On July 30, 1818, novelist Emily Bronte becomes the
fifth-born of the six Bronte children, three of whom will grow up to write
fiction. The Bronte family lived in the remote village of Haworth on the Yorkshire
moors and were largely left to their own devices after the death of their
mother in 1820. A shy, reclusive child, Emily suffered severe homesickness
whenever she left the parsonage. She along with her sisters Charlotte, Anne and
brother Branwell, read voraciously and created their own elaborate stories
about mythical lands. Many of Emily's poems were written about these imaginary
realms. Bronte was well educated at home and worked several short, unhappy
stints as a governess and schoolteacher. In 1842, Emily and Charlotte went to
Brussels to study school administration, hoping to open their own school in
Haworth one day, which they never accomplished. In 1845, Charlotte came across
some poems Emily had written and revealed that she too had secretly been
writing verse. They also learned that Anne had also been secretly writing. Charlotte
published their joint work, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, in
1846. Although the book sold only two copies, the sisters continued writing. In
1847 all three sisters published novels, Charlotte Jane Eyre, Emily Wuthering
Heights and Anne Agnes Grey. Emily died of tuberculosis on December
19, 1848, a year after her novel was published.
Michael Thomas Barry
is the author of Literary Legends of the British Isles. The book can be
purchased from Amazon through the following links:
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