The Brontë Sisters - The Beginning | The Brontë Sisters - Childhood | Charlotte Brontë 1816 – 1855 | Emily Jane Brontë (1818 - 1848) | Anne Brontë (1820 – 1849)

Emily Jane Brontë (Pseudonym Ellis Bell)
(1818 - 1848)

Emily was the middle of the three surviving Brontë sisters, with Charlotte being two years older, and Anne two years younger. As a child, she had initially attended Cowen Bridge, a school for clergymen’s daughters, but her father removed her and Charlotte, after their two elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth became ill with fever and died.

Emily attended Roe Head School, where her sister Charlotte had just became a teacher in 1835, she became homesick after just a couple of months, and retuned home.

'Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, her nature stood alone' was one of the descriptions Charlotte used to portray Emily, her younger, quiet and rather shy sister who had no close friends.

Before branching out on their own as novelists and writers of poetry, Emily, Charlotte and Anne in their pseudonym names of Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell had a book of verse published. Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. (1846) Merely two copies of it were sold.

Emily was 29 years old, when Wuthering Heights (1847) her and only was published. Referred to as a story-within-a-story, did not achieve instant accomplishment, but it was later commended as one of the most intense works

Literature written by Emily Brontë - Pseudonym, Ellis Bell

Novel

Wuthering Heights (1847)

Poems

Her poetry included written in 1839

Love and Friendship

Love is like the wild rose-briar,

Friendship like the holly-tree -

The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms

But which will bloom most contantly?


The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring,

Its summer blossoms scent the air;

Yet wait till winter comes again

And who wil call the wild-briar fair?


Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now

And deck thee with the holly's sheen,

That when December blights thy brow

He may still leave thy garland green.