Wuthering Heights

Emily Jane Brontë (1818-1848) was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. She published under the masculine pen name Ellis Bell. In 1824, her family moved to Haworth, where Emily’s father was perpetual curate, and it was in these surroundings that her literary oddities flourished. It was the discovery of Emily’s poetic talent by her family that led her and her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, to publish a joint collection of their poetry in 1846, Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, the Brontë sisters adopted androgynous first names. All three retained the first letter of their first names: Charlotte became Currer Bell and Anne became Acton Bell. She published her novel Wuthering Heights (1847) as two volumes of a three volume set (the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics. Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out, the book subsequently became an English literary classic.