Half Savage and Hardy and Free

A mostly Wuthering Heights blog that sometimes descends into rambles about all the Brontes and their works. Buy me a coffee:  ko-fi.com/josiedabinett

[theheightsthatwuthered]

This is officially a Wuthering Heights 2026 hate blog.

[bethanydelleman]

Finally watched the new trailer for Wuthering Heights 2026, which seems to be an attempt to recapture to the classic literature audience:

And I just cannot help laughing by head off at this:

Like come on. That's just not the genre

I find this so hilarious because reading the novel for the first time and thinking it was this big epic love story between Catherine and Heathcliff and then I'm like, "Huh? She marries someone else? Huh? She's already dead? There is a lot of book left!" I always say I don't know exactly what Wuthering Heights is, (Gothic horror/revenge) but the greatest love story it ain't

[vampiric-decay]

i. i just saw the wuthering heights trailor. i'm at a loss for words. i knew it would be odious. but it is far. far. FAR worse than i ever thought.

[darklinaforever]

Heathcliff is made white in the new film because he's written to be violent and abusive "with passion". It subverts the stereotype of when the book was written and how dark skinned men were perceived.

Like... let's admire the stupidity of this attempt to justify why, in 2026, we don't have a Black Heathcliff like the 2011 film finally had the guts to do for the first time... What is the person behind this comment trying to insinuate ? That it was racist writing for Heathcliff to be a Black man in the book because he becomes morally questionable ? When it's precisely because of racial and class treatment that he becomes that way ? That the book literally criticizes the racism he suffers ? WHAT STEREOTYPE IS THIS PERSON TALKING ABOUT TO SUBVERT, FOR GOD'S SAKE ?!

[kendokhaotic]

everything i hear about fennell's fucky ass adaptation just gets worse and worse. this shall bomb, i decree it so

[marzipanandminutiae]

I mean making Heathcliff white is like. The norm. Even Hark A Vargant dance him into a Mr Darcy type. It's not like she is the first person to ever do this.

No, she's not. And I'm not actually on team "he always has to be a man of color," myself. I think there's a strong case to be made for interpreting the text that way, but I think given the way people talked about this sort of thing in 19th century England, you could also read him as a dark skinned white man.

But you can't make him white AND Edgar Linton a man of color. It just does something gross to the dynamic there. In my opinion, they have to either both be the same race or Edgar is white and Heathcliff is not. Otherwise it's setting up a very weird ahistorical power differential that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And I don't know that anyone has ever done that before

[theswizzle16]

the trailer calling wuthering heights “the greatest love story of all time”…..i don’t think emerald and i read the same book

[sarcasticsouthernbookworm]

Wuthering Heights is one of my top three books of all time

Everything I’ve seen for the new movie is making me so mad

Everything about it is wrong

I love the gothic atmosphere of the book but the surrealist feel of the movie is the thing I’m the most open minded and intrigued about

The casting is atrocious in my opinion, their coloring is all wrong, I love Margot Robbie and I’m willing for her to surprise me but she is just not Cathy to me and while I think Jacob Elordi is obviously good at playing dark/crazed characters I just don’t buy him as heathcliff either

And now I’ve just seen a trailer that describes them as ‘the greatest love story ever told’ or something to that effect but, they’re not, Cathy and heathcliff are toxic as all get out, that’s why I love them, they’re possessive and obsessive and ignore the harm they do to everyone around them, Wuthering heights is a tragedy and I just hope they show that and don’t try to genuinely make it a romantic love story

[bethanydelleman]

I see posts arguing that Wuthering Heights is a love story and I mean, there is love in it, but I wouldn't call it a love story and I think describing it as one would lead to disappointment as much as calling Mansfield Park a "romance." Calling it "the greatest love story of all time" is just comical to me because it doesn't conform at all to the romance genre. If we consider Heathcliff and Cathy 1 the One True Pairing, they only get together in death as ghosts. Cathy 1 marries someone else entirely of her own free will, with some weird, vague, teenage idea of how this will benefit Heathcliff, can't think of a single female romance lead who does such a thing. Heathcliff kidnaps and tortures/has his son torment Cathy 1's daughter as part of his revenge, what romance male lead would do that? The only pairing that follows a traditional romantic path is Hareton/Cathy II, and they are also the only ones who end happily, but their romance is a barely even in the novel. Jane Eyre is a coming of age story but it's also definitely a romance. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is social commentary but it's also a romance. The romantic stories within follow the genre conventions. If it must be defined as a story about love, Wuthering Heights is about the destructive power of love.

Wuthering Heights is such a unique and interesting novel and it seems reductionist to me to call it a love story. It's so much more than that.

[pizzazium-infinionite]

I think im going to turn into the joker over this new wuthering heights adaptation..tired of people pretending that old books will always need a dramatic revamp in order to appeal to modern audiences as if those books dont already deal with pressing issues of today‼️ like yes I understand that classics aren't really "universal" but like..the issues in wuthering heights, of racism, rejection, abuse, revenge, classism, etc. can still be communicated to a modern audience. you dont have to erase them with your completely foolish casting choices. and you should not erase them.

[theheightsthatwuthered]

Sometimes you can't even open an article because the whole subject makes you so angry. 🙃

[euryalex]

who could've seen this coming

[theheightsthatwuthered]

"stripped of emotional nuance"

Delightful

[theheightsthatwuthered]

Emerald Fennell’s Hyper-Sexualized ‘Wuthering Heights’ Gets Polarized Reception at First Test Screening [Updated] — World of Reel

Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” held its first test screening last night in Dallas, and early impressions suggest a rocky road ahead.

⚠️Graphic sexual talk in the article!⚠️

What the actual fuck?

I was planning on hate watching this movie but now there's no chance.

Everything I hear just gets worse and worse.

But this takes the fucking biscuit

[antigonas]

help 😭

[theheightsthatwuthered]

My friend sent me this pictures and was like "wuthering heights or Oktoberfest?" 😂

[beautifulscreaminglady]

I think that anyone who wants to adapt a novel should have to go through the entire unit focusing on that novel in a high school English class, do all the assigned reading, quizzes, essays, and tests and get a passing grade at minimum.

[offwegointothewildblueyonder]

re the wuthering heights thing quite apart from anything else (ie why ANYONE thought Margot Robbie was a good fit) why would you want to adapt a book that's "just a book" to you?? adapt something you're passionate about or fuck off. just goes to show this is happening for the money and the aesthetic and its ridiculous

[cheshirebatcat-deactivated20260]

‘It’s just a book’: Wuthering Heights casting director defends choice of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi | Movies | The Guardian

‘It’s just a book’: Wuthering Heights casting director defends choice of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi

Kharmel Cochrane responded to criticism of both actors’ ages and of Elordi’s ethnicity being unfaithful to Emily Brontë’s novel, saying ‘wai

I'm getting tired of so many writers and directors actively admitting they don't care about / dislike their own projects. Embarrassing.