Mid-November

Symbolism & Structure and Stylised Depravity

Mid-November Notes…

☛ Content Warning: Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”

I’ve been thinking a lot about my plans for Symbolism & Structure in the coming year.

When the film, “Wuthering Heights,” is released on February 14, 2026 dozens of read-along opportunities will be offered everywhere from Reddit to Substack—Emily Jane Brontë’s novel will experience a renaissance and people everywhere will be thoroughly confused when her novel does not include Fennell’s imagined scenes of:

• “stylised depravity;”

• “clinical masturbation;”

• “a public hanging in which the ‘condemned man ejaculates mid-execution,’ the crowd react orgiastically, and a nun ‘fondles the corpse’s visible erection,’” or;

• “a bondage-tinged sexual encounter involving horse reins.”¹

Speaking publicly about the film for the first time at Brontë Women’s Writing festival (in the West Lane Baptist Church, September 2025), the Oscar-winning Saltburn director (Emerald Fennell) said Emily Brontë’s twisted classic “cracked me open” after reading it at 14 years old.

“I’ve been obsessed. I’ve been driven mad by this book,” she said. “I know that if somebody else made it, I’d be furious. It’s very personal material for everyone. It’s very illicit. The way we relate to the characters is very private.”

Fennell said her first adolescent experience of the novel inspired her approach to the sex-charged retelling of Catherine Earnshaw and orphan Heathcliff’s relationship, set on the moors of 18th-century Yorkshire. “It’s an emotional response to something. It’s primal, sexual,” she said.

Fennell added: “[It is] an act of extreme masochism to try and make a film of something that means this much to you. There’s an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book. There’s a reason people were deeply shocked by it.” Working on it has been “a kind of masochistic exercise”, she said, “because I love it so much, and it can’t love me back, and I have to live with that.”²

Fennell’s sex-charged, erotic Barbie-Brontë mashup will reignite interest in Wuthering Heights. Brontë enthusiasts will scramble to set the record straight, and dark romance-devouring influencers will hop on board and ride the wave. Book clubs and read-along opportunities, I predict, will saturate the socials.

Weathering A Read-Along of Wuthering Heights

In 2025, I hosted two seasonal read-alongs. The Spring 2025 read-along was organized into a 9-week Reading Schedule, and included nine summary essays. My second read-along (Autumn 2025) has been a huge undertaking—an essay to accompany each of the thirty-four chapters of Wuthering Heights.³ It has been enjoyable! Albeit, inefficacious.

Between August and November, I’ve written thirty-four essays.

They have been seen by 2% of my subscribers.

The structure of a sub-newsletter (or, Section) hides its content from the majority of subscribers. Not wishing to opt-in every subscriber to every seasonal read-along, my read-alongs require those interested to ‘toggle’ their subscription settings to receive posts from the read-along Section. Subscription settings cannot be accessed via the Substack app; over 70% of my subscribers come from and actively use the Substack app!

During a read-along, the majority of readers (including paying subscribers) receive no posts—and if they missed the introductory email detailing the start of a read-along and the necessity to ‘toggle,’ they assume I’ve stopped writing regularly.

PLUS, links to a read-along Section are broken if reading in the app, and unless they know to access the website using a browser, subscribers become entirely frustrated.

In The Coming Year…

I enjoy offering these seasonal, themed read-alongs. Closely reading the text, focusing my attention on Brontë’s words, digging deeper…and sharing my discoveries.

In the coming year…I’ve decided, I will host only one read-along. I’m still working out the theme, but I am certain it will require no updating of subscription settings and it will not include summary essays for all thirty-four chapters. It will be offered to paying subscribers as a Thank You for their kindness and because I assume anyone in the mindset to financially support my research and writing on the topic is indeed, an admirer of Emily Jane Brontë and Wuthering Heights.

Symbolism & Structure is a place for me to share all of my research projects related to Emily Jane Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights; I have a number I’m excited to pursue in the next year! Art & Illustration, Emily’s Little Stool, Emily’s Coffin, Emily’s Poetry, a peek into some of the biographies I’ve been reading…my list keeps growing...

It’s pretty niche-y here, so your time and attention is appreciated!! Please share this space with others—Like, Comment, and Restack and if you happen to be a Substack author, your authentic recommendation is very much appreciated!

Thank you for being here—your presence makes us a community. ♡

1. Shoard, Catherine. ‘Aggressively provocative’: test screening of Saltburn director’s Wuthering Heights gets mixed reaction.” The Guardian. Thu 7 Aug 2025.

2. Richardson, Holly. ‘There’s an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book’: Emerald Fennell defends her Wuthering Heights adaptation.” The Guardian. Mon 29 Sep 2025.

3. On December 21, 2025 (Solstice) the Wuthering Heights 9-Week Readers Guide and The Natural History of Wuthering Heights read-along will be archived (for paid subscribers).