Emily Brontë
(1818–1848)

Emily Brontë published only one novel. The daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman, Brontë was a reclusive Victorian gentlewoman who left home only three times in the course of her 30 years. Yet Wuthering Heights, along with her poetry and the novels and poems of her sisters Charlotte and Anne, is part of the most extraordinary legacy any one family has contributed to English literature.

Emily Brontë was born on July 30, 1818, in Thornton, Yorkshire. In 1820, the family moved to Haworth, where Patrick Brontë remained curate for the rest of his life. In 1821, Emily's mother, Maria Branwell Brontë, died of cancer. Her sister Elizabeth Branwell came to help raise the six children. They turned inward for entertainment, and were raised as readers—at one time, the family received five newspapers. By 1826, Branwell, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne were creating "great plays" starring Branwell's toy soldiers.

Because of ill health, the Brontës had difficulty remaining in school. After a stint at the Cowan Bridge School, the two eldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, fell ill and died of tuberculosis. Charlotte and Emily were brought home. Emily grew ill and returned home after only a few months at the Roe Head School as a pupil, and later had to leave her position as a teacher at the Law Hill School.

At home in Haworth, however, the Brontës flourished; their collective imaginative life centered on the chronicles of the make-believe cities of Gondal and Angria. These tales, in verse, dialogue, and prose, were written in minuscule script in more than 100 tiny (2 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches) booklets. The Brontës' creative energy was absorbed by these stories for more than a decade.

In 1842, Emily and Charlotte journeyed to Brussels to study languages. Their plan was to establish a school at Haworth. Within six months, however, Aunt Branwell died, and the Brontës returned to Haworth. Emily, who had been writing poems since 1836, began copying them into two notebooks, "Gondal Poems"—related to the city and its imaginary inhabitants—and "E.J.B."

In 1845, the sisters had leaflets printed describing the school's program, but gave up the scheme due to lack of inquiries. During this period, Charlotte accidentally discovered Emily's notebooks in her lap desk. Despite Emily's anger, Charlotte persuaded her to try publishing a collection of the poetry of all three sisters. Poems: by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, was published in 1846 at the Brontës' own expense. Despite the male pen names, it received scant critical attention. Undiscouraged, the sisters continued the projects all three had begun: novels, marketed with little success while still works in progress.

The year 1847 marked a spate of publishing for the three "Bell brothers." In July, T.C. Newby accepted Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey for publication, though the publisher rejected Charlotte's The Professor. However, Smith, Elder & Co. accepted Charlotte's Jane Eyre, and all three novels were published by year's end. Jane Eyre met with immediate success. The reviews of the more intense, darker Wuthering Heights were mixed. By 1853, the Brontë sisters had brought an astonishing seven books before the English reading public.

The Brontës did not enjoy their success for long. Branwell died on September 24, 1848. Emily, with a tubercular condition brought on by catching cold at his funeral, fell into a decline and died on December 19, at the age of 30. Anne died five months later, at 29. Emily Brontë is buried with her siblings at the rebuilt Haworth church in Yorkshire.

Female authors commonly used male pseudonyms during this period ("George Eliot" was Mary Ann Evans) as a way of attracting an unprejudiced readership. In 1848, Smith, Elder & Co. informed the "Bells" that their novels were being offered to an American publisher as the work of one male author. Charlotte and Anne had to go to London to prove their separate identities and gender. Confusion persisted about the question of authorship. Charlotte reissued an edited version of Wuthering Heights in 1850 with an "Editor's Preface" and a "Biographical Notice," which settles the question once and for all.

That Emily Brontë should have died so young and experienced so much death while she lived seems remarkable. Yet life expectancy during the period was generally low: In the Whitehall district of London, for example, in 1840, a gentleman was expected to live 45 years, a tradesman 27 years, and a laborer 22 years. These figures were even lower for women.

Tuberculosis, a highly contagious respiratory disease known at the time as consumption, was the leading cause of death. At mid-century, it caused half of all deaths in women between the ages of 15 and 35 and accounted for the higher death rate for women than for men. Women were more susceptible because of poorer nutrition and poor ventilation in homes and enclosed workplaces, where they spent most of their time.

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