Sex & Scandal behind Wuthering Heights

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, History, Education, Sex, Scandal

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Wuthering Heights is a story full of passion, violence and sexual tension.

So it's no surprise that it shocked Victorian readers when it first came out. How did Emily Brontë, the daughter of a clergyman, create such a provocative world? How did the Brontê sisters write about sex and sexuality in their work? And how accurate is the new film to the original story?!

Joining Kate today is Dr Claire O'Callaghan, author and Brontë scholar, to take us back to Victorian England at the peak of the Industrial Revolution, and find out more about this scandalous story.

For tickets to the live show of Betwixt the Sheets in May, follow the link here https://www.fane.co.uk/betwixt-the-sheets

This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.

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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, my lovely betwixters. I'm just jumping in here real quick to remind you that if you wanted to come and see betwixt the sheets live and in the flesh, you can do so in May. We have got two live events. One in Edinburgh on the 23rd of May and one in London Town on the 25th of May. There will be guests, there will be games, there will be smutty history
0:23.0	aplenty. Tickets are available now at fane.co.uk. That's f-a-n-e-co.uk. And just search for
0:31.2	Betwixt and we will see you there. Hello, my lovely betwixters. I'm just jumping in here
0:36.5	real quick to remind you that if you wanted to come and see betwixta sheets live and in the flesh, you can do so in May. We have got two live events. One in Edinburgh on the 23rd of May and one in London Town on the 25th of May. There will be guests, there will be games, there will be
0:56.0	smutty history, a plenty. Tickets are available now at fane.com.uk. That's F-A-N-E.com.uk.
1:04.1	And just search for Betwixt and we will see you there.
1:10.8	Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. You are listening to Betwix the sheets.
1:16.1	Hello and welcome back to the podcast that roots around in the pants of history for your
1:21.5	entertainment. But before we can get a rooting together, I have to tell you. Once more and forever more.
1:30.2	This is an adult podcast book by adults to other adults about adulty things in an
1:33.4	adulty way, coming away, adult subjects and you should be an adult too.
1:35.8	And that's just to keep you safe because we care.
1:38.9	Right, let's crack on.
1:52.2	I haven't actually had to travel too far for this episode, thankfully.
1:57.4	I've just nipped over to Haworth in West Yorkshire, not too far from my own stumping ground, except that we have landed smack bang in the middle of the 19th century.
2:03.7	Well, almost the middle of the 19th century, 1847, and that's pretty close.
2:09.4	Look around, we've got factories and mills popping up across the landscape.
2:13.6	TB is killing off family members and everybody's off their face on gin.
2:18.0	It really is. Peak Victorian.
2:20.7	And at the edge of this cobblestone town lurks the Yorkshire Moors,
2:24.7	a wild and fearsome landscape that is as much a character in Wuthering Heights as anyone else.
2:31.0	But how did this small pocket of Victorian England influence
	...

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