Editing Emily Brontë

{{Short description|English novelist and poet (1818–1848)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}} 
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Emily Brontë
| image            = Emily Brontë by Patrick Branwell Brontë restored.jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = The only undisputed portrait of Brontë, from a group portrait by her brother [[Branwell Brontë|Branwell]], {{circa|1834}}<ref name="Portrait">{{cite web|url=https://brontesisters.co.uk/The-Profile-Portrait-Emily-or-Anne.html|title=The Bronte Sisters – A True Likeness? – The Profile Portrait – Emily or Anne|website=brontesisters.co.uk}}</ref>
| pseudonym        = Ellis Bell
| birth_name       = Emily Jane Brontë
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1818|7|30|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Thornton, West Yorkshire|Thornton]], Yorkshire, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1848|12|19|1818|7|30|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Haworth]], Yorkshire, England
| resting_place    = [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth]], Yorkshire
| occupation       = {{hlist |Poet |novelist |[[governess]]}}
| education        = [[Cowan Bridge School]], [[Lancashire]]
| alma_mater       = 
| period           = 1846–48
| genre            = {{hlist |Fiction |poetry}}
| subject          = 
| movement         = [[Romantic Period]]
| notableworks     = ''[[Wuthering Heights]]''
| spouse           = 
| partner          = 
| children         = 
| parents          = [[Patrick Brontë]]<br />[[Maria Branwell]]
| relatives        = [[Brontë family]]
| awards           = 
| signature        = Brontë sisters' signatures as Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (cropped).jpg
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
}}

'''Emily Jane Brontë''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|r|ɒ|n|t|i}}, <small>commonly</small> {{IPAc-en|-|t|eɪ}};<ref>As given by ''Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature'' (Merriam-Webster, incorporated, Publishers: Springfield, Massachusetts, 1995), p viii: "When our research shows that an author's pronunciation of his or her name differs from common usage, the author's pronunciation is listed first, and the descriptor ''commonly'' precedes the more familiar pronunciation." See also entries on Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, pp 175–176.</ref> 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848)<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 2|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc|year=1992|page=546}}</ref> was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'', now considered a classic of [[English literature]]. She also published a book of poetry with her sisters [[Charlotte Brontë|Charlotte]] and [[Anne Brontë|Anne]] titled ''[[Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell|Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell]]'' with her own poems finding regard as poetic genius. Emily was the second-youngest of the four surviving [[Brontë family|Brontë siblings]], between the youngest Anne and her brother [[Branwell Brontë|Branwell]]. She published under the [[pen name]] '''Ellis Bell'''.

==Early life==
[[File:Painting of Brontë sisters.png|thumb|upright|The three Brontë sisters, in an 1834 painting by their brother [[Branwell Brontë]]. From left to right: Anne, Emily and Charlotte. (Branwell used to be between Emily and Charlotte, but subsequently painted himself out.)]]

Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 to [[Maria Branwell]] and an Irish father, [[Patrick Brontë]]. The family was living on Market Street, in a house now known as the [[Brontë Birthplace]] in the village of [[Thornton, West Yorkshire|Thornton]] on the outskirts of [[Bradford]], in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], England.  Emily was the second youngest of six siblings, preceded by [[Maria Brontë|Maria]], [[Elizabeth Brontë|Elizabeth]], [[Charlotte Brontë|Charlotte]] and [[Branwell Brontë|Branwell]].  In 1820, Emily's younger sister [[Anne Brontë|Anne]], the last Brontë child, was born. Shortly thereafter, the family moved eight miles away to [[Haworth]], where Patrick was employed as [[perpetual curate]].<ref name="Fraser 16" />  In Haworth, the children would have opportunities to develop their literary talents.<ref name="Fraser 16">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 16</ref>

When Emily was only three, and all six children under the age of eight, she and her siblings lost their mother, Maria, to cancer on 15 September 1821.<ref name="Fraser 28">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 28</ref> The younger children were to be cared for by [[Elizabeth Branwell]], their aunt and Maria's sister.

Emily's three elder sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte were sent to the [[Cowan Bridge School|Clergy Daughters' School]] at Cowan Bridge. At the age of six, on 25 November 1824, Emily joined her sisters at school for a brief period.<ref name="Fraser 35">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 35</ref> At school, however, the children suffered abuse and privations, and when a [[typhoid]] epidemic swept the school, Maria and Elizabeth became ill. Maria, who may actually have had [[tuberculosis]], was sent home, where she died. Elizabeth died shortly after.

The four youngest Brontë children, all under ten years of age, had suffered the loss of the three eldest women in their immediate family.<ref name=" Fraser 31">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 31</ref>

Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development and that it had hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died in 1825. After the deaths of his older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school.<ref>Fraser, ''Charlotte Bronte: A Writer's Life'', pp. 12–13</ref> Charlotte would use her experiences and knowledge of the school as the basis for Lowood School in ''[[Jane Eyre]]''.

The three remaining sisters and their brother Branwell were thereafter educated at home by their father and aunt Elizabeth Branwell. A shy girl, Emily was very close to her siblings and was known as a great animal lover, especially for befriending stray dogs she found wandering around the countryside.<ref>Paddock & Rollyson ''The  Brontës A to Z''  p. 20.</ref> Despite the lack of formal education, Emily and her siblings had access to a wide range of published material; favourites included [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]], [[Lord Byron|Byron]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], and ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]''.<ref name="Fraser 44-45">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', pp. 44–45</ref>

[[File:Gondal Poems.jpg|thumb|179 px|Emily's [[Gondal (fictional country)|Gondal]] poems]]

Inspired by a box of toy soldiers Branwell had received as a gift,<ref>Mezo, Richard E. ''A Student's Guide to Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë'' (2002), p. 1</ref> the children began to write stories, which they set in a number of invented [[paracosm|imaginary worlds]] populated by their soldiers as well as their heroes, the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] and his sons, [[Lord Charles Wellesley|Charles]] and [[Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]]. Little of Emily's work from this period survives, except for poems spoken by characters.<ref>''The Brontës' Web of Childhood'', by Fannie Ratchford, 1941</ref><ref>An analysis of Emily's use of paracosm play as a response to the deaths of her sisters is found in Delmont C. Morrison's ''Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection'' (Baywood, 2005), {{ISBN|0-89503-309-7}}.</ref> Initially, all four children shared in creating stories about a world called Angria.

However, when Emily was 13, she and Anne withdrew from participation in the Angria story and began a new one about [[Gondal (fictional country)|Gondal]], a fictional island whose myths and legends were to preoccupy the two sisters throughout their lives. With the exception of their Gondal poems and Anne's lists of Gondal's characters and placenames, Emily and Anne's Gondal writings were largely not preserved. Among those that did survive are some "diary papers", written by Emily in her twenties, which describe current events in Gondal.<ref>[http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/diary_papers#diary "Emily Brontë's Letters and Diary Papers"], City University of New York</ref> The heroes of Gondal tended to resemble the popular image of the Scottish Highlander, a sort of British version of the "noble savage": romantic outlaws capable of more nobility, passion, and bravery than the denizens of "civilization".{{sfn|Austin|2002|p=578}} Similar themes of romanticism and noble savagery are apparent across the Brontës' juvenilia, notably in Branwell's ''The Life of Alexander Percy'', which tells the story of an all-consuming, death-defying, and ultimately self-destructive love and is generally considered an inspiration for ''Wuthering Heights''.<ref name="Paddock p. 199">Paddock & Rollyson ''The  Brontës A to Z''  p. 199.</ref>

At 17, Emily began to attend the Roe Head Girls' School, where Charlotte was a teacher, but suffered from extreme [[homesickness]], according to Charlotte, and left after only a few months. Charlotte wrote later that "Liberty was the breath of Emily's nostrils; without it, she perished. The change from her own home to a school and from her own very noiseless, very secluded but unrestricted and unartificial mode of life, to one of disciplined routine (though under the kindest auspices), was what she failed in enduring... I felt in my heart she would die if she did not go home, and with this conviction obtained her recall."<ref name="Gaskell 149">Gaskell, ''The  Life of Charlotte Brontë'', p. 149</ref> Emily returned home and Anne took her place.<ref name="Fraser 84">Fraser, ''The Brontës'', p. 84</ref>{{efn|name=Pic|[http://mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/cast-2.html At Roe Head and Blake Hall] with pictures of the school then and now, and descriptions of Anne's time there.}} At this time, the girls' objective was to obtain sufficient education to open a small school of their own.

==Adulthood==
[[File:Constantinheger1.jpg|thumb|[[Constantin Heger]], teacher of Charlotte and Emily during their stay in Brussels, on a [[daguerreotype]] dated {{circa}}&nbsp;1865]]

Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]] beginning in September 1838, when she was twenty.<ref name="Vine 11">Vine, ''Emily Brontë'' (1998), p. 11</ref> Her health soon broke under the stress of the 17-hour workday, and she returned home in April 1839.<ref>Krueger, Christine L. ''Encyclopedia of British writers, 19th century'' (2009), p. 41</ref> Thereafter she remained at home, helping the family's servant with the cooking, ironing, and cleaning at Haworth. She taught herself [[German (language)|German]] from books and also practiced<!--British English spelling, do not change please--> the piano.<ref>{{cite book|first=Robert K. |last=Wallace|title=Emily Brontë and Beethoven: Romantic Equilibrium in Fiction and Music|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=2008|page=223}}</ref> Emily was an accomplished pianist.<ref>{{cite book|first=John |last=Hennessy|title=Emily Jane Brontë and Her Music|publisher=WK Publishing|year=2018|page=1}}</ref>

In 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to the Heger Pensionnat in [[Brussels]], [[Belgium]], where they attended the girls' academy run by [[Constantin Heger]] in the hope of perfecting their French and German before opening their own school. Unlike Charlotte, Emily was uncomfortable in Brussels and refused to adopt Belgian fashions, saying "I wish to be as God made me", which rendered her something of an outcast.<ref>Paddock & Rollyson ''The  Brontës A to Z''  p. 21.</ref> Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this period. Heger seems to have been impressed with the strength of Emily's character, writing that:
<blockquote><div>She should have been a man – a great navigator. Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old; and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty, never have given way but with life. She had a head for logic, and a capability of argument unusual in a man and rarer indeed in a woman... impairing this gift was her stubborn tenacity of will which rendered her obtuse to all reasoning where her own wishes, or her own sense of right, was concerned.<ref>[[Constantin Heger|Heger, Constantin]], 1842, referring to Emily Brontë, as quoted in ''The Oxford History of the Novel in English'' (2011), Volume 3, p. 208</ref>
</div></blockquote>
The two sisters were committed to their studies and by the end of the term had become so competent in French that Madame Heger proposed that they both stay another half-year, even, according to Charlotte, offering to dismiss the English master so that she could take his place. Emily had, by this time, become a competent pianist and teacher, and it was suggested that she might stay on to teach music.<ref>{{cite book|first=Norma |last=Crandall|title=Emily Brontë, a Psychological Portrait|publisher=R.&nbsp;R. Smith Publisher|year=1957|page=85}}</ref> However, the illness and death of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, necessitated their return to Haworth.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/emily-bronte-9227381|title=Emily Brontë|website=Biography|access-date=2 February 2018}}</ref> In 1844, the sisters attempted to open a school in their house, but their plans were stymied by an inability to attract students to the remote area.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Brontës|last=Barker |first=Juliet R.&nbsp;V.|date=1995|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0312145551|edition= 1st U.S.|location=New York|pages=440|oclc=32701664}}</ref>

In 1844, Emily began going through all the poems she had written, recopying them neatly into two notebooks.<ref>{{cite book|first=Claire |last=O'Callaghan|title=Emily Brontë Reappraised|publisher=Saraband|year=2018|page=146}}</ref> One was labelled "Gondal Poems"; the other was unlabelled. Scholars such as [[Fannie Ratchford]] and Derek Roper have attempted to piece together a Gondal storyline and chronology from these poems.<ref>Ratchford, Fannie, ed., ''Gondal's Queen''. University of Texas Press, 1955. {{ISBN|0-292-72711-9}}.</ref><ref>Roper, Derek, ed., ''The Poems of Emily Brontë''. Oxford University Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-19-812641-7}}.</ref> 
In the autumn of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted that the poems be published. Emily, understandably furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused but, according to Charlotte, relented when Anne brought out her manuscripts and revealed to Charlotte that she had been writing poems in secret as well. Around this time Emily wrote one of her most famous poems, "No coward soul is mine". Some literary critics have speculated that it is a poem about Anne Brontë, while others see it as an answer to the violation of her privacy and her own transformation into a published writer.<ref>{{cite book|first=Meredith L. |last=McGill|title=The Traffic in Poems: Nineteenth-century Poetry and Transatlantic Exchange|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2008|page=240}}</ref> Despite Charlotte's later claim that it was Emily's final poem, this is factually inaccurate.<ref name= GondalPoems>{{cite book|title= Gondal Poems | first = Emily Jane | last = Brontë |year= 1938|publisher= The Shakespeare Head Press| location= Oxford | pages= 5–8|editor-first= Helen |editor-last=Brown |editor2-first= Joan |editor2-last=Mott}}</ref>

In 1846, the sisters' poems were published in one volume as ''[[Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell]]''. Charlotte later stated that the Brontë sisters had adopted pseudonyms for publication, preserving their initials: Charlotte was "Currer Bell", Emily was "Ellis Bell" and Anne was "Acton Bell".<ref>''Encyclopedia of British writers, 19th century'' (2009), p. 41</ref> Charlotte wrote in the 'Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell' that their "ambiguous choice" was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because... we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice".<ref name="Gaskell 335">Gaskell, ''The life of Charlotte Brontë'' (1857), p. 335</ref> Charlotte contributed 19 poems, and Emily and Anne each contributed 21. Although the sisters were told several months after publication that only two copies had sold,<ref>Gérin, Winifred ''Charlotte Brontë: the evolution of genius'' (1969), p. 322</ref> they were not discouraged (of their two readers, one was impressed enough to request their autographs).<ref>Margot Peters, ''Unquiet Soul: A Biography of Charlotte Brontë'' (1976), p. 219</ref> ''The Athenaeum'' reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work for its music and power, singling out those poems as the best in the book: "Ellis possesses a fine, quaint spirit and an evident power of wing that may reach heights not here attempted",<ref>''In the footsteps of the Brontës'' (1895), p. 306</ref> and ''The Critic'' reviewer recognised "the presence of more genius than it was supposed this utilitarian age had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect."<ref>''The poems of Emily Jane Brontë and Anne Brontë'' (1932), p. 102</ref>

==Personality and character==
[[Image:Emily Brontë cropped.jpg|thumb|Portrait painted by [[Branwell Brontë]] in 1833; sources are in disagreement over whether this image is of Emily or Anne.<ref name="Portrait" />]]
Emily Brontë's solitary nature has made her a mysterious figure and a challenge for biographers to assess.<ref>Lorna Sage ''The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English'' (1999), p. 90</ref><ref>Claire O'Callaghan, Emily Brontë Reappraised (2018), p. 5</ref><ref>U. C. Knoepflmacher, ''Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights'' (1989), p. 112</ref> Except for [[Ellen Nussey]] and Louise de Bassompierre, Emily's fellow student in Brussels, she does not seem to have made any friends outside her family. Her closest friend was her sister Anne. Together they shared their own fantasy world, Gondal, and, according to Ellen Nussey, in childhood they were "like twins", "inseparable companions" and "in the very closest sympathy which never had any interruption".<ref name="Fraser 39">Fraser, ''A Life of Anne Brontë'', p. 39</ref><ref name="Barker 195">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 195</ref> In 1845 Anne took Emily to visit some of the places she had come to know and love in the five years she spent as governess. A plan to visit [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]] fell through and instead the sisters went to [[York]] where Anne showed Emily [[York Minster]]. During the trip the sisters acted out some of their Gondal characters.<ref name="Barker 451">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 451</ref>

Charlotte Brontë remains the primary source of information about Emily, although as an elder sister, writing publicly about her only shortly after her death, she is considered by certain scholars not to be a neutral witness. [[Stevie Davies]] believes that there is what might be called "Charlotte's smoke-screen", and argues that Emily evidently shocked her, to the point that she may even have doubted her sister's sanity. After Emily's death, Charlotte rewrote her character, history and even poems on a model more acceptable to her and the bourgeois reading public.<ref>{{cite book|first=Stevie |last=Davies|title=Emily Brontë: Heretic|publisher=Women's Press|year=1994|page=16}}</ref> Biographer Claire O'Callaghan suggests that the trajectory of Brontë's legacy was altered significantly by [[Elizabeth Gaskell]]'s [[The Life of Charlotte Brontë|biography of Charlotte]], concerning not only because Gaskell did not visit Haworth until after Emily's death, but also because Gaskell admits to disliking what she did know of Emily in her biography of Charlotte.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gaskell|first=Elizabeth|title=The Life of Charlotte Brontë|publisher=London: Penguin Classics|year=1997|pages=229}}</ref> As O'Callaghan and others have noted, Charlotte was Gaskell's primary source of information on Emily's life and may have exaggerated or fabricated Emily's frailty and shyness to cast herself in the role of maternal saviour.<ref name="Callaghan 2018">{{cite book|last=Callaghan|first=Claire|title=Emily Brontë Reappraised|year=2018|publisher=Saraband |isbn=9781912235056}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hewish|first=John|title=Emily Brontë: A Critical and Biographical Study|publisher=Oxford: Oxford World Classics|year=1969}}</ref>

Charlotte presented Emily as someone whose "natural" love of the beauties of nature had become somewhat exaggerated owing to her shy nature, portraying her as too fond of the Yorkshire moors, and homesick whenever she was away.{{sfn|Austin|2002|p=577}} According to [[Lucasta Miller]], in her analysis of Brontë biographies, "Charlotte took on the role of Emily's first mythographer."<ref>{{cite book|first=Lucasta |last=Miller|title=The Brontë Myth|publisher=Vintage|year=2002|pages=171–174|isbn=0-09-928714-5}}</ref> In the ''Preface'' to the Second Edition of ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'', in 1850, Charlotte wrote:
<blockquote><div>
My sister's disposition was not naturally gregarious; circumstances favoured and fostered her tendency to seclusion; except to go to church or take a walk on the hills, she rarely crossed the threshold of home. Though her feeling for the people round was benevolent, intercourse with them she never sought; nor, with very few exceptions, ever experienced. And yet she knew them: knew their ways, their language, their family histories; she could hear of them with interest, and talk of them with detail, minute, graphic, and accurate; but WITH them, she rarely exchanged a word.<ref>[[s:Wuthering Heights/Editor's Preface|Editor's ''Preface'']] to the Second Edition of ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'', by [[Charlotte Brontë]], 1850.</ref>
</div></blockquote>

Emily's unsociability and extremely shy nature have subsequently been reported many times.<ref>''[[w:The Ladies' Repository|The Ladies' Repository]]'', February 1861.</ref><ref>Alexander, Sellars, ''The Art of the Brontës'' (1995), p. 100</ref><ref name="Gérin 196">Gérin, ''Emily Brontë: a biography'', p. 196</ref> According to Norma Crandall, her "warm, human aspect" was "usually revealed only in her love of nature and of animals".<ref>Norma Crandall, ''Emily Brontë: a psychological portrait'' (1957), p. 81</ref> In a similar description, ''The Literary News'' (1883) states: "[Emily] loved the solemn moors, she loved all wild, free creatures and things",<ref>Pylodet, Leypoldt, ''[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iK3wrGdzHO4C&pg=PA152#v=onepage&q&f=false The Literary News]'' (1883) Volume 4, p. 152</ref> and critics attest that her love of the moors is manifest in ''Wuthering Heights''.<ref>Brontë Society, ''The Brontës Then and Now'' (1947), p. 31</ref> Over the years, Emily's love of nature has been the subject of many anecdotes. A newspaper dated 31 December 1899, gives the folksy account that "with bird and beast [Emily] had the most intimate relations, and from her walks she often came with fledgling or young rabbit in hand, talking softly to it, quite sure, too, that it understood".<ref>''[[w:The Sacramento Union|The Record-Union]]'', [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1899-12-31/ed-1/seq-10/ "Sacramento"], 31 December 1899.</ref>

Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of Charlotte, told the story of Emily's punishing her pet dog Keeper for lying "on the delicate white counterpane" that covered one of the beds in the Parsonage. According to Gaskell, she struck him with her fists until he was "half-blind" with his eyes "swelled up". This story has been called into question by many biographers and scholars, including Janet Gezari, Lucasta Miller and Claire O'Callaghan.<ref name="Callaghan 2018"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Gezari|first=Janet|title=The Annotated Wuthering Heights|chapter=Introduction|year=2014|publisher=Harward University Press|isbn=978-0-67-472469-3}}</ref>{{efn|Brontë's servant Martha Brown could not recall anything like this when asked about the episode in 1858. However, she remembered Emily extracting Keeper from fights with other dogs.{{sfn|Miller|2013|p=203}}}} It also contradicts the following account of Emily's and Keeper's relationship:
<blockquote><div>
Poor old Keeper, Emily's faithful friend and worshipper, seemed to understand her like a human being. One evening, when the four friends were sitting closely round the fire in the sitting-room, Keeper forced himself in between Charlotte and Emily and mounted himself on Emily's lap; finding the space too limited for his comfort he pressed himself forward on to the guest's knees, making himself quite comfortable. Emily's heart was won by the unresisting endurance of the visitor, little guessing that she herself, being in close contact, was the inspiring cause of submission to Keeper's preference. Sometimes Emily would delight in showing off Keeper—make him frantic in action, and roar with the voice of a lion. It was a terrifying exhibition within the walls of an ordinary sitting-room. Keeper was a solemn mourner at Emily's funeral and never recovered his cheerfulness.{{sfn|Fraser|1988|p=296}}
</div></blockquote> 
[[File:Keeper - from life, Emily Brontë, 1838.jpg|thumb|Keeper, watercolour by Emily Brontë, 24 April 1838]]

In ''Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era'' (1886), Eva Hope summarises Emily's character as "a peculiar mixture of timidity and Spartan-like courage", and goes on to say, "She was painfully shy, but physically she was brave to a surprising degree. She loved few persons, but those few with a passion of self-sacrificing tenderness and devotion. To other people's failings she was understanding and forgiving, but over herself she kept a continual and most austere watch, never allowing herself to deviate for one instant from what she considered her duty."<ref>Eva Hope, ''Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era'' (1886), p. 168</ref>

Emily Brontë has often been characterised as a devout if somewhat unorthodox Christian, a heretic and a visionary "mystic of the moors".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/emily-bronte-and-the-religious-imagination-9781441166302/|title=Emily Bronte and the Religious Imagination|website=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref>

==''Wuthering Heights''==
{{Main|Wuthering Heights}}
[[File:Wuthering.jpg|thumb|upright|Title page of the original edition of ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' (1847)]]
Emily Brontë's ''Wuthering Heights'' was first published in [[London]] in 1847 by [[Thomas Cautley Newby]], appearing as the first two volumes of a three-volume set that included [[Anne Brontë]]'s ''[[Agnes Grey]]''. The authors were printed as being Ellis and Acton Bell; Emily's real name did not appear until 1850, when it was printed on the title page of an edited commercial edition.<ref>Mezo, Richard E. ''A Student's Guide to Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë'' (2002), p. 2</ref> The novel's innovative structure somewhat puzzled [[critic]]s.

''Wuthering Heights''{{'}}s violence and passion led the Victorian public and many early reviewers to think that it had been written by a man.<ref>Carter, McRae, ''The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain and Ireland'' (2001), p. 240</ref> According to [[Juliet Gardiner]], "the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers."<ref>Juliet Gardiner, ''The History today who's who in British history'' (2000), p. 109</ref> Literary critic Thomas Joudrey further contextualizes this reaction: "Expecting in the wake of Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'' to be swept up in an earnest [[Bildungsroman]], they were instead shocked and confounded by a tale of unchecked primal passions, replete with savage cruelty and outright barbarism."<ref>Joudrey, Thomas J. [http://ncl.ucpress.edu/content/70/2/165"'Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run': Selfishness and Sociality in ''Wuthering Heights''."] ''Nineteenth-Century Literature'' 70.2 (2015): 165.</ref> Even though the novel received mixed reviews when it first came out, and was often condemned for its portrayal of amoral passion, the book subsequently became an English literary classic.<ref>''Wuthering Heights'', Mobi Classics (2009)</ref> Emily Brontë never knew the extent of fame she achieved with her only novel, as she died a year after its publication, aged 30.

Although a letter from her publisher indicates that Emily had begun to write a second novel, the manuscript has never been found. Perhaps Emily or a member of her family eventually destroyed the manuscript, if it existed, when she was prevented by illness from completing it. It has also been suggested that, though less likely, the letter could have been intended for [[Anne Brontë]], who was already writing ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'', her second novel.<ref>''The letters of Charlotte Brontë'' (1995), edited by Margaret Smith, Volume Two ''1848–1851'', p. 27</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë resting place.jpg|thumb|right|Brass plaque on family vault of Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë at [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth]]]]
Emily's health was probably weakened by the harsh local climate and by unsanitary conditions at home,<ref name="Gaskell 47-48">Gaskell, ''The  Life of Charlotte Brontë'', pp. 47–48</ref>  where water was contaminated by run off from the church's graveyard.{{efn|name=Letter|A letter from Charlotte Brontë, to Ellen Nussey, Charlotte refers to the winter of 1833/4 which was unusually wet and there were a large number of deaths in the village — thought to be caused by water running down from the churchyard.}} Branwell died suddenly, on Sunday, 24 September 1848. At his funeral service, a week later, Emily caught a severe cold that quickly developed into inflammation of the lungs and led to [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="Benvenuto 24">Benvenuto, ''Emily Brontë'', p. 24</ref>{{efn|name=TB|Though many of her contemporaries believed otherwise, "consumption", or tuberculosis does not originate from "catching a [[common cold|cold]]". Tuberculosis is a communicable disease, transmitted through the inhalation of airborne droplets of mucus or saliva carrying ''[[Mycobacterium tuberculosis]]'', and anyone living in close proximity with an infected person would be at increased risk of contracting it. However, it is also a disease that can remain [[asymptomatic]] for long periods of time after initial infection, and developing only later when the immune system becomes weak.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/tb/education/corecurr/pdf/chapter2.pdf|title=Chapter 2, Transmission and Pathogenesis of Tuberculosis (TB)|publisher=CDC|access-date=16 December 2015}}</ref>}} Though her condition worsened steadily, she rejected medical help and all offered remedies, saying that she would have "no poisoning doctor" near her.<ref name="Fraser, 316">Fraser, "Charlotte Brontë: A Writer's Life", 316</ref> On the morning of 19 December 1848, Charlotte, fearing for her sister, wrote:
<blockquote><div>
She grows daily weaker. The physician's opinion was expressed too obscurely to be of use – he sent some medicine which she would not take. Moments so dark as these I have never known – I pray for God's support to us all.<ref name="Gaskell 67">Gaskell, ''The  Life of Charlotte Brontë'', pp. 67</ref>
</div></blockquote>
At noon, Emily was worse; she could only whisper in gasps. With her last audible words, she said to Charlotte, "If you will send for a doctor, I will see him now",<ref name="Gaskell 68">Gaskell, ''The  Life of Charlotte Brontë'', pp. 68</ref> but it was too late. She died that same day at about two in the afternoon. According to [[Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux|Mary Robinson]], an early biographer of Emily, it happened while she was sitting on the sofa.<ref name="Robinson 308">Robinson, ''Emily Brontë'', p. 308</ref> However, Charlotte's letter to William Smith Williams, in which she mentions Emily's dog, Keeper, lying at the side of her dying-bed, makes this statement seem unlikely.<ref name="Barker 576">Barker, ''The Brontës'', p. 576</ref>

It was less than three months after Branwell's death, which led Martha Brown, a housemaid, to declare that "Miss Emily died of a broken heart for love of her brother".<ref name="Gérin 242">Gérin, ''Emily Brontë: a biography'', p. 242</ref> Emily had grown so thin that her coffin measured only 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. The carpenter said he had never made a narrower one for an adult.<ref name="Vine 24">Vine, ''Emily Brontë'' (1998), p. 20</ref> Her remains were interred in the family vault in [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth]].

===Legacy===
The 1946 film ''[[Devotion (1946 film)|Devotion]]'' was a highly fictionalized account of the lives of the Brontë sisters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/devotion_1945|title=Devotion|via=www.rottentomatoes.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.annebronte.org/2019/01/20/devotion-the-brontes-in-hollywood/|title='Devotion' – The Brontës In Hollywood|date=20 January 2019}}</ref>

Emily's novel was the inspiration for the debut single, "[[Wuthering Heights (song)|Wuthering Heights]]", by UK singer-songwriter [[Kate Bush]] released in January 1978 as the lead single from Bush's debut album ''[[The Kick Inside]]''. It uses unusual harmonic progressions and irregular phrase lengths, with lyrics inspired by the location and characters of the 1847 novel.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

In 2019 the English folk group [[The Unthanks]] released ''Lines'', three short albums, which include settings of Brontë's poems to music. Recording took place at the Brontës' home, using their own [[Regency era]] piano played by [[Adrian McNally]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/17/the-unthanks-lines-review-emily-bronte-maxine-peake|title=The Unthanks: Lines review – national treasures sing Emily Brontë and Maxine Peake|first=Neil|last=Spencer|newspaper=The Observer |date=17 February 2019|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>

In the 2019 film ''[[How to Build a Girl]]'', Emily and Charlotte Brontë are among the historical figures in Johanna's wall [[collage]].<ref>[https://www.scriptslug.com/assets/uploads/scripts/how-to-build-a-girl-2020.pdf ''How to Build a Girl'' screenplay] retrieved 2 June 2021</ref>

In May 2021, the contents of the Honresfield library, a collection of rare books and manuscripts assembled by Rochdale mill owners Alfred and William Law, was re-discovered after nearly a century. In the collection were handwritten poems by Emily Brontë, as well as the Brontë family edition of Bewick's 'History of British Birds.' The collection was to be auctioned off at [[Sotheby's]] and was estimated to sell for £1&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57242780|title=Emily Brontë: Lost handwritten poems expected to fetch around £1m|work=BBC News |date=25 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/25/emily-brontes-handwritten-poems-are-highlight-of-lost-library-auction|title=Emily Brontë's handwritten poems are highlight of 'lost library' auction|date=25 May 2021|website=The Guardian}}</ref>

In the 2022 film ''[[Emily (2022 film)|Emily]]'', written and directed by [[Frances O'Connor]], [[Emma Mackey]] plays Emily before the publication of ''Wuthering Heights''. The film mixes known biographical details with imagined situations and relationships.

Norwegian composer [[Ola Gjeilo]] set select Emily Brontë poems to music with [[SATB]] chorus, string orchestra, and piano, a work commissioned and premiered by the [[San Francisco Choral Society]] in a series of concerts in [[Oakland]] and [[San Francisco]].

== Works ==
*{{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=Currer |last2=Bell |first2=Ellis |last3=Bell |first3=Acton |author1-link=Charlotte Brontë |author2-link=Emily Brontë |author3-link=Anne Brontë |title=[[Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell|Poems]] |date=1846}}
*<!-- [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights_(1st_edition) Bell, Ellis (Brontë, Emily), ''Wuthering Heights, A Novel''. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847] -->{{cite book |last1=Bell <!-- (Brontë) --> |first1=Ellis <!-- (Emily) --> |title=Wuthering Heights, A Novel |date=1847 |publisher=Thomas Cautley Newby |location=London |edition=1 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights_(1st_edition) |quote=Emily Brontë as 'Ellis Bell'}}
*{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/completepoems0000bron/ |title=Emily Jane Brontë: The Complete Poems |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=1992 |isbn=0140423524 |editor-last=Gezari |editor-first=Janet |editor-link=Janet Gezari |series=[[Penguin Classics]] |location=New York |ol=1464636M}}

===Electronic editions===
{{Library resources box|by=yes|about=no|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=97097302}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/emily-bronte}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=405| name=Emily Brontë}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Emily Brontë |sopt=w}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2072}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Novels|Poetry|Biography}}
* [[Walterclough Hall]] – a residence north-east of the village of [[Southowram]]
* "[[To a Wreath of Snow]]" – a poem by Emily published in 1837
* "[[Come hither child]]" – a poem by Emily published in 1839
* "[[A Death-Scene]]" – a poem by Emily published in 1846
* [[Emily (2022 film)|''Emily'' (2022 film)]]

== References ==
===Notes===
{{Notelist|group="N"}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
*{{cite journal|last=Austin|first=Linda|title=Emily Brontë's Homesickness|journal=Victorian Studies|volume=44|issue=4|date=Summer 2002|pages=573–596|pmid=12751528}}
*{{cite book|last=Barker|first=Juliet R. V.|author-link=Juliet Barker|title=The Brontës|year=1995|publisher=Phoenix House|location=London|isbn=1-85799-069-2}}
*{{cite book|last=Benvenuto|first=Richard|title=Emily Brontë|year=1982|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=Boston|isbn=0-80576-813-0|url=https://archive.org/details/emilybront00benv}}
*{{cite book|last=Fraser|first=Rebecca|authorlink=Rebecca Fraser|title=The Brontës: Charlotte Brontë and her family|year=1988|publisher=Crown Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0-517-56438-6|url=https://archive.org/details/brontscharlott00fras}}
*{{cite book|last=Fraser|first=Rebecca|authorlink=Rebecca Fraser|title=Charlotte Bronte: A Writer's Life|year=2008|publisher=Pegasus Books|location=New York|isbn=9781933648880 |url=https://archive.org/details/charlottebrontew0000fras}}
*{{cite book|last=Gaskell|first=Elizabeth Cleghorn|author-link=Elizabeth Gaskell|title=The Life of Charlotte Brontë|volume=2|year=1857|publisher=D. Appleton|location=London}}
*{{cite book|last=Gérin|first=Winifred|author-link=Winifred Gérin|title=Emily Brontë|url=https://archive.org/details/emilybrontbiogra0000grin|url-access=registration|year=1971|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=01-9812-018-4}}
*{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Lucasta|author-link=Lucasta Miller|title=The Bronte Myth|year=2013|publisher=Vintage|location=London|isbn=978-1-44642-621-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5vRJTVs9r7YC}}
*{{cite book| last1=Paddock | first1=Lisa |last2=Rollyson |first2=Carl |year=2003 |title=The Brontës A to Z|url=https://archive.org/details/brontstozessenti0000padd|url-access=registration| location=New York |publisher=Facts On File |isbn=0-8160-4303-5}} 
*{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=F. Mary A.|author-link=Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux|title=Emily Brontë|url=https://archive.org/details/emilybront00robi|year=1883|publisher=Roberts Brothers|location=Boston}}
*{{cite book|last=Vine|first=Steven|title=Emily Brontë|year=1998|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=New York|isbn=0-80571-659-9|url=https://archive.org/details/emilybronte00vine}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box|by=no|about=yes|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=97097302}}
* ''Emily Brontë'', Charles Simpson
* ''In the Footsteps of the Brontës'', Ellis Chadwick
* ''Last Things: Emily Brontë's Poems'', [[Janet Gezari]]
* ''The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës'', Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith
* ''The Brontë Myth'', [[Lucasta Miller]]
* ''Emily'', Daniel Wynne
* ''Emily Brontë'', [[Winifred Gerin]]
* ''A Chainless Soul: A Life of Emily Brontë'', [[Katherine Frank (biographer)|Katherine Frank]]
* ''Emily Brontë. Her Life and Work'', [[Muriel Spark]] and Derek Stanford
* {{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Agnes Mary Frances |author1-link=Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux |title=Emily Brontë |date=1883 |publisher=[[W. H. Allen & Co.]] |location=[[London]] |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25789<!-- https://books.google.com/books?id=fSD68Lkg0T0C --> |via=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}
* L. P. Hartley, 'Emily Brontë In Gondal And Galdine', in L. P. Hartley, ''The Novelist's Responsibility'' (1967), p.&nbsp;35–53
* ''Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters'', [[Denise Giardina]]
* ''Charlotte and Emily: A Novel of the Brontës'', Jude Morgan
* ''Dark Quartet'', [[Lynne Reid Banks]]
* ''[[Literature and Evil]]'', [[Georges Bataille]]

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{commons category}}
* [https://archives.nypl.org/brg/19106 Emily Brontë papers, 1830s-1990s], held by the [[Berg Collection]], [[New York Public Library]]
* [http://www.bronte.org.uk/ The Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum] in [[Haworth]]
* [http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111811052051951249860.00043456f50a0204ad5d4&z=10&om=1 Locations associated with ''Wuthering Heights'' and Emily Brontë] — [[Google Maps]]
*[http://www.bl.uk/people/emily-bronte Emily Brontë] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619211215/https://www.bl.uk/people/emily-bronte |date=19 June 2021 }} at the [[British Library]]
* [http://www.eng-poetry.ru/english/Poet.php?PoetId=32 Poems by Emily Jane Brontë] at English-Poetry.RU
* [https://arheve.org/en/bronte-e Works by Emily Brontë in the online library ARHEVE.org] and in the free [https://library.arheve.org/ ARHEVE app]

{{Brontë sisters}}
{{Wuthering Heights}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronte, Emily}}
[[Category:1818 births]]
[[Category:1848 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English writers]]
[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Anglican writers]]
[[Category:Brontë family|Emily]]
[[Category:Burials in West Yorkshire]]
[[Category:English Anglicans]]
[[Category:English fantasy writers]]
[[Category:English governesses]]
[[Category:English people of Cornish descent]]
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:English women poets]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in England]]
[[Category:People from Thornton and Allerton]]
[[Category:Writers from Bradford]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:Victorian novelists]]
[[Category:Victorian women writers]]
[[Category:Victorian writers]]
[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]