Emily Brontë

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1818 — 1848

Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande

LiteratureÉcrivain(e)Poète(sse)19th CenturyWuthering Heights, blazing literary genius

British writer

Émotions disponibles (6)

Neutre

par défaut

Inspirée

Pensive

Surprise

Triste

Fière

Key Facts

Works & Achievements

Wuthering Heights (1847)

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.

Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846)

A collective collection published by the three Brontë sisters under male pseudonyms. Emily contributes poems of exceptional metaphysical and lyrical intensity.

Poem "No coward soul is mine" (1846)

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.

Poem "Remembrance" (Cold in the Earth) (1845)

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.

Gondal Notebooks (imaginary work) (1831-1848)

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

Wuthering Heights (1847)

"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."

Poem "No coward soul is mine" (1846)

"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."

Letter from Charlotte Brontë to her publisher W. S. Williams, speaking of Emily (1848)

"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."

Emily Brontë's diary paper (1845)

"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

Haworth, Yorkshire

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.

Haworth Parsonage (Brontë Parsonage)

The Brontë family home, now a museum. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights and her poems here, in an austere yet sheltered domestic space.

Pennine Moors

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.

Pensionnat Héger, Brussels

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.

Top Withens, Yorkshire

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.

Typical Objects

Handwritten poetry notebook

Emily filled notebooks with poems she kept jealously secret. These manuscripts, written with a quill pen, made up her most intimate inner world.

Quill pen and inkwell

A universal writing instrument in the 19th century, the pen carved from a bird's feather and dipped in ink was Emily's daily tool for writing her poems and her novel.

Family Bible

As a reverend's daughter, Emily had a deep knowledge of biblical texts. The Protestant Bible was at the heart of daily and intellectual life at Haworth parsonage.

Victorian black wool dress

Emily wore the sober, austere clothing typical of English middle-class women in mourning or everyday dress: a black or dark grey dress with a white collar, free of any superfluous ornament.

Dog Keeper

Emily had an extraordinary attachment to her dog, a large mastiff named Keeper. The eve of her death, she was still combing him by the fireplace — he followed her coffin at the funeral.

Map of the Yorkshire moors

The bogs and desolate moors of Yorkshire surrounding Haworth were both the physical and mental territory of Emily, a direct source of inspiration for the landscapes of Wuthering Heights.

School Curriculum

Vocabulary & Tags

Key Vocabulary

Daily Life

Morning

Emily rose early, before her sisters, to light the fires and prepare breakfast. She handled the parsonage's household chores methodically — kneading bread, cleaning — all while reciting her poems under her breath or composing them in her mind.

Afternoon

The afternoon was devoted to long, solitary walks across the moor, in all weathers. Emily observed nature with a botanist's precision, collecting plants, watching birds. She returned before nightfall and settled at her desk to write.

Evening

In the evening, the family gathered in the common room. Emily would read, sew, or play the piano. It was often after her sisters had gone to bed that she took up her pen again, alone by the fireside, to work on her poems and her novel.

Food

The diet at Haworth Parsonage was simple and frugal: homemade bread, porridge, meat broth, vegetables from the garden. Emily ate little and without fuss, indifferent to food, preferring to busy herself with feeding the household animals.

Clothing

Emily wore plain dresses in wool or cotton, most often in dark tones — black, grey, brown — in keeping with Victorian conventions for a clergyman's daughter. She scorned any vanity and refused restrictive corsets during her long walks across the moor.

Housing

The Brontë family lived at Haworth Parsonage, an austere grey stone house adjoining the church and graveyard. The rooms were small, plainly furnished with dark wood, warmed in winter by coal fireplaces. The view looked directly onto the graves and, beyond, onto the moor.

Historical Timeline

1818Naissance d'Emily Brontë à Thornton, dans le Yorkshire, cinquième enfant du révérend Patrick Brontë.

1820La famille Brontë s'installe à Haworth, sur les landes du West Yorkshire, cadre qui inspirera toute l'œuvre d'Emily.

1824Emily et ses sœurs sont envoyées à l'école de Cowan Bridge ; les conditions y sont si dures que deux sœurs aînées, Maria et Elizabeth, en meurent de tuberculose.

1830Invention de la locomotive à vapeur Rocket par Stephenson ; l'Angleterre entre dans l'ère industrielle qui bouleverse les campagnes.

1837La reine Victoria monte sur le trône d'Angleterre, inaugurant l'ère victorienne, marquée par un strict code moral et social.

1842Emily et Charlotte étudient à Bruxelles, au pensionnat Héger, pour parfaire leur français et leur allemand.

1845Charlotte découvre par hasard les cahiers de poèmes secrets d'Emily et entreprend de les faire publier.

1846Publication du recueil collectif Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell — les trois sœurs Brontë publient sous pseudonymes masculins.

1847Parution de Wuthering Heights (Les Hauts de Hurlevent) d'Emily Brontë, et de Jane Eyre de Charlotte la même année.

1847Les critiques reçoivent froidement Wuthering Heights, jugeant l'œuvre trop violente et immorale pour l'époque victorienne.

1848Mort de Branwell Brontë, frère d'Emily, en septembre, emporté par la tuberculose aggravée par l'alcoolisme.

1848Mort d'Emily Brontë le 19 décembre, à 30 ans, des suites de la tuberculose, quelques mois après son frère Branwell.

1850Charlotte prépare une édition révisée de Wuthering Heights avec une préface biographique qui révèle la véritable identité d'Ellis Bell.

Period Vocabulary

Moors — Wild, marshy expanses of heather and peat bogs typical of northern England. In Emily Brontë's work, the moors are a character in their own right, symbolising freedom and primitive forces.

Pseudonym — A pen name used by an author to publish under instead of their real name. The Brontë sisters used the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell in order to be read without gender prejudice.

Romanticism (movement) — A European artistic and literary movement of the early 19th century that valued wild nature, intense emotions, mystery and the supernatural over the cold rationalism of the Enlightenment.

English Gothic — A literary genre that emerged in the 18th century, characterised by dark atmospheres, haunted castles or houses, violent passions and supernatural elements. Wuthering Heights is one of its foremost examples.

Tuberculosis (consumption) — A pulmonary infectious disease that devastated families in the 19th century, before the discovery of antibiotics. It claimed all five Brontë siblings, including Emily at the age of 30.

Victorian Era — The period of Queen Victoria's reign (1837–1901), characterised in England by strict bourgeois morality, industrial and colonial expansion, and very restrictive social norms for women.

Parsonage — A house adjoining a church where the pastor or vicar lives with their family. It was in the Haworth Parsonage that Emily Brontë spent nearly her entire life and wrote her work.

Bildungsroman — A coming-of-age or apprenticeship novel, a literary genre highly popular in the 19th century, which follows the moral and psychological development of a character. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a well-known example.

Parsonage — The English term for a Protestant minister's residence (equivalent to the Catholic presbytery). The Brontë Parsonage in Haworth is today a museum dedicated to the three sisters.

Gallery

The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë; Emily Brontë; Charlotte Brontë) title QS:P1476,en:"The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë; Emily Brontë; Charlotte Brontë) "label QS:Len,"The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë; Em

Bronte Sisters statue, Haworth Parsonage - geograph.org.uk - 130978

Emily Brontë title QS:P1476,en:"Emily Brontë "label QS:Len,"Emily Brontë "

Emily Bronte (23204151070)

Brontë Sisters signatures (as Bell)

Bronte birthplace commemorative plaque - geograph.org.uk - 39908

Visual Style

Esthétique gothique romantique anglaise : landes sombres et tourmentées du Yorkshire, intérieurs victoriens austères à la bougie, atmosphère mélancolique et sublime en camaïeu de gris, brun et violet.

AI Prompt

Romantic English Gothic style, dark and stormy Yorkshire moors under a turbulent sky, windswept heather in shades of purple and brown, stone farmhouses worn by weather, candlelit interior of a Victorian parsonage with dark wooden furniture, ink quills and manuscript pages, a pale young woman in black Victorian dress at a writing desk near a window overlooking grey skies, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, melancholic and sublime atmosphere, muted earth tones with flashes of stormy grey and deep violet.

Sound Ambience

Ambiance sonore des landes venteuses du Yorkshire : vent, bruyère, corbeau, feu de cheminée et plume grattant le papier dans le silence d'un presbytère victorien.

AI Prompt

Wind howling across desolate Yorkshire moorland, dry heather rustling, distant crows calling, rain beating against stone walls of a farmhouse, crackling fireplace inside a low-ceilinged parlour, quill scratching on paper, a dog's quiet breathing, church bells carried by the wind from a nearby village, boots crunching on gravel paths, the creak of a wooden floorboard in an old parsonage at night.

Portrait Source

Wikimedia Commons