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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 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) — biography from Wuthering Heights… (more)
Disambiguation Notice
Do not combine Emily with either or both of her sisters. Thank you.
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.
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