Emerald Fennell's buzzy take on Wuthering Heights is set to hit theaters on February 13, 2026, but the star-studded adaptation has already started many a debate in bookish communities. Some fans of the classic are skeptical that the film will remain true to the source material, given how it's been staged. Others maintain that the film could be a subversive, campy take on gothic drama, especially given Fennell's successful work on films about chaotic, rich families, like Saltburn.
No matter which side you align with, there’s one truth that remains indisputable: There’s simply no story with all the angst and tortured drama of Wuthering Heights. Brimming with gothic beauty and a pair of unforgettable leads in Catherine and Heathcliff, the classic is classic for a reason. Whether you're new to the story or a dedicated fan, this refresher of the history, plot, and themes of the novel will help get you ready for the upcoming film.
Warning—some spoilers ahead!
Who are the Brontë sisters?
The Brontë sisters, born in the 1810s, were self-educated and grew up extremely close in Yorkshire. Though they briefly took on jobs as teachers and governesses, they hated being separated. Nevertheless, their attempts to establish a school were unsuccessful. Seeking a way to support their family from home, they were able to find their calling in the stories they used to tell each other while stalking the moors.
Oldest sister Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre, as well as two later novels; youngest sister Anne Brontë wrote Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; and middle sister Emily Brontë wrote only a single novel, Wuthering Heights. It was received poorly by critics at the time, while her sister's Jane Eyre became an immediate smash hit. Emily died of tuberculosis only a year after her only novel's publication, in 1848, but Wuthering Heights would later come to be regarded as one of the greatest stories ever told.
What is Wuthering Heights about?
The novel is narrated by a housekeeper named Nelly, who recounts the tragic, tortured story of the Earnshaw family to Mr. Lockwood, an outsider who's moving in nearby. When Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw are young teens, their father adopts a lost, “dark-skinned” orphan he finds on the streets of Liverpool. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw name him Heathcliff, and after a rocky start, he and Catherine become inseparable, causing mischief and wandering the moors together. After Catherine's mother dies, Mr. Earnshaw starts preferring Heathcliff and his work ethic over his bratty biological son, and even sends Hindley away after he's particularly cruel to Heathcliff.
But when Mr. Earnshaw dies, everything changes. Hindley inherits and comes home with a wife and a vendetta against Heathcliff, whom he instantly demotes from treasured son to servant. He does everything he can to separate Heathcliff and Catherine. His efforts are unsuccessful until Catherine endures a long stay at Thrushcross Grange, a local manor with snobby kids, the Lintons, whom Catherine ends up growing close to. This drives a stake between her and Heathcliff, who finally leaves—only to return with a determination for revenge and his love for Catherine still running hot through his veins.
What are the major themes in Wuthering Heights?
Wuthering Heights is a gothic tragedy at its core. The book is ultimately about the dissolution of the Earnshaws and Heathcliff's obsession with revenge, as well as the tortured, conflicted love between Heathcliff and Catherine that seems to doom them both.
As a gothic novel, Brontë's story uses the manor and the wild moors to explore what is considered respectable and civilized, playing with the conflicts central to the story. For example, Heathcliff is labeled as uncivilized because of his origins, no matter how respectable he becomes, showing how questions of class are core to the story.
The novel also uses the supernatural to heighten the inner torments of the characters' strong emotions—in particular, the impossible love between Catherine and Heathcliff radiating throughout the novel. They haunt each other, and no matter how many wedges are pushed between them, their souls can't be wrenched apart; as Catherine muses, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same...” Their connection is so unable to be restrained that it will, like Heathcliff's fierce frenzy for vengeance, tear them apart.
Wuthering Heights in pop culture
The most iconic adaptation of the book so far is the 1939 film starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, which focuses primarily on the story’s romance. The most faithful adaptation, meanwhile, may well be the 1992 film, which can feel less dramatic but follows the real build of the novel into its themes of dark cruelty and tortured love, starring Juliette Binoche as Catherine and Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff, plus Janet McTeer as Nelly. There's also a two-episode miniseries adaptation featuring Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley that received strong reviews and ratings.
Many modern fans note that Heathcliff is explicitly referred to as a dark-skinned person of possible Romani descent, and not enough adaptations thus far have explored the racial element of this story of social class and resentment. Andrea Arnold's adaptation, released in 2011, finally reversed this trend.
Millennial listeners may recognize Wuthering Heights as Bella Swan's favorite book in Twilight, a literary parallel she thinks about often while dating the brooding, dangerous Edward Cullen. Music fans may recognize the novel's title from Kate Bush's 1978 debut. No matter where you first encountered the novel and its sweeping themes, there's no doubt that Wuthering Heights has established an unshakable foothold in art and culture.
