Emily Bronte | Biography, Books, Poems, & Facts

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class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte">Emily Brontë</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/biography/Emily-Bronte">Introduction & Top Questions</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref858"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/Emily-Bronte#ref858">Life</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref859"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/Emily-Bronte#ref859"><em>Wuthering Heights</em></a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/Emily-Bronte">Quick Facts & Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte/images-videos">Images</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container 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Tompkins</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Reader in English, University of London, 1948–65. Author of <i>The Popular Novel in England, 1770–1800.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Joyce M.S. Tompkins</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-23T00:00:00CST" >Nov 23, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="qf-title font-weight-bold font-14 mb-10 text-center"> Quick Facts</div> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>In full: </dt> <dd>Emily Jane Brontë</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Pseudonym: </dt> <dd>Ellis Bell</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Born: </dt> <dd>July 30, 1818, Thornton, Yorkshire, <a href="/place/England">England</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Died: </dt> <dd>December 19, 1848, <a href="/place/Haworth">Haworth</a>, Yorkshire (aged 30)</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Also Known As: </dt> <dd>Ellis Bell</dd> <dd>Emily Jane Brontë</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class="facts-item-none d-none"> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Notable Works: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/Poems-by-Currer-Ellis-and-Acton-Bell">“Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Wuthering-Heights">“Wuthering Heights”</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class="facts-item-none d-none"> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Notable Family Members: </dt> <dd>sister <a href="/biography/Anne-Bronte">Anne Brontë</a></dd> <dd>sister <a href="/biography/Charlotte-Bronte">Charlotte Brontë</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class="facts-item-none d-none"> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>On the Web: </dt> <dd><a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/288359621.pdf" target="_blank">CORE - “A poet, a solitary”: Emily Brontë - Queerness, Quietness, and Solitude</a> (Nov. 23, 2024)</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Emily-Bronte"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> <button class="facts-list-show-more-btn mt-15 p-0 mx-auto btn font-14 d-block font-weight-normal"> <span class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></span> <span class="show-more-label">Show More</span> </button> </div><script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>What was Emily Bront\u00EB famous for? <\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Emily Bront\u00EB was an English novelist and poet who wrote a single <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/novel\">novel<\/a>, <em>Wuthering Heights<\/em> (1847), a highly imaginative work of passion and hate set on the Yorkshire moors. It received terrible reviews when first published but came to be considered one of the finest novels in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/English-language\">English language<\/a>. " } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>What were Emily Bront\u00EB\u2019s siblings\u2019 names? <\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Emily Bront\u00EB was one of six children. Her two eldest sisters (Maria and Elizabeth) died when she was young. She had a brother named Patrick Branwell and two sisters, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charlotte-Bronte\">Charlotte<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Anne-Bronte\">Anne<\/a>, who were also novelists. The three sisters published together under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. 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The venture cost the sisters about \u00A350 and only two copies were sold, but critics later praised Emily\u2019s poetic genius. " } } ] } </script> <div class="top-questions qa-accordion d-flex flex-column module-spacing"><div class="font-weight-bold font-14 mb-5"> Top Questions </div><div id="intent-accordion" class="md-intent-accordion"><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="1"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>What was Emily Brontë famous for? </div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Emily Brontë was an English novelist and poet who wrote a single <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">novel</a>, <em>Wuthering Heights</em> (1847), a highly imaginative work of passion and hate set on the Yorkshire moors. It received terrible reviews when first published but came to be considered one of the finest novels in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-language" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">English language</a>. </p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="2"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>What were Emily Brontë’s siblings’ names? </div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Emily Brontë was one of six children. Her two eldest sisters (Maria and Elizabeth) died when she was young. She had a brother named Patrick Branwell and two sisters, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charlotte-Bronte" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Charlotte</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anne-Bronte" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Anne</a>, who were also novelists. The three sisters published together under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. </p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="3"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>What was Emily Brontë’s childhood like? </div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Her father, Patrick Brontë, was an Anglican clergyman. He moved his family to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Haworth" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Haworth</a> amid the Yorkshire moors in 1820. Emily was educated mostly at home, where she and her siblings spent time writing and telling romantic tales for one another and inventing imaginative games played out at home or on the desolate moors. </p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="4"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>What did Emily Brontë write? </div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Before the publication of her novel, <em>Wuthering Heights</em>, Emily Brontë published a volume of verse with her sisters, <em>Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell</em>. The venture cost the sisters about £50 and only two copies were sold, but critics later praised Emily’s poetic genius. </p></div></div></div><button class="show-more-button js-toggle-top-questions btn btn-unstyled font-14 d-flex pr-10 rounded-sm"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></button></div></div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref153055"></span>Emily Brontë</strong> (born July 30, 1818, Thornton, Yorkshire, England—died December 19, 1848, Haworth, Yorkshire) was an English novelist and poet who produced but one <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">novel</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wuthering-Heights" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Wuthering Heights</em></a> (1847), a highly imaginative work of passion and hate set on the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Yorkshire-former-county-England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Yorkshire</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="moors" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/moors" data-type="EB">moors</a>. Emily was perhaps the greatest of the three Brontë sisters, but the record of her life is extremely meager, for she was silent and reserved and left no correspondence of interest, and her single novel darkens rather than solves the mystery of her spiritual existence.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref858"> <h2 class="h1">Life</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="22819" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/30245-050-EAC53211/Emily-Bronte-oil-portrait-Branwell-National-Portrait-1833.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/80966/22819"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/30245-050-EAC53211/Emily-Bronte-oil-portrait-Branwell-National-Portrait-1833.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/30245-050-EAC53211/Emily-Bronte-oil-portrait-Branwell-National-Portrait-1833.jpg?w=300" alt="Emily Brontë" data-width="1014" data-height="1600" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/45/30245-050-EAC53211/Emily-Bronte-oil-portrait-Branwell-National-Portrait-1833.jpg" data-href="/media/1/80966/22819">Emily Brontë</a><span>Emily Brontë, oil painting by Branwell Brontë, 1833; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Her father, Patrick Brontë (1777–1861), an Irishman, held a number of curacies: Hartshead-cum-Clifton, Yorkshire, was the birthplace of his elder daughters, Maria and Elizabeth (who died young), and nearby Thornton that of Emily and her siblings <span id="ref153057"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charlotte-Bronte" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Charlotte</a>, Patrick Branwell, and Anne. In 1820 their father became rector of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Haworth" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Haworth</a>, remaining there for the rest of his life.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">After the death of their mother in 1821, the children were left very much to themselves in the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="bleak" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/bleak" data-type="EB">bleak</a> moorland rectory. The children were educated, during their early life, at home, except for a single year that Charlotte and Emily spent at the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Lancashire-county-England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Lancashire</a>. In 1835, when Charlotte secured a teaching position at Miss Wooler’s school at Roe Head, Emily accompanied her as a pupil but suffered from homesickness and remained only three months. In 1838 Emily spent six exhausting months as a teacher in Miss Patchett’s school at Law Hill, near <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Halifax-England" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Halifax</a>, and then resigned.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/the-literary-world-famous-novels" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/04/129404-131-7B0C654F/Textbook-chalkboard-apple-History-and-Society-Fruit-2009.jpg" alt="Textbook chalkboard and apple. Fruit of knowledge. Hompepage blog 2009, History and Society, school education students" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">The Literary World (Famous Novels)</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">To keep the family together at home, Charlotte planned to keep a school for girls at Haworth. In February 1842 she and Emily went to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Brussels" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Brussels</a> to learn foreign languages and school management at the Pension Héger. Although Emily pined for home and for the wild moorlands, it seems that in Brussels she was better appreciated than Charlotte. Her passionate nature was more easily understood than Charlotte’s decorous temperament. In October, however, when her aunt died, Emily returned permanently to Haworth.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In 1845 Charlotte came across some poems by Emily, and this led to the discovery that all three sisters—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—had written verse. A year later they published jointly a volume of verse, <em><span id="ref153058"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Poems-by-Currer-Ellis-and-Acton-Bell" class="md-crosslink ">Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell</a></em>, the initials of these pseudonyms being those of the sisters; it contained 21 of Emily’s poems, and a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="consensus" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consensus" data-type="MW">consensus</a> of later <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="criticism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criticism" data-type="MW">criticism</a> has accepted the fact that Emily’s verse alone reveals true poetic genius. The venture cost the sisters about £50 in all, and only two copies were sold.</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">By midsummer of 1847 Emily’s <em>Wuthering Heights</em> and Anne’s <span id="ref1289895"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Agnes-Grey" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Agnes Grey</em></a> had been accepted for joint publication by J. Cautley Newby of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/London" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">London</a>, but publication of the three volumes was delayed until the appearance of their sister Charlotte’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jane-Eyre-novel-by-Bronte" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Jane Eyre</em></a>, which was immediately and hugely successful. <em>Wuthering Heights</em>, when published in December 1847, did not fare well; critics were hostile, calling it too savage, too animal-like, and clumsy in construction. Only later did it come to be considered one of the finest novels in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-language" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">English language</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Soon after the publication of her novel, Emily’s health began to fail rapidly. She had been ill for some time, but now her breathing became difficult, and she suffered great pain. She died of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/tuberculosis" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tuberculosis</a> in December 1848.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref859"> <h2 class="h1"><em><span id="ref153056"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wuthering-Heights" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Wuthering Heights</a></em></h2> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Emily Brontë’s work on <em>Wuthering Heights</em> cannot be dated, and she may well have spent a long time on this intense, solidly imagined novel. It is distinguished from other novels of the period by its dramatic and poetic presentation, its abstention from all comment by the author, and its unusual structure. It <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="recounts" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/recounts" data-type="EB">recounts</a> in the retrospective narrative of an onlooker, which in turn includes shorter narratives, the impact of the waif <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heathcliff-fictional-character" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Heathcliff</a> on the two families of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Earnshaw-family" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Earnshaw</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Linton-family" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Linton</a> in a remote Yorkshire district at the end of the 18th century. Embittered by abuse and by the marriage of Cathy Earnshaw—who shares his stormy nature and whom he loves—to the gentle and prosperous Edgar Linton, Heathcliff plans a revenge on both families, extending into the second generation. Cathy’s death in childbirth fails to set him free from his love-hate relationship with her, and the obsessive haunting persists until his death; the marriage of the surviving heirs of Earnshaw and Linton restores peace.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Sharing her sisters’ dry humor and Charlotte’s violent imagination, Emily diverges from them in making no use of the events of her own life and showing no preoccupation with a spinster’s state or a governess’s position. Working, like them, within a confined scene and with a small group of characters, she constructs an action, based on profound and primitive energies of love and hate, which proceeds logically and economically, making no use of such coincidences as Charlotte relies on, requiring no rich <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="romantic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/romantic" data-type="MW">romantic</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="similes" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/similes" data-type="MW">similes</a> or <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rhetorical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rhetorical" data-type="MW">rhetorical</a> patterns, and confining the superb <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="dialogue" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialogue" data-type="MW">dialogue</a> to what is immediately relevant to the subject. The somber power of the book and the elements of brutality in the characters affronted some 19th-century opinion. Its supposed masculine quality was adduced to support the claim, based on the memories of her brother <span id="ref153059"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrick-Branwell-Bronte" class="md-crosslink ">Branwell</a>’s friends long after his death, that he was author or part author of it. While it is not possible to clear up all the minor puzzles, neither the external nor the internal evidence offered is substantial enough to weigh against Charlotte’s plain statement that Emily was the author.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Joyce-MS-Tompkins/4096">Joyce M.S. Tompkins</a></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</a></span> </section><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":80966,"pageLength":877,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"A","adLeg":"A","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"BIO_MEDIUM","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Emily Bronte | Biography, Books, Poems, & Facts | Britannica