premiere of the film Wuthering Heights, when Emerald Fennell, the film’s director, wore it on the red carpet.

The Brontë Society of Japan has a post on their most recent meeting.

The Brontë Sisters UK publishes a video about the Brontës. fairies and ferns, partly inspired by the recent publication of Amy M. King's A Brontë Botany.

Wuthering Heights in Sarnico

2026-10-30T04:16:45.408+01:00

A dramatic reading of Wuthering Heights in Sarnico, Italy:

Fiato Ai Libri: Cime Tempestose
Voce narrante: Marika Pensa
Chitarra e sequencer: Omar Nedjari
Auditorium "Iginio Ferrini", Via Cortivo, 30, 24067 Sarnico BG, Italy
Fri Oct 30th 9:00pm

The event offers a theatrical reading based on Emily Brontë’s classic, set on the English moors at the house of Wuthering Heights. The story follows Catherine and Heathcliff, exploring the dynamics of a family history marked by intense passions, social tensions, and bonds that struggle to withstand resentment and injustice.
The event includes an introductory talk by Stefania Consonni, Associate Professor of Literary Criticism and Comparative Literature in the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bergamo.
Nella brughiera inglese si staglia Wuthering Heights, una casa isolata e battuta dai venti. Attorno a essa, una notte d’autunno, si aggira un fantasma in cerca di redenzione. È Catherine che, obbediente alla preghiera di Heathcliff «perseguitami, non lasciarmi solo in questo abisso dove non posso trovarti», torna, ancora una volta, da lui. Così inizia il racconto di una storia familiare, in cui l’amore, nonostante le sue espressioni più viscerali, cerca di sopravvivere alle ossessioni, al rancore e alla maledizion
dell’ingiustizia sociale.

Recreating the Parsonage

2026-10-30T04:04:24.878+01:00

An alert from the Brotnë Parsonage Museum for today, October 30:

Recreating the Parsonage: An evening with Production Designer Grant Montgomery
Fri 30 Oct, 6:00pm
Brontë event Space in the Old School Room

As part of our 10 year anniversary celebrations of Sally Wainwright’s Brontë biopic To Walk Invisible, we're welcoming production designer Grant Montgomery to share his memories of transforming Main Street back to the 1840s, recreating Church Street on Penistone Hill and the Parsonage interiors on a soundstage in Manchester.
Grant Montgomery is an award-winning production designer from Scotland. He is best known for establishing the world of Peaky Blinders for which he was nominated twice for BAFTA awards. His most recent work is the Scott Frank show, Dept. Q, a global No. 1 TV show on Netflix. Montgomery’s love of research, storytelling and history has led him to lecture in universities in Ireland and across the UK, delivering seminars on period production design to postgraduate students at York University.

A masterclass in prose

2026-10-29T07:17:40.264+01:00

According to Collider, Jane Eyre is one of '5 Classic Books That Are a Masterclass in Prose'.

'Jane Eyre' (1847)
I think Jane Eyre was my first "oh wow!" read as a kid, and what I remember most is not Rochester, Thornfield, or even the woman in the attic. I remember Jane. Charlotte Brontë gives a poor, plain, orphaned girl the kind of interior authority nineteenth-century literature was not exactly handing out freely, and Jane uses every bit of it. When Rochester tries to contain her, she answers, "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will." The sentence itself refuses containment: one declaration pushes into its next iteration until Jane has talked herself all the way from metaphor to a plain statement of freedom.
That's why Brontë's prose feels so immediate nearly two centuries later. Jane turns a conversation into an existential crisis because the real drama is whether she will betray herself to get something she desperately wants, and Brontë lets us consider every bit of the argument. Jane also talks directly to the reader, collapsing the distance between the girl experiencing the story and the woman who survived long enough to tell it, giving the novel an intimacy that feels startlingly modern. Even when the novel gets wildly Gothic, the prose keeps returning us to one stubborn consciousness asking what she owes herself. Love is important, but so is dignity, and Jane does not simply want Rochester; she wants him without having to disappear inside him. (Linda Chavers)

Sun-Sentinel reviews Unspeakable Things’ by Elizabeth Hand.

Elizabeth Hand spins a well-plotted Gothic tale with echoes of “Wuthering Heights” and Daphne du Maurier’s classic novels in her moody historical “Unspeakable Things.” (Oline H. Cogdill)

The University of Utah features a student of piano performance who

learned [...] a lot of Paul Gordon, who’s written musicals like Jane Eyre and Daddy Long Legs. His piano parts sit strangely well in my hands.

Sisters of the Wind in Chile

2026-10-29T00:36:48.790+01:00

A new theatre play about the Brontës opens tomorrow, October 30, in Las Cumbres, Chile:

Las Hermanas del Viento
by Juan Antonio Muñoz
Directed by Claudio Pueller
With Begoña Basauri, María Jesús Marcone y Nathalia Aragonese
October 30 - November 29
Centro Cultural Las Cumbres, Teatro Municipal de Las Condes, Av. Apoquindo 6570, 7560784 Las Condes, Región Metropolitana, Chile

Charlotte, Emily y Anne Brontë, tres autoras fundamentales de la literatura universal, llegan al escenario con Las hermanas del viento, obra que se estrenará el próximo 30 de octubre en el Centro Cultural Las Condes. El montaje cuenta con las actuaciones de Begoña Basauri (Charlotte), María Jesús Marcone (Anne) y Nathalia Aragonese (Emily), bajo la dirección de Claudio Pueller.
Esta coproducción de la Corporación Cultural de Las Condes se adentra en la intimidad de la familia Brontë y en el proceso creativo de las tres hermanas, quienes, en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX, debieron enfrentar las convenciones de una sociedad que cuestionaba la creación literaria femenina. Bajo los seudónimos de Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell, buscaron abrirse camino en el mundo de las letras mientras lidiaban con pérdidas familiares, deseos de libertad y sus propios conflictos personales y artísticos.
“Para la Corporación es fundamental ofrecer una programación diversa, que convoque a distintos públicos y abra nuevas miradas a través de las artes. Esta coproducción nos permite acercar al público a tres autoras esenciales, cuyas historias siguen vigentes y nos invitan a reflexionar sobre la creación artística y los espacios que las mujeres han conquistado a lo largo del tiempo”, señala Martín Vial, director ejecutivo de la Corporación Cultural de Las Condes.

Una mirada escénica al universo Brontë

Lejos de reconstruir una época o contar una biografía, la obra explora la dimensión íntima y creativa de las protagonistas a través de una puesta en escena simbólica y minimalista. El viento de los páramos se convierte en un elemento dramático recurrente, asociado al anhelo de libertad, mientras la iluminación, el espacio y el universo sonoro dan forma a los conflictos y emociones de las hermanas.
“Las hermanas Brontë me interesan no sólo por lo que escribieron, sino por lo que tuvieron que atravesar para hacerlo. Sus vidas estuvieron marcadas por la pérdida, el aislamiento y las convenciones de una sociedad que imponía límites muy estrechos a las mujeres. Sin embargo, no quiero convertirlas en emblemas ni hacer de ellas un ejemplo de resistencia. Me interesa su singularidad, sus contradicciones, sus distintas maneras de enfrentarse al mundo”, explica el autor, Juan Antonio Muñoz.
La obra también indaga en la relación entre la vida y la ficción, y en la escritura como una experiencia que compromete profundamente a quien crea: “ese instante en que crear deja de ser un acto voluntario y se vuelve una experiencia física, casi una posesión; cuando escribir significa exponerse, desgarrarse, sobrevivir a algo que no se puede dominar por completo”, agrega el dramaturgo.
Para el director Claudio Pueller, el montaje pone el foco en la intensidad de las vidas y los mundos interiores de las protagonistas. “Charlotte, Emily y Anne habitan la escena como presencias atrapadas entre la realidad y la ficción, entre la casa familiar y los mundos que inventan para sobrevivir”. Así, la rectoría de Haworth se transforma en una arquitectura mental que parece estrecharse a medida que las voces de las hermanas intentan expandirse.
El montaje cuenta con diseño integral de Monserrat Catalá, creación sonora de Jorge Martínez Flores y propuesta lumínica de Ángel Solovera.

Further information in Culturizarte (Chile).

Heathcliff has contradictions

2026-10-28T07:34:36.775+01:00

True Hollywood Talk interviews Ethan Vaughan and Maia Sky about their vertical microdrama adaptation of Wuthering Heights set on a present-day American ranch.

The synopsis is: On a present-day American ranch, Cathy and Heathcliff, the orphan her father raised as his own, share a love that borders on obsession—until their father dies and her vengeful brother Hindley returns to tear them apart.
It stars Jean Evans, Ethan Vaughan, Gabriel Quintella, Maia Sky, and Dante Ayala.
Vaughan plays the role of Heathcliff Earnshaw in “Wuthering Heights.” [...]
On starring in “Wuthering Heights,” he stated, “That was also such an honor! I had so much material to pull from. These are legendary characters, a legendary story, and a legendary original author.”
“It was a lot of fun to shoot,” he noted. “What I liked most about my character is that he has contradictions, and he was a very confused person. Honestly, that was very fun to play.” [...]
“I play Bella in ‘Wuthering Heights.’ I loved how she was so sweet and she was so selfless. Did so many things for other people and put herself behind them,” she said. [...]
When asked if she drew any inspiration from the Margot Robbie and Jacob Elorbi movie, she responded, “No, because I was told that we were doing a slightly different version. It was very different. I wanted to create something that was unique and my own.” (Markos Papadatos)

On Literary Hub, Rebecca Birrell, whose debut novel Venus, Vanishing, features an amateur artist, discusses other amateurs in literature.

There are other amateurs, especially in novels from the century before. Jane Eyre paints watercolors and tells Mr. Rochester that she derives happiness from doing so.

Tatler Asia lists '10 classic novels that feel surprisingly modern' including

3. ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë
Jane begins life with little money, few allies and an upbringing that teaches her how easily people in power can mistreat those without it. After working as a governess at Thornfield Hall, she falls in love with its brooding owner, Edward Rochester. But when Jane discovers a secret that threatens the future he has offered her, she faces a choice between the man she loves and the principles she refuses to abandon.
Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel is a Gothic romance, but its emotional force comes from Jane’s insistence on her own worth. She wants love, companionship and a life beyond mere survival. What she does not want is to surrender her moral independence to secure them. Her refusal to accept a relationship on unequal terms remains one of the novel’s most powerful moments.
Jane’s story also explores the vulnerability of women who have little financial or social protection. Her options are constrained by class and gender, yet she insists on being treated as a person with desires and convictions of her own. In contemporary conversations about boundaries, financial independence and unequal relationships, Jane’s determination to be loved without being diminished still resonates. (Sasha Mariposa)

While The Collector lists '5 English Ghost Stories That Redefined Fear On The Page' and one of them is

1. Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë’s Gothic masterpiece is remembered for its tempestuous lovers, windswept moors, and tragic family drama. However, when creating her novel, Emily Brontë chose to open with a violent and terrifying ghostly encounter. In the opening of the novel, Lockwood (the narrator) spends the night in a forbidden bedroom after being caught in a storm. While there, he reads the name “Catherine” alongside “Earnshaw,” “Heathcliff,” and “Linton,” all carved into the wooden window frame.
As he sleeps, he is awoken by a knocking on the window pane and, thinking it is a branch, reaches out to break it. The reader is then startled to read that Linton’s wrist is grasped by the ice-cold fingers of Cathy’s ghost. Her specter cries that she has been “a waif for twenty years.” The story inspired countless other works of fiction, including the song Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. (Lauren Jones)

Optical Adventure on the Moor

2026-10-28T02:00:00.000+01:00

A short film exploring the nature around Penistone Hill is presented today in Haworth:

Optical Adventure on the Moor
John Slemensek-Thorne
Explore the tiny world living on Penistone Hill
October 28, 2:00 pm

Discover nature in a whole new way and get close-up to the tiny world we usually just walk past.
Meet at St Michael and All Angels Church to watch John Slemensek-Thorne’s short film for all ages, then we’ll go on an adventure using magnifying glasses to take a really close look at the nature all around, on a 2-mile walk.
Take in the big skies and hidden stories of the Hill as filmmaker John shares his way of seeing the world.
A chance for curious children and their grown-ups to explore together, come dressed for the weather, bring snacks and a drink – and be prepared to get a bit muddy as you see the landscape through fresh eyes!