Monday Miscellany: Somehow it is always raining
Notes from February 9 - 15
Friends, I come to you today fresh from the moors, where I’ve been running about in heavily layered skirts through the downpour and thunder, longing for a love that isn’t to be.
That is to say, I’ve spent the week immersed in the world of Wuthering Heights and I’m certainly not sad about it. Accidentally gothic-themed newsletter, commence!
Read this week
Time is a circle, and books find their way to you when the moment is right. Wuthering Heights is a classic that I somehow missed; it wasn’t ever assigned to me in school and I never found a particular reason to pick it up afterward. When I saw the 2022 film Emily, though, a story of Emily Brontë based equally in history and imagination, I finally felt the urge to experience this famous author’s sole published work, and I chose the Modern Library Torchbearers edition because (1) introduction by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and (2) LOOK AT THAT COVER. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, even with books I’m legitimately eager to read, it sat waiting on my shelf for a full four years—until this week, when Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” “adaptation” (a word choice I will address in more detail below) released in cinemas to great discussion and debate. As my friend Anna and I were planning to see the film on Galentine’s Day,1 I figured it was finally, no seriously, finally time to read the book.
Above all, I would call Wuthering Heights a story of deep hurt and longing, of the insurmountable walls put up by societal othering and the damage they can cause over the span of decades. There’s love at its core, but there’s also abuse of many sorts, of both substances and people, and heartbreak in place of happy ever after. I’ll confess to having a bit of trouble keeping things straight in my head at first, as there are multiple characters with the same (or similar) names, characters referred to by several different names, and frequent flashbacks and experiences reported secondhand. But now that I understand the general scope of the narrative, I think a future re-read would be much easier to follow along with and sink into. Despite the gloomy complexity of it all, there are lots of gorgeous descriptions and a masterful use of prose, and I can see why this is a beloved classic. I’m so glad it came to me at long last.
If you purchase a book through the bookshop.org affiliate links in this post, I earn a small percentage commission. This is an easy way to support my work at no additional cost, and I appreciate it very much—thank you! ♥︎
Watched this week
So that word adaptation. I think it deserves some measure of fidelity, no? Some degree of respect for and accuracy regarding the source material? If yes, “Wuthering Heights” (2026) plainly, simply, isn’t one, and I think it does itself a disservice by pretending to be. I’m sure you’ve seen all of the takes floating around the internet, the backlash against casting a white actor to play Heathcliff, who is explicitly described as dark-skinned, the blatant disregard for certain plot points, and the invention of others that just aren’t there in the book. All of that—valid, completely. If you’re going into this film expecting to see Emily Brontë’s novel played out on the big screen, you’re setting yourself up for major disappointment and possibly some anger.
But!
If you remove the idea of “adaptation” from your mind and replace it with something like “reinterpretation,” or “reimagining,” or even “loosey-goosey fangirl homage,”2 you might quite enjoy it. I did. The visuals are dark and stunning, the costumes (period inaccurate but) gorgeous and bold. Everything is crafted to the HEIGHT OF DRAMA—the gazes are long and intense, the music is sharp and shrieking and string-heavy, the sex is super frequent and erotic without being explicit (which felt masterful to me), and somehow it is always raining. And oh, the longing. THE LONGING. It will not stop.
The headline of this Vulture piece, which I bookmarked but haven’t yet read, got it right, I think: “Finally, a Smooth-Brained Wuthering Heights.” It fails horribly as an adaptation, but if you and your best gal just want to go watch toxic hotties be messily sexy at each other for a couple of hours, this is your movie. I loved seeing it in a full theater, hearing everyone’s “oooo”s and gasps and laughter. Get ready for Jacob Elordi’s muscular torso, Margot Robbie’s heaving bosom, lots of tongues, and some dog-collar kink, too!
Of course, reading the classic novel and seeing Fennell’s take made me want to revisit Emily (2022), the film that sparked my renewed interest in the first place several years ago. It shares some emotional DNA with these other two works: it’s dark, wild, a bit out of control at times, full of bittersweet yearning. Writer and director Frances O’Connor uses factual pieces of Emily Brontë’s biography and family history as a base, and yes, imagines and embellishes quite a bit as well, especially concerning the unlikely relationship with curate William Weightman that the film portrays. But unlike the new “Wuthering Heights,” her work retains some nuance and doesn’t come across quite as one-note. She’s more upfront with her creative liberties, which stay a little more within the realm of reasonable speculation—this most likely isn’t what actually happened, but what if Brontë’s novel were based on the emotional gravity of a relationship the author herself experienced? The title, Emily,3 reminds us that we’re straying from strict historical truth, and yet, it’s fun to contemplate and fantasize.
As a companion piece, I greatly enjoyed this Smithsonian article, full of letters and drawings and other historical artifacts, that helpfully breaks down what is known about the Brontë family and what the film has embellished or made up.
Haiku round-up
Monday, February 9
Mysterious shape, a shadow behind the clouds Nope, I shan’t stay here
Tuesday, February 10
With each hole mended, the purpose I’ve been seeking appears, strand by strand
Wednesday, February 11
By soft candles’ glow we gather to soak up your infectious gladness
Thursday, February 12
This room lights up with an enthusiast’s broad grin Soon we’re smiling too
Friday, February 13
A moment to pause and savor the marriage of espresso and milk
Saturday, February 14
Our new friends flit, fly, delivering delight but never staying long
Sunday, February 15
A day like mourning— The sky is clothed in dull grey its tears do not cease
Until next time
As I left home for an author event at the local bookstore on Thursday evening the hints of pink and orange in the darkening sky made me reach for my camera, and it hit me just how long it’d been since I noticed a sunset—with all the snow, ice, and rain we’ve had over the past month, I couldn’t remember the last one I’d photographed like this. Unbeknownst to me, grey skies had become the accepted new normal as I, the oblivious frog, sat blithely awaiting death in the metaphorical pot of slowly-heating water. Well, no more. Welcome back, colorful displays. I hope you visit again soon. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out.
See you next Monday, and until then, you look so freakin’ cute.4
♥︎ Emily
P.S. If you especially enjoyed today’s newsletter, here are a couple ways to support its continued creation (thank you)!
This seems to be what Emerald Fennell was trying to do with her usage of quotation marks around the title, but I would counter that such a gesture isn’t nearly strong enough to indicate the gaping cravasse between Brontë’s novel and this film. It needed a whole new name.
Notably not Emily Brontë: A “Biography,” as the Emerald Fennell version of this project might’ve been called. 😂
I have zero idea what is going on here but I can’t stop watching it.









Sending hugs from one oblivious frog to another. I had the same thought driving home today. Also allow me to commend you on some very choice phrases in this newsletter: "toxic hotties be[ing] messily sexy at each other"! And "sharp and shrieking and string-heavy!" Come tf on, my guy!
I love this!! "loosey goosey fangirl homage" is the best description I've read yet. I also saw it in a crowded theater and it was just ... so fun?! Love your newsletter as always!!