Brontë Sisters (Emily)
Emily Jane Brontë
5 min read
British novelist and poet, sister of Charlotte and Anne Brontë. She is the author of a single novel, *Wuthering Heights* (1847), which became a major classic of English literature.
Key Facts
- Born on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire
- In 1846 publishes a collection of poems with her sisters under the male pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
- Publishes her only novel, *Wuthering Heights*, in 1847 under the name Ellis Bell
- Dies of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848 in Haworth, at just 30 years old
Works & Achievements
Her only novel, a story of love and revenge on the Yorkshire moors, which became a major classic of English literature.
A collective collection by the three sisters in which Emily, signing as “Ellis Bell,” revealed poetry of singular power.
A vast poetic cycle linked to the imaginary kingdom of Gondal, bearing witness to Emily's teeming inner world.
One of her most famous poems, a powerful affirmation of faith and courage in the face of the fear of death.
A poem from the Gondal cycle, in which a captive finds a mystical freedom in inner vision.
Anecdotes
To be taken seriously in a literary world dominated by men, Emily and her sisters Charlotte and Anne published under masculine or ambiguous pen names: Emily became “Ellis Bell.” The secret was so well kept that many readers long believed a single man had written all these novels.
As children, the Brontës invented entire imaginary kingdoms. Emily and Anne created the world of Gondal, peopled with queens and tragic heroes, from which Emily drew dozens of poems that she wrote in tiny homemade notebooks.
In 1846, the three sisters published a collection of poems at their own expense. It was a resounding failure: only two copies were sold. Yet it was by chance discovery of Emily's secret poems that Charlotte had convinced her sisters to take the plunge.
Above all, Emily loved the wild moors of Yorkshire, which she roamed with her big dog Keeper. This harsh, windswept landscape became the setting for *Wuthering Heights*, her only novel.
Gravely ill after the funeral of her brother Branwell, Emily stubbornly refused to see a doctor and carried on her daily chores to the very end. She died of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848, at just 30 years old.
Primary Sources
1801. — I have just returned from a visit to my landlord, the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.
My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!
No coward soul is mine, / No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere.
One day, in the autumn of 1845, I accidentally lighted on a manuscript volume of verse in my sister Emily's handwriting. [...] these were not at all the ordinary effusions: they had a peculiar music, wild, melancholy, and elevating.
Key Places
Village where Emily was born in 1818, before the family moved to Haworth.
Stone house where Emily spent almost her entire life and wrote her work; she died there in 1848. It is now a Brontë museum.
Wild stretches of heather that Emily roamed and that inspired the setting of *Wuthering Heights*.
School where Emily studied French, German, and music in 1842, during her only long stay outside England.
Boarding school near Halifax where Emily taught briefly in 1838, an experience she found hard to bear.