Literature Guides
Key Facts about Wuthering Heights
The novel was written between 1845 and 1846 and was published by Emily Brontë herself, after being rejected by many publishers. Brontë, aware of the patriarchal society at the time, wrote under the male pseudonym Ellis Bell.
Wuthering Heights was inspired by the surroundings of the author as she lived on the moors and also by the gothic genre of literature, which was popular in the 19th century and often consisted of violence and the supernatural.
The influence of Lord Byron and romantic figures in general is quite clear through her romantic characterization of Heathcliff, who is in essence a Byronic Hero and through her rhetorical devices that often center around her love for nature, which is a characteristic of Romantic literature.
The Wuthering Heights farmhouse is said to be based on the details of an actual farm house by the name of “Top Withens” the location is now widely accepted as a Wuthering Heights monument.
Emily Brontë received only negative criticism for Wuthering Heights and did not live to see it flourish and become one of the most famous and iconic novels in literary history.
Wuthering Heights has had its fair share of adaptations into films and performance art, such as plays and ballet, and has also been adapted into foreign movies. The most popular film adaptation being the 1992 film, directed by Peter Kosminsky, starring Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche as Cathy.
The novel also inspired a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1978 with Kate Bush’s song under the same name.
