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Emily Brontë Biography

Writer / Poet

Emily Brontë died at the young age of 30, leaving the now-legendary Wuthering Heights as her only novel. Little is known about Brontë's life; she was a member of the famed Brontë writing clan, which included her sisters Charlotte (author of Jane Eyre) and Anne (author of Agnes Grey). The three published their poetry in the 1846 book Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. (The names were pseudonyms for Charlotte, Emily and Anne.) Emily began writing Wuthering Heights in 1845 and it was published late in 1847. The book's troubled lovers, the beautiful Catherine Earnshaw and the stormy, troubled Heathcliff, have become famous figures in literature.

Extra credit: Wuthering Heights has been the basis of nearly a dozen feature films and TV movies. The most famous is the 1939 film starring Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon and David Niven. A 1992 edition starred Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche as Catherine... As children the precocious Brontë sisters and their brother Branwell wrote long, intricately detailed stories about imaginary kingdoms they called Gondal and Angria.

Blog posts mentioning Emily Brontë:

Four Good Links

Emily Brontë Links

Websites, e-texts and essays

Books and Writers: Emily Brontë

A rather impassioned biography of Brontë

Overview of Emily Brontë

Background on her works from a class at Brooklyn College

Emily Brontë: An Overview

A collection of scholarly analyses of the author and her works

Vital Stats

Birth

30 July 1818

Birthplace

Yorkshire, England

Death

19 December 1848
(tuberculosis, age 30)

Best Known As

The author of Wuthering Heights