This week on July 30th, we honor a woman whose quiet, isolated life concealed the stormy intensity of her writing – Emily Brontë. Known best for her novel Wuthering Heights, Brontë is, in our opinion, one of the most enigmatic figures in English literature. Though her published work was limited, her legacy continues over the literary landscape even today.
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Emily was born in the West Yorkshire village of Thornton, but grew up in the rather isolated moorland town of Haworth, where her father, Patrick Brontë, worked as the local curate. A stern but loving presence, as a father Patrick acted as a literary influence – encouraging his children to read and write from early ages. The Brontë household was filled with tragedy as well as creativity, unfortunately. Emily lost her mother at a young age, followed by two older sisters shortly after. However, these early losses seemed to bind the surviving Brontë siblings (Charlotte, Anne, Emily, and their brother Branwell) into a close-knit, imaginative unit. Together, they created fictional worlds like Gondal and Angria, writing intricate stories, poems and even histories. Emily was especially drawn to nature and solitude, preferring the wild moors over social gatherings (same, honestly). As a young adult she briefly attended school and tried her hand at teaching, but struggled heavily with homesickness. Her time away only confirmed her attachment to home and the rugged natural landscape that would so deeply inform her writing.
In adulthood, Emily remained largely reclusive, focusing on writing and supporting her family instead of meeting people or trying her hand at courtship as others her age might have. In 1846, she and her sisters self-published a collection of poetry under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (spoiler alert: it didn’t sell well). The sisters chose male-sounding pen names to avoid the gender bias of Victorian literary critics, fearing that women writers would not be taken seriously – if at all. While their relationships were loving, there did seem to be a gentle undertone of friendly competition among them, particularly between Charlotte and Emily. Each sister had a distinct voice, but they shared a fierce passion for writing and often read and critiqued each other’s work. Emily’s poems, now highly regarded, reveal her affinity for the metaphysical, the elements and the eternal life. Then, only a year after their published poetical works, she published Wuthering Heights – a dark, emotionally raw novel that challenged Victorian sensibilities with its portrayal of obsession, revenge, and destructive love. Critics at the time seemed puzzled (if not scandalized) by the book’s brutality and even its structure. Sadly, Emily would not live to see her novel’s eventual acclaim. She died of tuberculosis in December 1848 at the age of 30, just a year after its release.
Today Emily Brontë can be remembered as a literary trailblazer. Her fierce, unflinching voice (which all the Brontë siblings had, to a point) paved the way for generations of writers to explore human psychology and intense passion in their work. From Virginia Woolf to Sylvia Plath to contemporary gothic fiction, Brontë’s influence continues to echo in writers… especially ones who wish to embrace intensity over convention, or depth over decorum. Happy Birthday to Emily Brontë!
