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Emily Brontë (1818–1848)

Author of Wuthering Heights

285+ Works 62,871 Members 884 Reviews 348 Favorited
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About the Author

Emily Bronte, the sister of Charlotte, shared the same isolated childhood on the Yorkshire moors. Emily, however, seems to have been much more affected by the eerie desolation of the moors than was Charlotte. Her one novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), draws much of its power from its setting in that show more desolate landscape. Emily's work is also marked by a passionate intensity that is sometimes overpowering. According to English poet and critic Matthew Arnold, "for passion, vehemence, and grief she had no equal since Byron." This passion is evident in the poetry she contributed to the collection (Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell) published by the Bronte sisters in 1846 under male pseudonyms in response to the prejudices of the time. Her passion reached far force, however, in her novel, Wuthering Heights. Bronte's novel defies easy classification. It is certainly a story of love, but just as certainly it is not a "love story". It is a psychological novel, but is so filled with hints of the supernatural and mystical that the reader is unsure of how much control the characters have over their own actions. It may seem to be a study of right and wrong, but is actually a study of good and evil. Above all, it is a novel of power and fierce intensity that has gripped readers for more than 100 years. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:

Do not combine Emily with either or both of her sisters. Thank you.

Image credit: The only undisputed Emily's image.

Works by Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights (1847) 51,616 copies
Emily Brontë: Poems (1973) 208 copies
Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters (1997) — Author — 170 copies
The Best of the Brontës (2016) 101 copies
Wuthering Heights and Poems (1900) 97 copies
100 Eternal Masterpieces of Literature - volume 1 (2017) — Contributor — 56 copies
A Peculiar Music (1971) 15 copies
C20 Classics Millennium (1999) 8 copies
Poesía completa (2018) 7 copies
Oeuvres, tome 2 (1991) 5 copies
Oeuvres, tome 3 (1992) 4 copies
Oeuvres, tome 1 (1990) 4 copies
Poesie (2004) 3 copies
Cahiers de poèmes (1995) 3 copies
Devoirs de Bruxelles (2008) 3 copies
Ugultulu Tepeler-Oda Yay. (2002) 2 copies
Poems (2014) 2 copies
Poesie 2 copies
Gondal poems (1977) 2 copies
Stelle e altre poesie (2005) 2 copies
Poesie: opera completa (2002) 2 copies
Selected Brontë poems (1985) 2 copies
Remembrance (2012) 2 copies
Spellbound (2012) 1 copy
My Lady's Grave (2012) 1 copy
The old stoic (1990) 1 copy
To Imagination (2012) 1 copy
2006 1 copy
The Two Children (2012) 1 copy
BÚRLIVÉ VÝŠINY (1909) 1 copy
The Brontes 1 copy
Two Poems 1 copy
The Prisoner 1 copy
Love and Friendship (2013) 1 copy
Last lines (2012) 1 copy
VIHURIMÄE 1 copy

Associated Works

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Contributor — 1,254 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 915 copies
English Poetry, Volume III: From Tennyson to Whitman (1909) — Contributor — 607 copies
The Penguin Book of Women Poets (1978) — Contributor — 297 copies
Amazons! (1979) — Contributor — 238 copies
Stories to Remember {complete} (1956) — Contributor — 181 copies
Erotica: Women's Writing from Sappho to Margaret Atwood (1990) — Contributor — 168 copies
A Literary Christmas: An Anthology (2013) — Contributor — 134 copies
Stories to Remember, Volume II (1956) — Contributor — 126 copies
Witches' Brew (2002) — Contributor — 126 copies
The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Contributor — 117 copies
The Standard Book of British and American Verse (1932) — Contributor — 114 copies
Wuthering Heights [adapted - Oxford Bookworms (1978) — Author — 109 copies
Poems Between Women (1997) — Contributor — 91 copies
Mystery Stories: An Intriguing Collection (1996) — Contributor — 85 copies
Wuthering Heights [1992 film] (1992) — Original novel — 60 copies
Elegy written in a country churchyard and other poems (2009) — Contributor — 42 copies
Wuthering Heights (TreeTops Classics) (2000) — Original Author — 33 copies
Nineteenth-Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology (1996) — Contributor — 22 copies
Women on Nature (2021) — Contributor — 20 copies
Wuthering Heights [1970 film] (2001) — Original novel — 17 copies
Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost Stories (2006) — Contributor — 17 copies
Wuthering Heights [1998 film] (2005) — Original novel — 14 copies
Fairy Poems (2023) — Contributor — 13 copies
The Wrong Turning: Encounters with Ghosts (2021) — Contributor — 13 copies
Selected Brontë Poems (1985) — Author — 10 copies
Wuthering Heights [1967 TV mini-series] (2009) — Original novel — 9 copies
The Seventeenth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1981) — Contributor — 9 copies
All Day Long: An Anthology of Poetry for Children (1954) — Contributor — 9 copies
Jane Eyre and Assorted Brontë Juvenalia 1826-1847 (2008) — Contributor — 8 copies
Wuthering Heights [2003 TV movie] (2004) — Original book — 7 copies
Wuthering Heights [1978 TV mini series] — Original book — 7 copies
Suspense: A Treasury for Young Adults (1966) — Contributor — 6 copies
Collected Classics, Vol. 2 (2000) — Contributor — 5 copies
Great Love Scenes from Famous Novels (1943) — Contributor — 5 copies
Teen-Age Treasury for Girls (1958) — Contributor — 5 copies
Worlds Greatest Classics (Box Set of 4 Books) (2021) — Contributor — 2 copies
Maestros Ingleses, Tomo III (1962) — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

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Common Knowledge

Legal name
Brontë, Emily Jane
Other names
Bell, Ellis (pseudonym)
Birthdate
1818-07-30
Date of death
1848-12-19
Burial location
Church of St Michael and All Angels, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England, UK
Gender
female
Nationality
UK
Country (for map)
England, UK
Birthplace
Thornton, Yorkshire, England, UK
Place of death
Haworth, Yorkshire, England, UK
Cause of death
tuberculosis
Places of residence
Thornton, Yorkshire, England, UK
Haworth, Yorkshire, England, UK
Brussels, Belgium
Halifax, Yorkshire, England, UK
Education
private school, Brussels
at home
Pensionnat Heger, Brussels, Belgium
Miss Wooler's school
Occupations
novelist
poet
writer
author
governess
teacher
Relationships
Brontë, Anne (sister)
Brontë, Charlotte (sister)
Brontë, Branwell (brother)
Brontë, Reverend Patrick (father)
Short biography
Emily Brontë was born in Yorkshire, England, one of the six children of Patrick Brontë, a clergyman, and his wife Maria Branwell. She and her siblings wrote fantastical stories together, creating imaginary worlds filled with romantic and military adventures.

At age 20, Emily worked briefly as a teacher before returning home to the parsonage at Haworth, where she continued to write poetry and fiction as well as doing much of the housework. In 1846, with her sisters Charlotte and Anne, under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell," she jointly published a volume of poems entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. In 1847, she published her only novel, Wuthering Heights. She died the following year at age 30 of tuberculosis, a disease that plagued her family.
Disambiguation notice
Do not combine Emily with either or both of her sisters. Thank you.

Members

Discussions

November 2023: The Brontë Sisters in Monthly Author Reads (December 2023)
Wuthering Heights in Someone explain it to me... (January 2023)
Wuthering Heights in Gothic Literature (March 2018)
Defense of Heathcliff in The Brontës (March 2014)
Best Bronte Quote? in The Brontës (January 2014)
Jane Eyre/Wuthering Heights in Books Compared (March 2013)
September: Bronte: Wuthering Heights in Monthly Author Reads (January 2011)

Reviews

"The most haunting love story in the english language"
 
Flagged
YZHistorical_Library | 694 other reviews | Mar 18, 2024 |
This review is for an audiobook I borrowed from my local library.

Somehow, despite having an English degree and having a “classics” phase in my late teens I never read Wuthering Heights. In fact I think the only Brontë sister book I’ve read is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, which as a 15/16 year old I remember loving but I suspect I’d find it less “romantic” now twenty years later. That could be an interesting re-read project.

In any case, it turns out I had some misconceptions about Wuthering Heights. I had an idea what this was a romantic love story with Heathcliff being some kind of sexy antihero. There would be heartbroken woman in a nightgown wandering on the Yorkshire Moors wailing “Heathcliffe!” in the wind and rain. I don’t know where got this mental image from, maybe clips from the movie or TV adaptions? Maybe I just made it up, or got it confused with something else!

This is review, if I’m calling it that, is very much down to my own personal reading preferences. I absolutely agree with this book being considered a classic, and I do think it is a masterpiece of writing in many ways, it is just not one that jives with my taste and it didn’t have the elements that truly engage and excite me.

Plot

Though the novel was written during the literary Romantic period, and you could potentially classify it as a Gothic Romance, Wuthering Heights is not at all “romantic” in our modern sense. Any love found at the start very quickly turns obsessive, destructive and tips the line into hate. This book is filled with shocking cruelties, abuse and out-right violence.

Actually the childhood “romance” portion of the book ends with my least favourite romance genre trope – miscommunication! And worst of all, the overheard conversation where the listener leaves half way through a sentence missing the true sentiment. This is the basis for Heathcliff’s supremely petty, decades long “burn it all the fucking ground” revenge plot.

What follows is brutal and punishing for everyone unlucky enough to reside at Wuthering Heights or Thrushcross Grange.

Characters

The characters are all insufferable, but the worst of the lot are Heathcliff and Catherine. Even as children they are described as selfish, defiant, manipulative and moody little terrors, and neither mature in adulthood. They are both self-obsessed and generally awful to everyone around them, including each other. The second generation of Cathy and Linton are just as prone to histrionics as their parents, and Hareton (for all his misfortune) moulded to take after Heathcliff, is no more likeable in his brooding meanness.

The only truly sympathetic character I found was poor Edgar Linton, who was too soft and daft to escape when he could. He probably shouldn’t have kept his daughter so isolated her only choices for husband would be either (or both!) of her first cousins.

These melodramatic lunatics (in seriousness, there are definitely some untreated mental illnesses at play with Heathcliff and Catherine!) and the bizarrely destructive multigenerational revenge of Heathcliff made for a story I wasn’t particularly enthralled by. I just wanted to get away from them!

Structure

I also struggle when the narrative is told with a past first person perspective, and in this case it’s twice removed. We get the story first from new tenant Lockwood, a true outsider, and then from long-time housekeeper Nelly Dean telling him. Everything is filtered through Nelly and her judgements and assumptions, so we never can know the true thoughts and feelings of the subjects. I prefer to be there with the characters, getting a first hand account as they experience things. So this framing made the whole thing feel staged and inauthentic to me, because it is essentially the gossip of an old woman, who is hardly impartial as she has her own role in the story.

It might not be to my personal reading tastes but I can understand why this has stood the test in time. It is a heck of a story, I just think I would probably enjoy it more as a campy movie. It is incredibly atmospheric, and feels both claustrophobic – everything takes place in or on the moors between the houses of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange – and also curiously epic, despite the insular pettiness.

The audiobook version I listened to was entirely performed by Joanne Froggatt and was excellent. She’s a fantastic audiobook narrator, and also of course is from North Yorkshire so can do the authentic accent. In fact the reason I found and borrowed this was because I was searching BorrowBox to see what else she had done after I’d loved her reading The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell.

I still plan to continue my little voyage into the classics of Gothic literature, so soon I will give Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier a go.

Now tell me I am not the only one that didn’t know what the real plot of Wuthering Heights is?

REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED

  • - I can admire the scope and imagination. The atmosphere is both claustrophobic and epic.

  • - Totally understand why other people love this and why it’s a classic!


I DIDN’T LIKE

  • - The worst narcissistic characters. Heathcliff and Catherine are both awful to everyone. The second generation are no better! I hated them all.

  • - Heathcliff’s petty decades long “burn it all to the ground” revenge is based on mishearing a conversation.

  • - Secondhand first person narrative is too gossipy and removed from true emotions.


  • This review and more on my blog!
… (more)
 
Flagged
ImagineAlice | 694 other reviews | Mar 2, 2024 |
Years ago, I read and fell in love with Jane Eyre, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to read some of the Brontë sisters’ other works. Recently, I realized I could listen to the books, rather than try to find time to read them, so I downloaded a version of Wuthering Heights and had at it.

I’m so glad I decided to listen, rather than read! I doubt I’d ever have gotten through it otherwise.

I’ve decided that the draw for this book, if there is one, is the setting. I found many of the characters, and especially their actions, quite depressing, so that wasn’t a plus in my opinion. The setting itself, though, was fascinating—the moors’ bleakness and hopelessness was an interesting “character” in itself. This book is also an interesting study of human nature, as different characters act or react to others’ decisions.

I doubt I’ll ever read the story again. I didn’t appreciate the language in the story, for one, but the violence and bitterness were the parts I really didn’t enjoy. I am grateful for that last chapter—if it weren’t for that, I’d have ended up a lot more depressed than I was, in the end! I appreciate dark stories at times, but this one was slightly too dark for me. In saying that, though, I’m glad to have had the chance to experience it, because it is the kind of book often referenced in literature. Recommended, if you don’t mind darker reads, and do want to check this classic off your list. Just be sure to have a lighthearted, happy book ready to follow up with after this one—you’ll need it!
… (more)
 
Flagged
EstherFilbrun | 694 other reviews | Mar 1, 2024 |
Quick review: This is one of those most chilling books I've ever read. This is my third read of it, and I fall in love with it every single time. It's gorgeously painful.
 
Flagged
CADesertReader | 694 other reviews | Feb 29, 2024 |

Lists

100 (1)
Read (1)
1840s (1)
AP Lit (1)
Romans (1)

Awards

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Associated Authors

Virginia Woolf Afterword
E. M. Forster Afterword
Alphonse Daudet Contributor
Arthur Machen Contributor
Honoré de Balzac Contributor
Thomas Dekker Contributor
Fyodor Dostoyevsky Contributor
John Webster Contributor
Mary Shelley Contributor
Honore de Balzac Contributor
Theodor Fontane Contributor
Henri Barbusse Contributor
Guy de Maupassant Contributor
George Sand Contributor
D. H. Lawrence Contributor
Leo Tolstoy Contributor
Lewis Carroll Contributor
Jonathan Swift Contributor
Jack London Contributor
Louisa May Alcott Contributor
Herman Melville Contributor
Marcel Proust Contributor
Henry Fielding Contributor
Edgar Allan Poe Contributor
H. P. Lovecraft Contributor
Bram Stoker Contributor
Alexandre Dumas Contributor
Victor Hugo Contributor
Dante Alighieri Contributor
Gustave Flaubert Contributor
Joseph Conrad Contributor
Aldous Huxley Contributor
Mark Twain Contributor
Blaise Pascal Contributor
Sun Tzu Contributor
Gaston Leroux Contributor
Sir Walter Scott Contributor
Henry James Contributor
Nikolai Gogol Contributor
Homer Contributor
Washington Irving Contributor
Oscar Wilde Contributor
Stendhal Contributor
Theodore Dreiser Contributor
John M. Burns Illustrator
Celia Turvey Adaptor
Sue Lonoff Editor
John Escott Adaptor
George Wear Retold by
Henry C. Kiefer Illustrator
Harry Miller Adaption
Sally Lowe Abridged by
John Duffine Narrator
Jenny Dooley Retold by
William M. Sale Contributor
Elizabeth Jennings Introduction
Hannah Gordon Narrator
Carole Boyd Narrator
David Rintoul Narrator
Kathryn White Introduction
Stevie Davies Introduction
Darrell Warner Illustrator
Nick Spender Illustrator
Maud Jackson Adapted by
Justin Rainey Activities by
Elizabeth Gaskell Contributor
Clement K. Shorter Contributor
Hannah Gordon Narrator
Fritz Eichenberg Illustrator
Margaret Lane Introduction
Helka Varho Translator
Janet McTeer Narrator
Anne Flosnik Narrator
Lou Marchetti Cover artist
Gabrielle Bordwin Cover designer
Robert Cornelius Cover artist
Grete Rambach Translator
Michaela Meßner Übersetzer
Nell Booker Illustrator
Rose Macaulay Introduction
Patti Smith Introduction
Ian Jack Editor
Diane Johnson Introduction
Rovina Cai Illustrator
S. E. Hinton Introduction
Nadia May Narrator
Peter Forster Illustrator
Akkie de Jong Translator
James Hill Cover artist
Bonamy Dobrée Introduction
Helen Small Introduction
Daphne Merkin Introduction
Alfred Wolfenstein Contributor
David Timson Narrator
Frans Kellendonk Translator
Patsy Stoneman Introduction
John S. Whitley Introduction
Helen Nicoll Producer
Albert John Pucci Cover artist
Tatiana M. Holway Introduction
Fred Exell Cover designer
Carol Jacobs Contributor
Nancy Armstrong Contributor
J. Hillis Miller Contributor
A Stuart Daley Contributor
Barbara de Wilde Cover designer
Margaret Drabble Introduction
Francis A. Leyland Contributor
T. Wemyss Reid Contributor
Mrs. Humphry Ward Introduction
Ria Loohuizen Translator

Statistics

Works
285
Also by
59
Members
62,871
Popularity
#225
Rating
3.9
Reviews
884
ISBNs
2,066
Languages
30
Favorited
348

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