Why the Brontës Are Hot Again

Literary circles are once again abuzz with the Brontë sisters: one of Charlotte’s obscure manuscripts just fetched a huge price, and new film adaptations of her Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights are parachuting their novels back to prominence. The Telegraph’s Philip Hensher thinks there’s a reason. “There are always deeper, less explicable reasons why a particular author seems exactly right for the times.” Wuthering Heights in particular seems exactly right for a world that is daily staring into the face of economic abyss. “The story can seem almost apocalyptic, since almost every character dies in the course of it.”