Biography

Emily Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, on 30 July 1818 to Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë. Her family moved to Haworth, a small village surrounded by the Yorkshire moors, which became one of the primary inspirations for her.

Emily was a happy child until about the age of two, when her mother died after a lengthy illness. Soon after, her two eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died from an illness they contracted while attending school. Emily spent a short time at the same school, then attended Roe Head School with her sister Charlotte. Unfortunately, Emily suffered from severe homesickness and returned from Roe Head School only three months after Charlotte secured a teaching position. Emily was unable to leave the Yorkshire region for extended periods without succumbing to physical and mental symptoms due to her connection to her home.

By 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne had assumed pseudonyms, Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, to avoid prejudice against women authors. Their book of poetry was not well-received until a publisher debuted their novels, which included Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey. Emily’s work, Wuthering Heights, and Anne’s book, Agnes Grey, were published in a three-volume set. The success of the poetry book was ignited after Jane Eyre had garnered so much interest, yet Wuthering Heights was viewed as a polarizing novel and was criticized for its brutality.

Emily died from tuberculosis in December 1848; therefore, she did not see how successful her novel Wuthering Heights would become. Her works are generally classified as a Gothic subversion of romance since they tend to explore darker and elemental themes rather than a standard romance novel.

Standard Editions

Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights: The 1847 Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. W. W. Norton, 2003. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/plink/d1e00537-19b9-3fa2-bccb-7a71b762f667.

Brontë, Emily Jane. The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë. Columbia University Press, 1996.

Reference Texts

O’Callaghan, Claire. Emily Brontë Reappraised. Saraband, 2018. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/plink/76adc43e-356a-3e47-a7c5-103a1361f6ba.

Select Literary Criticisms, Edited Editions, Thematic Studies, and Editions

Avery, Simon. “‘Some strange and spectral dream’: The Brontës’ Manipulation of the Gothic Mode.” Brontë Society Transactions 23.2 (1998): 120-135.

Inman, Laura. Poetic World of Emily Bronte : Poems from the Author of Wuthering Heights. Liverpool University Press, 2014. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/plink/6d73fc9f-fde8-359a-8918-c9160281bd01.

Mahdi, Iman Abdullah Al. “Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: A Critical Study in Concreteness.” Al-Andalus Journal for Humanities & Social Sciences, vol. 29, Jan. 2020, pp. 5–13. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/plink/10691e4a-fa0b-3585-a892-9e31f109209e.

Wallace, Robert K. Emily Bronte and Beethoven: Romantic Equilibrium in Fiction and Music. University of Georgia Press, 1986. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/plink/b1a32411-5b89-3a3b-812f-3130a90583e7.