Book · 1847
Movie · 2026
Book vs movie
Wuthering Heights: book vs movie
How the 2026 movie Wuthering Heights (directed by Emerald Fennell) changes the book by Emily Brontë.
The verdict
A loose, stylized version that keeps the first-generation love story, drops the narrators and the second generation, and adds explicit sex.
Every difference
The narrators
On the pageMr. Lockwood, a tenant, hears the story from the housekeeper Nelly Dean decades later. Almost everything reaches the reader through them.
On screenLockwood and the frame are cut. Events play in order with no narrator.
Heathcliff's origins
On the pageHeathcliff is a dark-skinned foundling of unknown birth whom others treat as a foreigner. His race is never fixed, but he is not presented as white.
On screenJacob Elordi plays Heathcliff as white, a casting choice that drew criticism. The gap between him and Catherine is one of class.
Hindley and Mr. Earnshaw
On the pageMr. Earnshaw favors Heathcliff and dies early. His son Hindley abuses Heathcliff and later drinks and gambles away the Heights.
On screenHindley is folded into Mr. Earnshaw, who becomes the drunk gambler who mistreats Heathcliff and loses the house to debt.
How Catherine meets the Lintons
On the pageAs a child, Catherine is bitten by the Lintons' dog and stays five weeks at Thrushcross Grange. She is still very young when she marries Edgar.
On screenCatherine is an adult when she falls from the Grange's garden wall while she spies on Edgar and Isabella.
Nelly Dean
On the pageNelly is a servant and a witness. She withholds things and takes sides, but she rarely drives events.
On screenNelly is Catherine's companion and a schemer. She arranges for Heathcliff to overhear Catherine and tells Edgar about the affair.
Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship
On the pageThe two share only a few embraces and kisses, mostly near the end of Catherine's life. There is no affair.
On screenAfter Heathcliff returns, the two begin an affair, shown with a sex montage and a scene in a carriage.
Isabella Linton
On the pageIsabella falls for Heathcliff, marries him and becomes the victim of his cruelty. She later escapes.
On screenIsabella knowingly agrees to a sadomasochistic relationship in which Heathcliff uses her to hurt Catherine.
The second generation
On the pageThe second half follows young Cathy, Linton Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw, and turns from revenge to repair.
On screenThe next generation's story is left out. The movie stays with Catherine and Heathcliff.
Catherine's deathSpoiler
On the pageAfter a last meeting with Heathcliff, Catherine gives birth to a daughter, Cathy, and dies that night, halfway through the novel.
On screenNelly intercepts Heathcliff's letters. Catherine starves herself, loses her pregnancy and dies of infection. Heathcliff arrives too late, and the movie ends there.
The ghost storySpoiler
On the pageThe novel opens with a ghost at Lockwood's window and ends with Heathcliff's death and the belief that the two lovers walk the moors.
On screenThe movie ends at Catherine's death, with no ghost and no account of Heathcliff's later life.
The comparison
Wuthering Heights book vs movie: the short answer
Wuthering Heights (2026) is written and directed by Emerald Fennell. Warner Bros. released it in the US and the UK on February 13, 2026. It runs 136 minutes. Margot Robbie plays Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi plays Heathcliff. Hong Chau plays Nelly Dean, Shazad Latif plays Edgar Linton, Alison Oliver plays Isabella Linton and Martin Clunes plays Mr. Earnshaw.
The movie is a loose adaptation. It keeps the core of the novel's first half: the orphan brought to the Heights, Catherine's choice of Edgar, Heathcliff's departure and his return with money. It drops the narrators, merges or reworks several characters, adds explicit sex and leaves out the novel's second generation. Fennell has said she wanted to recreate the feeling of a teenage girl who reads the book for the first time. That aim explains most of the changes. The movie is about the love story as a reader remembers it, not the structure Brontë built around it.
How close the movie stays
The novel is a story inside a story. Mr. Lockwood, a tenant, hears the history from Nelly Dean, a housekeeper, decades after the events. The movie drops Lockwood and the frame. Events play in order, from childhood to adulthood, with no narrator between the viewer and the lovers.
The novel covers about 30 years and two generations. Its second half follows the children of the first: young Cathy, Linton Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw. That half carries the novel's slow turn from revenge to repair. The movie leaves it out. It is not the first adaptation to do so. The 1939 movie with Laurence Olivier also stopped with the first generation.
The look is far from the bare moors of most versions. Variety describes the Grange with flesh-colored walls and blood-red floors. The soundtrack includes songs by Charli xcx.
Reviews were divided. Some critics praised the craft and the ambition. Others found it hollow. The Nation said the movie ignores the novel's concerns with class, race and heredity.
The biggest changes
Heathcliff's origins. Brontë describes Heathcliff as a dark-skinned foundling of unknown birth, and other characters treat him as a foreigner. His race is never fixed, but the book does not present him as white. Casting Jacob Elordi made Heathcliff white, and the choice drew criticism. The movie frames the gap between Heathcliff and Catherine as one of class.
Hindley disappears. In the book, Catherine's brother Hindley degrades Heathcliff to a farm servant and later drinks and gambles away the Heights. The movie folds Hindley into Mr. Earnshaw. The father becomes the drunk gambler who abuses Heathcliff and loses the house to debt.
Adults, not children. In the novel, Catherine meets the Lintons as a child, when their dog bites her ankle, and she stays five weeks at the Grange. In the movie, she is an adult when she falls from the Grange's garden wall while she spies on Edgar and Isabella. The book's Catherine is still very young when she marries. Robbie plays her as a grown woman.
Nelly takes a side. Book Nelly is a servant and a witness. She sometimes makes things worse by what she withholds, but she rarely drives events. Movie Nelly is Catherine's companion and an active schemer. She arranges for Heathcliff to overhear Catherine say that marrying him would degrade her, and she tells Edgar about the affair.
An affair and explicit sex. In the novel, Catherine and Heathcliff share only a few embraces and kisses, mostly near the end of her life. The movie adds an affair after Heathcliff's return, with a sex montage and a scene in a carriage.
Isabella consents. In the book, Isabella falls for Heathcliff, marries him and becomes his victim. She later escapes. In the movie, she agrees to a relationship in which Heathcliff tells her he does not love her and uses her to hurt Catherine. The movie presents it as a willing sadomasochistic arrangement.
Spoilers: the ending
This section reveals the ending of the book and the movie.
The movie ends with Catherine's death. In the novel, that death comes at the midpoint.
- How Catherine dies. In the book, Heathcliff forces his way into the Grange for one last meeting. That night Catherine gives birth to a daughter, Cathy, and dies. In the movie, Nelly intercepts Heathcliff's letters, so Catherine believes he has abandoned her. She starves herself, loses her pregnancy and dies of the infection that follows. Heathcliff rides to the Grange too late and finds her dead.
- What the movie leaves out. With no baby, there is no second generation. Heathcliff's long revenge on Hindley's son and Edgar's daughter, his own strange death and the match between Cathy and Hareton do not happen.
- No ghosts. The novel opens with Lockwood's dream of a ghost at the window and ends with the local belief that Heathcliff and Catherine walk the moors together. The movie ends at her death and leaves out the ghost story.
The effect is a different story. Brontë ends with repair: the next generation undoes the damage of the first. Fennell ends at the moment of loss, so the story stays a tragedy about two people.
Book or movie first?
Read the book first if you are studying it or want the whole story. The movie covers about half the plot and changes several characters, so it does not replace the novel. Watch the movie first if you want the romance and plan to read the book later. Expect the book to be harsher, stranger and much longer.