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Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel, ''
Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...
''. She also co-authored a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte and
Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...
, entitled '' Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell''. Emily was the fifth of six Brontë siblings, four of whom survived into adulthood. Her mother died when she was three, leaving the children in the care of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, and aside from brief intervals at school, she was mostly taught at home by her father,
Patrick Brontë Patrick Brontë (, commonly ; born Patrick Brunty; 17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861) was an Irish Anglican minister and author who spent most of his adult life in England. He was the father of the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte, Emily Bront ...
, who was the
curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...
of
Haworth Haworth ( , , ) is a village in West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines south-west of Keighley, 8 miles (13 km) north of Halifax, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhop ...
. She was very close to her siblings, especially her younger sister Anne, and together they wrote little books and journals depicting imaginary worlds. She is described by her sister Charlotte as very shy, but also strong-willed and nonconforming, with a keen love of nature and animals. Some biographers believe that she may have had some form of autism. Apart from a brief period at school, and another as a student teacher in Brussels with her sister Charlotte, Emily spent most of her life at home in Haworth, helping the family servant with chores, playing the piano and teaching herself from books. Her work was originally published under the
pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
Ellis Bell. It was not generally admired at the time, and many critics felt that the characters in ''Wuthering Heights'' were coarse and immoral. However, the novel is now considered to be a classic of English literature. Emily Brontë died in 1848, aged 30, a year after its publication.


Early life

Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 to merchant's daughter Maria Branwell and Irish curate
Patrick Brontë Patrick Brontë (, commonly ; born Patrick Brunty; 17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861) was an Irish Anglican minister and author who spent most of his adult life in England. He was the father of the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte, Emily Bront ...
. The family lived on Market Street, in Thornton, a village on the outskirts of
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
, in the
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...
. Their house is now known as the Brontë Birthplace. Emily was the fifth of six siblings, preceded by Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Branwell. In 1820,
Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...
, the last Brontë child, was born. Soon after Anne's birth, the family moved away to the village of
Haworth Haworth ( , , ) is a village in West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines south-west of Keighley, 8 miles (13 km) north of Halifax, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhop ...
, in the
Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...
, where Patrick Brontë took employment as
perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly ...
.Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 16


Haworth

Haworth was a small community with an unusually high early mortality rate. In 1850,
Benjamin Herschel Babbage Benjamin Herschel Babbage (6 August 1815 – 22 October 1878) was an English engineer, scientist, explorer and politician, best known for his work in the colony of South Australia. He invariably signed his name "B. Herschel Babbage" and was freq ...
reported deeply unsanitary conditions, including contamination to the village water supply from the overcrowded graveyard nearby. This is believed to have had a serious impact on the health of Emily and her siblings.


Cowan Bridge

On 15 September 1821, Maria Branwell died of cancer, leaving the three-year-old Emily and her siblings in the care of their aunt,
Elizabeth Branwell Elizabeth Branwell (1776 – 25 October 1842) was the aunt of the literary sisters Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë. Called 'Aunt Branwell', she helped raise the Brontë children after her sister, Maria Branwell, died in 1821 ...
.Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 28 Emily's three elder sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte were sent to the
Clergy Daughters' School The Cowan Bridge School was a Clergy Daughters' School, founded in 1824, at Cowan Bridge in the English county of Lancashire. It was mainly for the daughters of middle class clergy and attended by the Brontë sisters. In the 1830s it moved to ...
at
Cowan Bridge Cowan Bridge is a village in the English county of Lancashire. It is south-east of the town of Kirkby Lonsdale where the main A65 road crosses the Leck Beck. It forms part of the civil parish of Burrow-with-Burrow. Clergy Daughters' School C ...
. On 25 November 1824, Emily, then nearly six, was sent to join her sisters at school.Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 35 The school register of the Clergy Daughters' School mentions her, saying he"reads very prettily, and works a little." The children suffered abuse and privations at the school, including poor food and harsh, unsanitary conditions. When an epidemic of
typhoid Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often ther ...
swept the school, Maria and Elizabeth both fell ill. In 1825, Maria, who may have been suffering from
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
, was sent home, where she died. Elizabeth, too, died shortly after. At this point, the four surviving Brontë children were still all under ten years of age.Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 31 After this, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school.


Early influences

The four remaining siblings were thereafter educated at home by their father and their aunt Elizabeth. Girls were not allowed access to the public library, but all the children were encouraged by their father to develop their literary talents and to take an interest in politics and current affairs. Despite their lack of formal education, Emily and her siblings had access to a wide range of published material. Favourites included:
Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
,
Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...
,
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...
, and ''
Blackwood's Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by publisher William Blackwood and originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine'', but quickly relaunched as ''Blackwood's Edinb ...
''.Fraser, ''The Brontës'', pp. 44–45 The Brontë children were also tutored in drawing and painting. They were familiar with the work of
Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) was an English wood engraving, wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, ...
and John Martin, the engravings of William Finden, and illustrations from ''The Literary Souvenir.'' 29 drawings and paintings by Emily are known to have survived, including a watercolour painting of her dog, Keeper. In spite of his desire for his children to receive as comprehensive an education as possible, Patrick Brontë himself was cold and emotionally distant,carrying a loaded gun at all times and imposing a number of idiosyncratic personal rules on the household, such as not allowing his children to eat meat in case it made them "soft." He had retained an Irish accent, which the siblings shared as children, and this contributed to the perception that they were outsiders, never quite fitting into the Yorkshire community. Left to their own devices, the siblings were unusually close, and remained so, especially Emily and Anne, who were described by a family friend, Ellen Nussey, as being "like twins."


Juvenilia

Inspired by a box of toy soldiers Branwell Brontë had received as a gift from his father, the children began to write stories, which they set in the complex
imaginary worlds Imaginary Worlds may refer to: * Fictional universes * Imaginary Worlds: The Art of Fantasy, a 1973 study of the modern literary fantasy genre by Lin Carter * Imaginary Worlds (podcast), an episodic science fiction and fantasy podcast {{dab ...
of Glass Town and Angria. These stories, which became increasingly detailed, were initially populated by their soldiers as well as their real-life heroes, the
Duke of Wellington Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...
and his sons,
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...
and Arthur Wellesley. The siblings created tiny books for the soldiers to "read", some of which are on display at the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, and, in December 1827 they produced a novel, ''Glass Town.'' However, little of Emily's work from this period survives, except for poems spoken by characters. When Emily was 13, she and Anne withdrew from participation in the Angria story and began a new one about Gondal, a fictional island whose myths and legends were to preoccupy the two sisters throughout their lives. With the exception of their Gondal poems and Anne's lists of Gondal's characters and placenames, Emily and Anne's Gondal writings were largely not preserved. Among those that did survive are some "diary papers", written by Emily in her twenties, which describe current events in Gondal. The heroes of Gondal tended to resemble the popular image of the Scottish Highlander, a sort of British version of the "
noble savage In Western anthropology, Western philosophy, philosophy, and European literature, literature, the Myth of the Noble savage refers to a stock character who is uncorrupted by civilization. As such, the "noble" savage symbolizes the innate goodness a ...
". The tales of Gondal also feature a queen called Augusta Geraldine Almeda, whose character may resemble that of Catherine Earnshaw in ''Wuthering Heights''. Similar themes of romanticism and noble savagery are apparent across the Brontës' juvenilia, including in Branwell's ''The Life of Alexander Percy'', which tells the story of an all-consuming, death-defying, and ultimately self-destructive love, and which some believe may have been one of the inspirations for ''Wuthering Heights''.Paddock & Rollyson ''The Brontës A to Z'' p. 199.


Roe Head

At 17, Emily joined the Roe Head Girls' School, where Charlotte was a teacher. At this time, the girls' objective was to obtain sufficient education to open a small school of their own. Emily left after only a few months, with Anne taking her place.Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 84 Later, Charlotte was to ascribe this to Emily's extreme
homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...
and resistance to the routine and discipline of the school, stating that she feared Emily would have died if she had not been allowed home.Gaskell, ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', p. 149


Adulthood


Teaching

In September 1838, when she was 20, Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School, in the Yorkshire town of Halifax.Vine, ''Emily Brontë'' (1998), p. 11 However, her health suffered under the stress of the 17-hour workday, and she did not warm to her pupils, stating that she preferred the company of the house dog. She returned home to Haworth in April 1839,Krueger, Christine L. ''Encyclopedia of British writers, 19th century'' (2009), p. 41 helping the family's servant with the cooking, ironing, and cleaning. She also taught herself
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
from books and played the piano, becoming an accomplished pianist.


Brussels

In 1842, when she was 24, Emily accompanied Charlotte to the Heger Pensionnat, a girls' boarding school in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, in the hope of perfecting their French and German before opening their own school. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this period. In her role as a student teacher, Emily earned her board and tuition by teaching music to the younger girls, although unlike Charlotte, Emily was not happy in Brussels and was mocked for her refusal to adopt Belgian fashions. A student, Laetitia Wheelwright, says of her:
I simply disliked her from the first; her tallish, ungainly, ill-dressed figure ... always answering our jokes with ‘I wish to be as God made me’.
However, Constantin Heger, who was in charge of the academy, thought highly of Emily, writing:
She should have been a man – a great navigator. Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old; and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty, never have given way but with life. She had a head for logic, and a capability of argument unusual in a man and rarer indeed in a woman... impairing this gift was her stubborn tenacity of will which rendered her obtuse to all reasoning where her own wishes, or her own sense of right, was concerned.
The two sisters were committed to their studies and by the end of the term had become so competent in French that Madame Heger, the wife of Constantin Heger, proposed that they both stay another half-year. According to Charlotte, she even offered to dismiss the English master so that Charlotte could take his place. By this time, Emily had become a competent pianist and teacher, and it was suggested that she might stay on to teach music. However, the sudden illness and death of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, forced their return to Haworth. In 1844, the sisters attempted to open a school at the Parsonage, but the venture failed when they proved unable to attract students to the remote area.


Poetry

In 1844, Emily began going through all the poems she had written, recopying them neatly into two notebooks. One was labelled "Gondal Poems"; the other was unlabelled. Scholars such as Fannie Ratchford and Derek Roper have attempted to piece together a Gondal storyline and chronology from these poems. In the autumn of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted that the poems be published. Emily, furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused but, according to Charlotte, relented when Anne brought out her own manuscripts and revealed that she too had been writing poems in secret. Around this time, Emily wrote one of her most famous poems, "No coward soul is mine". Some literary critics have speculated that it is a poem about Anne Brontë, while others see it as a response to the violation of her privacy. Charlotte later claimed that it was Emily's final poem, but this is inaccurate. In 1846, the sisters' poems were published in one volume as '' Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell''. The Brontë sisters adopted pseudonyms for publication, preserving their initials: Charlotte was "Currer Bell", Emily was "Ellis Bell" and Anne was "Acton Bell". Charlotte wrote in the 'Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell' that their "ambiguous choice" was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because... we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice".Gaskell, ''The life of Charlotte Brontë'' (1857), p. 335 Charlotte contributed 19 poems, and Emily and Anne each contributed 21. Although the sisters were told several months after publication that only two copies of the book had sold, they were not discouraged (of their two readers, one was impressed enough to request their autographs). ''The Athenaeum'' reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work for its music and power, singling out those poems as the best in the book: "Ellis possesses a fine, quaint spirit and an evident power of wing that may reach heights not here attempted", and ''The Critic'' reviewer recognised "the presence of more genius than it was supposed this utilitarian age had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect."


''Wuthering Heights''

Emily Brontë's ''Wuthering Heights'' was first published in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby, appearing as the first two volumes of a three-volume set that also included Anne Brontë's ''
Agnes Grey ''Agnes Grey, A Novel'' is the Debut novel, first novel by English author Anne Brontë (writing under the pen name of "Acton Bell"), first published in December 1847, and republished in a second edition in 1850. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a g ...
''. The authors were named as Ellis and Acton Bell; Emily's real name did not appear until 1850, when it was printed on the title page of an edited commercial edition. The novel's innovative structure somewhat puzzled
critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...
s. Its violence and passion led the Victorian public and many early reviewers to assume that it had been written by a man. According to Juliet Gardiner, "the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers." Literary critic Thomas Joudrey further contextualizes this reaction: "Expecting in the wake of Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'' to be swept up in an earnest
Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...
, they were instead shocked and confounded by a tale of unchecked primal passions, replete with savage cruelty and outright barbarism." One of the novel's first critics, writing in January 1848 for the periodical ''Atlas'', described all the characters in the novel as being: "utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible",and an anonymous reviewer in ''The Examiner'' wrote:
This is a strange book. It is not without evidences of considerable power: but, as a whole, it is wild, confused, disjointed, and improbable; and the people who make up the drama, which is tragic enough in its consequences, are savages ruder than those who lived before the days of Homer.
Some even went as far as to dispute the novel's authorship. When Emily was named by Charlotte as the author of ''Wuthering Heights'', two of Branwell Brontë's friends claimed that Branwell, and not Emily, was the true author of the novel. An anonymous article followed in ''People's Magazine'' expressing incredulity that such a work could have been written by "a timid and retiring female". Although a letter from her publisher indicates that Emily had begun to write a second novel, the manuscript has never been found. It has been suggested either that it was destroyed, or that the letter was intended for Anne Brontë, who was already writing '' The Tenant of Wildfell Hall''.


Personality and character

Emily Brontë's solitary nature has made her a mysterious figure and a challenge for biographers to assess. Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontë describes Emily as unusually tall and slim, often wearing a purple dress, and exercising an ‘unconscious tyranny’ over her sisters, who nicknamed her "the Major." Reserved to the point of eccentricity, she appeared to some to be disconnected from the real world, taking refuge in her own fantasy. Juliet Barker writes in her biography of the Brontës, that: "Emily...was so absorbed in herself and her literary creations that she had little time for the genuine suffering of her family." Biographer Claire Harman has speculated that Emily's adherence to routine, along with her anger management issues, her aversion to social situations and her attachment to her home may all indicate that she had a form of autism. Although she seemingly enjoyed cooking and helping out in the kitchen, John Sutherland mentions her 'obstinate fasting', and biographer Katherine Frank suggests that Emily may have suffered from anorexia. With the exception of Ellen Nussey and Louise de Bassompierre, a fellow student in Brussels, there is no record of Emily having friends outside her family. Although there are many theories, there is no evidence that the passionate relationships depicted in ''Wuthering Heights'' are based on personal experience.Emily's closest friend was her sister Anne. Inseparable in childhood, they shared their own fantasy world, Gondal, right up into adulthood.Fraser, ''A Life of Anne Brontë'', p. 39Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 195 In 1845 Anne took Emily to visit some of the places she had come to know and love in the five years she spent as governess. The sisters went to
York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
together, where Anne showed Emily
York Minster York Minster, formally the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The minster is the seat of the archbishop of York, the second-highest of ...
. During the trip the sisters acted out scenes featuring some of their Gondal characters.Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 451 Charlotte Brontë remains the primary source of information about Emily, although she is not considered by certain scholars to be a neutral witness. Stevie Davies writes about what she calls "Charlotte's smoke-screen", and argues that Charlotte was shocked by Emily, and may even have doubted her sister's sanity. She was in awe of Emily’s genius – at one point referring to her as “a giant” and “a baby god”, but seems never to have fully understood her work,describing her in the introduction to ''Wuthering Heights'' as: "a native and nursling of the moors", who "did not know what she had done". After Emily's death, Charlotte rewrote her character, history and even some of her poems, in a way that seemed more acceptable to her and to the reading public. Biographer Claire O'Callaghan suggests that the trajectory of Brontë's legacy was altered significantly by
Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victoria ...
's biography of Charlotte, not only because Gaskell did not visit Haworth until after Emily's death, but also because Gaskell admits to disliking what she did know of Emily. As O'Callaghan and others have noted, Charlotte was Gaskell's primary source of information on Emily's life and may have exaggerated or fabricated Emily's frailty and shyness to cast herself in the role of maternal saviour. Winifred Gerin's biography of Emily Brontë describes her as a physically intrepid woman who carried a gun and who once, when bitten by a rabid dog, cauterized the wound herself with a hot iron, to avoid worrying her sisters. Emily Brontë has often been characterised as a devout if somewhat unorthodox Christian, a heretic and a visionary "mystic of the moors". Charlotte presented Emily as someone whose love of nature had become exaggerated owing to her shyness, portraying her as a kind of noble savage of the Yorkshire moors, "stronger than a man, simpler than a child". According to Lucasta Miller, in her analysis of Brontë biographies, "Charlotte took on the role of Emily's first mythographer." In the ''Preface'' to the Second Edition of ''
Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...
'', in 1850, Charlotte wrote:
My sister's disposition was not naturally gregarious; circumstances favoured and fostered her tendency to seclusion; except to go to church or take a walk on the hills, she rarely crossed the threshold of home. Though her feeling for the people round was benevolent, intercourse with them she never sought; nor, with very few exceptions, ever experienced. And yet she knew them: knew their ways, their language, their family histories; she could hear of them with interest, and talk of them with detail, minute, graphic, and accurate; but WITH them, she rarely exchanged a word.
Emily's shyness and unsociability have subsequently been reported many times.Gérin, ''Emily Brontë: a biography'', p. 196 In ''Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era'' (1886), Eva Hope summarises Emily's character as "a peculiar mixture of timidity and Spartan-like courage". According to Norma Crandall, her "warm, human aspect" was "usually revealed only in her love of nature and of animals". In a similar description, ''The Literary News'' (1883) states: " milyloved the solemn moors, she loved all wild, free creatures and things", and critics attest that her love of the moors is manifest in ''Wuthering Heights''. Over the years, Emily's love of nature has been the subject of many anecdotes. A newspaper dated 31 December 1899, gives the account that "with bird and beast milyhad the most intimate relations, and from her walks she often came with fledgling or young rabbit in hand, talking softly to it, quite sure, too, that it understood". Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of Charlotte, tells the story of Emily's punishing her dog Keeper for climbing with muddy paws on one of the beds in the Parsonage. According to Gaskell, she struck him with her fists until he was "half-blind" with his eyes "swelled up", after which she comforted and bathed him. This story has been called into question by some biographers and scholars, including Janet Gezari, Lucasta Miller and Claire O'Callaghan. Fraser's biography of Emily Brontë mentions Emily's close relationship with her dog, and states that Keeper was never the same after her death.


Death

Emily's brother Branwell died suddenly, on Sunday, 24 September 1848. At his funeral, a week later, Emily caught a severe cold that quickly developed into inflammation of the lungs and may have accelerated an existing condition such as
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
.Benvenuto, ''Emily Brontë'', p. 24 It has been suggested that Emily's health had been weakened by unsanitary conditions at home,Gaskell, ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', pp. 47–48 where water was contaminated by runoff from the church's graveyard. Though her condition worsened steadily, Emily rejected medical help, saying that she would have "no poisoning doctor" near her.Fraser, "Charlotte Brontë: A Writer's Life", 316 On the morning of 19 December 1848, Charlotte, fearing for her sister, wrote:Gaskell, ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', pp. 67
She grows daily weaker. The physician's opinion was expressed too obscurely to be of use – he sent some medicine which she would not take. Moments so dark as these I have never known – I pray for God's support to us all.
At noon, Emily's condition had worsened. She could only whisper in gasps. With her last audible words, she said to Charlotte, "If you will send for a doctor, I will see him now",Gaskell, ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', pp. 68 but it was too late. She died that same day at about two in the afternoon. According to
Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senato ...
, an early biographer, Emily died on the sofa.Robinson, ''Emily Brontë'', p. 308 However, Charlotte's letter to William Smith Williams, in which she mentions Emily's dog, Keeper, lying by her deathbed, seem to contradict this.Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 576 Emily died less than three months after Branwell's death, which led Martha Brown, a housemaid, to declare that "Miss Emily died of a broken heart for love of her brother".Gérin, ''Emily Brontë: a biography'', p. 242 Emily had grown so thin that her coffin measured only 16 inches (40 centimetres) wide. The carpenter said he had never made a narrower one for an adult.Vine, ''Emily Brontë'' (1998), p. 20 Her remains were interred in the family vault in St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth.


Legacy

Although Emily's work was not widely appreciated at the time of its publication, ''Wuthering Heights'' has subsequently become an English literary classic, and is described in John Sutherland's ''Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction'' as the "twentieth century’s favourite nineteenth-century novel". Emily's poems, too, have reached a global audience. The opening line of "No coward soul is mine", is popular on mugs and key rings, and even as a tattoo.


Authors

Authors who have been inspired by Emily Brontë include:
Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...
,
Jacqueline Wilson Dame Jacqueline Wilson (' Aitken; born 17 December 1945) is an English novelist known for her popular children's literature. Her novels have been notable for tackling realistic topics such as adoption and divorce. Since her debut novel in 1969, ...
,
Joanne Harris Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris (born 3 July 1964) is a British author, best known for her 1999 novel '' Chocolat'', which was adapted into a film of the same name. Her work has received multiple awards and is published in over 50 countries. ...
,
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...
,
Kate Mosse Katherine Louise Mosse (born 1961) is a British novelist, non-fiction and short story writer and broadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novel ''Labyrinth'', which has been translated into more than 37 languages. She co-founded in 1996 th ...
, Dorothy Koomson and Lucy Powrie (who is now the chair of the Brontë Society). In 2018, to celebrate Emily Brontë's centenary year, The Borough Press published a collection of short stories entitled ''I Am Heathcliff'', edited by Kate Mosse, and featuring stories by Leila Aboulela, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Joanna Cannon, Alison Case,
Juno Dawson Juno Dawson (born 10 July 1981) is an English author of young adult fiction and non-fiction. Dawson's notable works include '' This Book Is Gay'', ''Mind Your Head'', ''Margot & Me'', ''The Gender Games'', ''Clean'', ''Meat Market'', and the ser ...
, Louise Doughty, Sophie Hannah, Anna James, Erin Kelly, Dorothy Koomson, Grace McCleen, Lisa McInerney, Laurie Penny,
Nikesh Shukla Nikesh Shukla (born 8 July 1980) is a British people, British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays ''The Good Immigrant'', which features contr ...
, Michael Stewart and Louisa Young.


Adaptations

''Wuthering Heights'' has been adapted many times, both in the UK and elsewhere, for radio, film, stage and television. The earliest adaptation of the novel was a silent film in 1920, directed by A. V. Bramble. Actors portraying Catherine Earnshaw include:
Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English, and has been the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Juliette Binoche, numerous accolades, ...
, Rosemary Harris and Merle Oberon, and actors playing Heathcliff include:
Ralph Fiennes Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (; born 22 December 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ralph Fiennes, various accolades, including a British Academy Film ...
,
Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
and Tom Hardy. In 2025 it was announced that a new adaptation was in production, directed by
Emerald Fennell Emerald Lilly Fennell (; born 1 October 1985) is an English actress, filmmaker, and writer. She has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe ...
and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.


Screen Biographies

Numerous adaptations also exist depicting the sisters and their lives. The 1946 film '' Devotion'' was a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the Brontë sisters. In the 2019 film '' How to Build a Girl'', Emily and Charlotte Brontë are among the historical figures in Johanna's wall
collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...
.In the 2022 film '' Emily'', written and directed by Frances O'Connor, Emma Mackey plays Emily before the publication of ''Wuthering Heights''. The film mixes known biographical details with imagined situations and relationships.


Music

A 1967 BBC adaptation of Emily's novel was the original inspiration for the debut single, "
Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...
", by UK singer-songwriter
Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...
, released in January 1978. In 1996, singer-songwriter
Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...
brought out ''Heathcliff'', a stage musical based on the character, in which he himself played the lead.In 2019 the English folk group The Unthanks released ''Lines'', three short albums, which include settings of Brontë's poems to music. Recording took place at the Brontës' home, using their own
Regency era The Regency era of British history is commonly understood as the years between and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the lat ...
piano played by Adrian McNally.Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo set selected Emily Brontë poems to music with
SATB In music, SATB is a scoring of compositions for choirs or consorts of instruments consisting of four voice types: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Choral music Four-part harmony using soprano, alto, tenor and bass is a common scoring in classic ...
chorus, string orchestra, and piano, a work commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Choral Society in a series of concerts in
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
and
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. In 2025, Emma Rice premiered a new musical adaptation of ''Wuthering Heights'' in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, starring John Leader as Heathcliff.


Glass House adaptations

The Brontës' juvenilia has also inspired writers. In 2017, Catherynne Valente wrote ''The Glass House Game'', which reimagines the Brontë siblings as characters in their own version of
C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
' Narnia books. In 2020, graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg adapted ''Glass Town'' into a
graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...
that combines the Brontës' early fiction with memoir.


Memorabilia

In May 2021, the contents of the Honresfield library, a collection of rare books and manuscripts assembled by Rochdale mill owners Alfred and William Law, was rediscovered after nearly a century. In the collection were handwritten poems by Emily Brontë, as well as the Brontë family edition of Bewick's 'History of British Birds.' The collection was to be auctioned off at
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
and was estimated to sell for £1 million. The work were subsequently acquired by the charity Friends of National Libraries (FNL), who raised over £15 million in donations to keep the works in the public domain. In 2024, the memorial at
Poets' Corner Poets' Corner is a section of the southern transept of Westminster Abbey in London, England, where many poets, playwrights, and writers are buried or commemorated. The first poet interred in Poets' Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer in 1400. Willia ...
in
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
was finally altered to correct the misspelling of the family name (from Bronte to Brontë).


Works

* *Bell, Ellis (Brontë, Emily), ''Wuthering Heights, A Novel''. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847
--> *


Electronic editions

* * * *


See also

* Walterclough Hall – a residence north-east of the village of Southowram * " To a Wreath of Snow" – a poem by Emily published in 1837 * " Come hither child" – a poem by Emily published in 1839 * " A Death-Scene" – a poem by Emily published in 1846


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* ''Emily Brontë'', Charles Simpson * ''In the Footsteps of the Brontës'', Ellis Chadwick * ''Last Things: Emily Brontë's Poems'', Janet Gezari * ''The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës'', Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith * ''The Brontë Myth'', Lucasta Miller * ''Emily'', Daniel Wynne * ''Emily Brontë'', Winifred Gerin * ''A Chainless Soul: A Life of Emily Brontë'', Katherine Frank * ''Emily Brontë. Her Life and Work'',
Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernar ...
and Derek Stanford * * L. P. Hartley, 'Emily Brontë In Gondal And Galdine', in L. P. Hartley, ''The Novelist's Responsibility'' (1967), p. 35–53 * ''Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters'', Denise Giardina * ''Charlotte and Emily: A Novel of the Brontës'', Jude Morgan * ''Dark Quartet'', Lynne Reid Banks * '' Literature and Evil'',
Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...


External links


Emily Brontë papers, 1830s–1990s
held by the Berg Collection,
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

The Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum
in
Haworth Haworth ( , , ) is a village in West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines south-west of Keighley, 8 miles (13 km) north of Halifax, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhop ...

Locations associated with ''Wuthering Heights'' and Emily Brontë
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

Emily Brontë
at the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Poems by Emily Jane Brontë
at English-Poetry.RU
Works by Emily Brontë in the online library ARHEVE.org
and in the fre
ARHEVE app
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronte, Emily 1818 births 1848 deaths 19th-century English novelists 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century pseudonymous writers Anglican writers Emily Burials in West Yorkshire English Anglicans English fantasy writers English governesses English people of Cornish descent English people of Irish descent English women novelists English women poets Tuberculosis deaths in England People from Thornton and Allerton Writers from Bradford Pseudonymous women writers Victorian novelists Victorian women writers Victorian writers Writers of Gothic fiction