Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
A stormy tale of obsessive love and revenge on the Yorkshire moors, told through nested narrators. Dark, wild, and unlike any other Victorian novel. Read the full description
Best for: Gothic fiction lovers
Wuthering Heights is #28 on BookWard's Top 100 books for September 2026, with a BookWard Score of 72 out of 100.
Wuthering Heights: reading interest over the past 12 months
Sources: Open Library’s public reading-log and ratings data (dump of 2026-08-31), Wikipedia page views and Wikidata. Monthly counts are exact; they show relative interest among readers of these public sources, not total readership.
Ranked against the other books on this list, Wuthering Heights’s reading interest has run from #1 to #49 over these 12 months. Interest rank blends shelf adds, Wikipedia page views and rating activity, each compared with the other 99 books that month.
Shelf adds by month
Wuthering Heights was added to Open Library readers’ shelves 1,019 times in the past 12 months, peaking in February 2026 with 153 (80% above its monthly average of 85). Over the latest three months (Jun 2026 to Aug 2026) shelf adds were down 21% on the three months before. 84% of the adds were “want to read”, 6% “currently reading” and 10% “already read”.
Want to read Currently reading Already read
Wikipedia page views
Its Wikipedia article was viewed 7,252,942 times in the past 12 months, peaking in February 2026 with 2,917,718 views. The latest three months were down 68% on the three before.
Source: Wikimedia monthly page views for the article Wuthering Heights.
Adaptations
- Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (film), 1992
Adaptations are listed from Wikidata; a release date near a rise in the charts above is context, not proof of a cause.
What the data says about Wuthering Heights
- Moderate swings. Monthly shelf adds averaged 85 with some ups and downs.
- Busiest and quietest months. February 2026 was its busiest month (153 adds), about 3.6 times its quietest, June 2026 (43).
- Attention and shelf adds move together. Months with more Wikipedia views for Wuthering Heights were also months with more shelf adds (correlation 0.74), which suggests the same events, such as new editions, adaptations or social media, drive both.
- Against its genre. It had 10% more shelf adds than the average Classics book on this list.
- Share of the list. It accounts for 1.0% of all shelf adds recorded for the Top 100 over these 12 months, #30 of 100.
- Its age. First published in 1847 (179 years ago), it is older than 98% of the books on the list.
Each finding is computed from the public data above and shown only when the numbers support it.
Wuthering Heights on the Top 100: rank history
First charted in September 2026. The chart gains a point with every monthly update, so its peak, climbs and falls will show here as they happen.
| Month | Rank | Score |
|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | #28 | 72 |
Is Wuthering Heights rising or falling?
Cooling It ranks lower this week than over the past year, so interest is softening from its recent level.
On Open Library, Wuthering Heights ranks #35 this week, #22 this month, and #32 over the past year. A longer bar means a higher position. Comparing the three windows shows whether readers are arriving faster than the book's long-term pace. Readings as of 2026-09-30.
Why Wuthering Heights made the Top 100
Wuthering Heights made the list mainly on momentum (+30.6 points) and being read right now (+16.7 points). Its smallest contribution is rising (+0.4). The BookWard Score blends five public signals, each scored from 0 to 100 and weighted as shown.
The reading-now, rating and rank signals come from Open Library’s public data, not from BookWard’s own readers. The score measures reading interest, not quality or sales. How the score works.
Open Library reader stats for Wuthering Heights
Source: Open Library public reading logs, as of 2026-09-30. BookWard’s own monthly snapshots are added to the picture, and anonymous BookWard reader data will be layered in as the community grows.
More readers have Wuthering Heights open right now than 39% of the other books on this list. These counts come from one public source, so they show relative interest rather than total readership.
Where it sits among Classics books
It is #6 of the 11 Classics books on this month’s list.
About Wuthering Heights
A stormy tale of obsessive love and revenge on the Yorkshire moors, told through nested narrators. Dark, wild, and unlike any other Victorian novel.
Why it’s here: It is the classic for readers who prefer their romance stormy.
Best for: Gothic fiction lovers
At a glance
- First published
- 1847
- Genre
- Classics
- Also described as
- Gothic fiction, Victorian literature, romantic fiction
- Length
- about 318 pages (the median across its editions)
- Original language
- English
- Languages
- editions in 28 languages listed on Open Library
- Editions
- 2,888 on Open Library
- Setting
- Yorkshire
- Characters listed
- Catherine Earnshaw, Cathy Linton, Edgar Linton, Heathcliff, Hindley Earnshaw
From Open Library and Wikidata public records. Missing rows mean the records do not list that fact.
Themes
- Obsessive love
- Revenge
- Class and landscape
What reading it is like
Dark, stormy and layered, told through nested narrators with some Yorkshire dialect.
At about 318 pages it is a longer read: roughly 6 hours at an average reading pace (about 250 words a minute, 300 words a page). Audiobook and edition lengths vary.
Good to know
Not a conventional romance: its central characters are often cruel. Famous for its moorland setting.
The premise
On the Yorkshire moors, the intense bond between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff turns into obsession and revenge that spans two generations. The story is told by narrators looking back.
What you’ll get
- A dark, stormy romance
- A gothic atmosphere
- A structure that rewards a second read
You might skip it if you want likable characters and a gentle plot.
Keep exploring the chart
Also on the chart at #27 and #29
Questions about Wuthering Heights
What rank is Wuthering Heights on the Top 100 books?
Wuthering Heights is #28 on BookWard's Top 100 books for September 2026, with a BookWard Score of 72 out of 100.
Is Wuthering Heights rising or falling?
Cooling. It ranks lower this week than over the past year, so interest is softening from its recent level. On Open Library, Wuthering Heights ranks #35 this week, #22 this month, and #32 over the past year.
Why is Wuthering Heights on the Top 100?
Wuthering Heights made the list mainly on momentum (+30.6 points) and being read right now (+16.7 points). Its smallest contribution is rising (+0.4).
How many people are reading Wuthering Heights right now?
Open Library's reading logs show 224 readers currently reading Wuthering Heights, 3,058 who want to read it and 399 who have logged it as read (as of 2026-09-30). These are counts from one public source, not all readers.
How much interest has Wuthering Heights had over the past year?
1,019 Open Library shelf adds in the past 12 months (peak February 2026, 153); latest three months down 21% on the prior three; 7,252,942 Wikipedia views in the past 12 months (down 68% over the latest three months); Adaptations on Wikidata: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992). Figures come from Open Library and Wikipedia public data.
Who is Wuthering Heights best for?
Gothic fiction lovers.
Ask a question about Wuthering Heights
Ask about this book's chart history, reading interest, or who it is for. Answers come from this page's data and can be wrong.
Answers are AI-written from BookWard’s own help content and can be wrong. Please do not share personal information: questions and answers may be saved and, if they are useful, shown on this site without your name.
How we know
This page is built from public data: Open Library’s dated reading-log and ratings dumps, Wikipedia page views, Wikidata, and BookWard’s own monthly Top 100 snapshots. The interest rank blends shelf adds (45%), Wikipedia page views (30%), rating activity (10%) and, for months where a snapshot exists, BookWard’s own score (15%), each as a percentile among the Top 100 books. Every month shown is real data; nothing is estimated. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Last updated September 2026. Read the full methodology.
Track Wuthering Heights and find your next favorite
Add it to your shelf, rate what you have read, and BookWard will recommend what fits you.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.