Emily Brontë(1818 — 1848)
Emily Brontë
Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande
7 min read
British writer
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Je suis la seule être au monde qui me comprenne, et qui me comprenne à demi. »
« Quoi que soient nos âmes, la sienne et la mienne sont pareilles. »
Key Facts
- Née en 1818 à Thornton (Yorkshire), troisième des sœurs Brontë avec Charlotte et Anne
- Publie Les Hauts de Hurlevent en 1847 sous le pseudonyme masculin Ellis Bell
- Son roman est d'abord mal reçu par la critique pour sa violence et son amoralité
- Compose plus de 200 poèmes, dont beaucoup restent inédits de son vivant
- Meurt de tuberculose en 1848 à seulement 30 ans, quelques mois après son frère Branwell
Works & Achievements
Emily Brontë's only novel, published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. A passionate and violent story of love and revenge set on the Yorkshire moors, now considered one of the greatest novels in English literature.
A collective collection published by the three Brontë sisters under male pseudonyms. Emily contributes poems of exceptional metaphysical and lyrical intensity.
Considered Emily Brontë's spiritual testament, this poem affirms her faith in an inner divine force in the face of death. Charlotte read it at a funeral as Emily's final poem.
One of Emily's most celebrated poems, a darkly beautiful elegy on grief and faithfulness to the absent. It is now studied in British secondary schools and translated worldwide.
Emily and her sister Anne invented an imaginary world from childhood, Gondal, whose history they wrote in prose and verse for many years. These texts, mostly lost, bear witness to an early and overflowing creativity.
Anecdotes
Emily Brontë published only one novel in her lifetime, Wuthering Heights, in 1847, under the male pseudonym Ellis Bell. In the Victorian era, women authors were rarely taken seriously, and she chose this mask to be judged on talent alone. The novel was initially poorly received: critics found it too dark and violent.
Emily lived as a recluse on the Yorkshire moors and refused almost all contact with the outside world. Her brother Branwell and her sisters Charlotte and Anne were her only true companions. She knew the names of every wild plant on the bogs and walked there alone in all weathers, even in storms.
In 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to Brussels to study French and German. She mastered both languages quickly but suffered deeply from homesickness. Upon returning to Haworth, she never left Yorkshire again, as though the moor was a vital necessity to her.
Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848, at only 30 years old, a few months after the death of her brother Branwell. According to Charlotte, she refused all doctors and treatment until the very last day, standing and dressed on the very morning of her death, combing her dog by the fireplace.
Emily had composed hundreds of poems throughout her life, which she kept secret. It was Charlotte who discovered them by chance in 1845 and convinced her, not without difficulty, to publish them. The collection Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846) sold only two copies in its first year.
Primary Sources
"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."
"No coward soul is mine / No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere / I see Heaven's glories shine / And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear."
"Ellis Bell is difficult to describe. There is no human being who resembles their work less than he does. Her novel is the most powerful she ever wrote, but it is also the darkest."
"It is today the 30th of July 1845. I am alone in the sitting room. Anne is in the same room, writing in her journal. All is quiet around us. The four of us [...] are in good health."
Key Places
Village in northern England where Emily spent almost her entire life at her father's parsonage. The wild, windswept moor surrounding it is the spiritual backdrop of her entire body of work.
The Brontë family home, now a museum. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights and her poems here, in an austere yet sheltered domestic space.
The vast, wild, and windswept moorlands of Yorkshire that Emily walked every day. These landscapes are directly transposed into the oppressive and sublime atmosphere of Wuthering Heights.
A Belgian boarding school where Emily and Charlotte stayed in 1842 to study languages. Emily suffered so deeply from being uprooted there that she never returned to the continent.
A ruined farmhouse on the moor believed to have inspired the setting of Wuthering Heights. A pilgrimage site for readers from around the world, listed as a heritage site.
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Wuthering Heights (Les Hauts de Hurlevent)
1847
Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell
1846
Poème « No coward soul is mine »
1846
Poème « Remembrance » (Cold in the Earth)
1845
Carnets de Gondal (œuvre imaginaire)
1831-1848
