Emily Bronte Biography

Emily Jane Bronte was born at Thornton in Yorkshire on July 30, 1818, the fifth of six children of Patrick and Maria Bronte. Two years later, her father was appointed curate of Haworth, a small, isolated hill village surrounded by moors. Her mother died shortly after her third birthday and she and her sisters and brother were brought up by their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. Apart from a few short periods, she remained in Haworth. Her only close friendships were those with her brother Branwell and her sisters Charlotte and Anne.

Emily Jane Bronte, according to those that knew her, was a reserved, courageous woman with a commanding will and manner. In the biographical note to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Bronte attributes to her sister 'a secret power and fire that might have informed the brain and kindled the veins of a hero', while Monsignor Heger, who taught her in Brussels, was impressed by her 'powerful reason' and 'strong, imperious will'.

Emily Jane Bronte began writing poems at an early age and published twenty-one of them, together with poems by Anne and Charlotte, in 1846 in a slim volume titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. At an even earlier age, she collaborated with Charlotte, Branwell, and Anne on the 'plays' and tales that developed into the Glass Town saga. By 1834, Emily and Anne were thoroughly engaged in writing their own saga involving two imaginary islands in the north and south Pacific, Gondal and Gaaldine. No early prose narratives survive. Emily Jane Bronte is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, published almost exactly a year before her death on December 19,1848. She became ill after attending Branwell's funeral, and died of tuberculosis after an illness of about three months.

           Book Summary

Wuthering Heights was a story within a story. Nelly, the housekeeper, tells the story of Catherine and Heathcliff from her point of view. Heathcliff is adopted into the Earnshaw family when Mr. Earnshaw finds him alone as a boy. Catherine and Heathcliff are childhood playmates. They are inseparable. However, there is a lot of tension between Heathcliff and Hindley, Catherine's older brother.

On one of their adventures, Catherine breaks her ankle and meets Linton. He is the son of their neighbours, who help Catherine recover from her ankle injury. Years later, Linton proposes and Catherine marries him. Heathcliff leaves for several years. On his return, Catherine and him resume their friendship, and more. They know now that they are in love, but it is a sort of thwarted longing for eachother. Heathcliff is angry with Catherine because it is her fault that she married Linton.

Catherine dies in childbirth. The next years are filled with the way that Heathcliff gets Hindley's land. He also has Catherine marry his son, by his late wife, who was also Linton's sister. (It's kind of confusing if you haven't read the book.) After Heathcliff dies, however, Catherine marries Hinshaw, who was Hindley's son.

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