Sales of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights have risen by 469% in the UK since last year, as anticipation builds for Emerald Fennell’s bold and highly anticipated film adaptation, figures from Penguin Classics UK show.
In January of this year, 10,670 copies were sold, compared with 1,875 in January 2025, in what Penguin has described as an unusually large boost.
Sales of the book increased by 132% after the release of the first teaser trailer for the film last September. Between the trailer’s release and the end of the year, Penguin sold 28,257 copies in the UK, compared with 12,134 over the same period in 2024.
Jess Harrison, publishing director for Penguin Classics, said: “I can’t remember the last time a film adaptation generated this much excitement for the book. Wuthering Heights is one of our evergreen bestsellers, but I do think the film is coming out at the perfect moment.
“There seems to be a real yearning among readers for intense, maximalist, tragic love stories,” Harrison added. “We’ve seen huge demand for similarly angsty classics like Dostoevsky’s White Nights and Sabahattin Ali’s Madonna in a Fur Coat. But Wuthering Heights stands apart in being so wild and unhinged – an extreme book for extreme times.”
Fennell’s A-list adaptation, which stars Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, premieres in the UK on 13 February. The Saltburn director’s modernised take is set to be an intense, visceral reimagining of Brontë’s gothic romance, complete with contemporary costumes, and a soundtrack by Charli xcx.
The promotional materials have sparked backlash from Brontë fans and online commentators. Some critics have voiced scepticism about its overt sexual tone, as well as the casting choices: Robbie, 35, plays a character who is 19 in the novel, and Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff has revived debate over the racial identity of the character, who is understood to be of Romany heritage in Brontë’s text.
“I don’t think an adaptation needs to be completely faithful to the book: many of the best ones – like Clueless riffing on [Jane Austen’s] Emma – aren’t,” Harrison said. “But what you hope for is that an adaptation will capture the spirit of the original. With Wuthering Heights, it’s the extreme intensity of emotion that matters the most.”
Reviews of the film are embargoed until Monday, but there has been some early reaction from critics on social media. Courtney Howard called the film “intoxicating, transcendent, tantalising, bewitching, lust worthy, hypnotic,” and a “god-tier new classic”.
Film writer Anne Thompson was similarly effusive, praising it as a “rip-roaring, bodice-ripping crowd-pleaser,” adding that “audiences will fall for Emerald Fennell’s garish visuals and unrestrained direction. Everything is BIG.”
