Emily Jane Brontë /bɹɑnti/ (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was a British novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, which is now an acknowledged classic of English literature.
Emily was born at Thornton in Yorkshire to Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell. She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of six children. In 1820, the family moved to Haworth, where Emily's father was perpetual curate, and it was in these surroundings that their literary talent flourished. In childhood, after the death of their mother, the three sisters and their brother Branwell created imaginary lands (Angria, Gondal, Gaaldine), which featured in stories they wrote. Little of Emily's work from this period survives, except for poems spoken by characters (The Brontës' Web of Childhood, Fannie Ratchford, 1941).
In 1838, Emily commenced work as a governess at Miss Patchett's Ladies Academy at Law Hill Hall, near Halifax. Later, with her sister Charlotte, she attended a private school in Brussels.
It was the discovery of Emily's poetic talent by her family that led her and her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, to publish a joint collection of their poetry in 1846. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, all three used male pseudonyms, Emily's being "Ellis Bell".
She subsequently published her only novel, Wuthering Heights, in 1847 - a powerful, poetic work, but whose innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics. Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out, the book subsequently became an English literary classic.
Like her sisters, Emily's constitution had been weakened by their harsh life at home and at school. She died on December 19, 1848 of tuberculosis, having caught a chill during the funeral of her brother in September, and was interred in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels family vault, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.
Emily was a woman of remarkable force of character, reserved and taciturn.
References
Further reading
- A Life of Emily Brontë, Edward Chitham
- Heretic, Stevie Davies
- Emily Brontë, Katherine Franks
- The Brontës, Juliet Barker
- Emily Brontë, Winifred Gerin
- The Brontës' Web of Childhood, Frances Ratchford
- Gondal's Queen, Fannie E. Ratchford
- The Birth of Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë at Work, Edward Chitham
- Emily Brontë, Charles Simpson
- In the Footsteps of the Brontës, Ellis Chadwick
- The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës, Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith
- Literature and Evil, Georges Bataille
- The Brontë Myth, Lucasta Miller
See also
External links
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