What does it really mean to adapt a novel, and how can one succeed or fail in doing so? These questions have long tormented authors, filmmakers, and audiences alike. Emerald Fennell’s 2026 “Wuthering Heights” takes a controversial approach to reimagining Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, simultaneously illuminating the question while complicating it further.

Through an analytical history of the life and times of both of its artistic fathers, Carlos examines the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom–a scroll stuffed into a wall in a Bastille cell that would two centuries later become the most infamous film ever made.