Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by her brother | |
| Born | July 30, 1818 Thornton, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | December 19, 1848 |
| Occupation | Novelist, Poet |
Emily Jane Brontë /bɹɑnti/ (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second oldest of the three Brontë sisters, being younger than Charlotte and older than Anne. She published under the masculine pen name Ellis Bell.
Biography
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 1824, the family moved to Haworth, where Emily's father was perpetual curate, and it was in these surroundings that their literary oddities flourished. In childhood, after the death of their mother, the three sisters and their brother Patrick Branwell Brontë created imaginary lands (Angria, Gondal, Gaaldine, Oceania), which were featured in stories they wrote. Little of Emily's work from this period survived, except for poems spoken by characters(The Brontës' Web of Childhood, Fannie Ratchford, 1941).
In 1842, 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. They later opened up a school at their home, but had no pupils.
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, the Brontë sisters adopted androgynous first names. All three retained the first letter of their first names: Charlotte became Currer Bell, Anne became Acton Bell, and Emily became Ellis Bell.
In 1847, she published her only novel, Wuthering Heights, as two volumes of a three volume set (the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics. Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out, the book subsequently became an English literary classic. In 1850, Charlotte edited and published Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and under Emily's real name.
Like her sisters, Emily's health had been weakened by the harsh local climate at home and at school. She caught a chill during the funeral of her brother in September, and, having refused all medical help, died on December 19, 1848 of tuberculosis. She was interred in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels family capsule, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.
Popular culture
In 1978, Kate Bush released the song "Wuthering Heights" about Cathy's return to Heathcliff. The song was a UK No 1. Many English teachers introduce this song when teaching it to their students, and it has become the theme song of AP English students all over America[citation needed].
In the 1967 French film Week End Emily Brontë appears in a scene in which one of the main characters asks her for directions. When she refuses to answer him (she is too wrapped up in a book she is reading), he beats her to the ground where she combusts and sets on fire.
In 2005, Australian writer Daniel Wynne wrote "Emily," a quirky short story about a struggling author who attempts to get his novel published by claiming to be Brontë's reincarnation. The story was performed at the 2005 Brisbane Writers Festival and later published in the Spring 2006 edition of literary journal The Griffith Review.
Further reading
- A Life of Emily Brontë, Edward Chitham
- Heretic, Stevie Davies
- Emily Brontë, Katherine Frank
- 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
- Emily, Daniel Wynne.
See also
External links
- English poets
- English novelists
- Women novelists
- Women of the Victorian era
- English Anglicans
- People from Yorkshire
- Deaths by tuberculosis
- 1818 births
- 1848 deaths
- Governesses
- Female authors who wrote under male or gender-neutral pseudonyms
- People of Irish descent in Great Britain
- Women poets
- English women writers
- Brontë family