Emily Brontë

This illustrated biography examines the life and legacy of Emily Bronte. The enigma that a young woman from such a closed and protected environment as a Yorkshire rectory could write the wildly romantic and complex Wuthering Heights has long been a source of fascination. Largely self-educated, Emily spent most of her life at the rectory in Haworth. Her solitary instincts are well-known, and the biographer's task has been made no easier by her refusal to give anything of herself away to anyone during her lifetime. Robert Barnard examines her insulated childhood, and the stories of Gondal and Angria, leading to the lyrical poems of her twenties which prefigure the raw intensity of Wuthering Heights. He demonstrates that many aspects of Wuthering Heights were shaped or stimulated by her own experiences, many of which can be traced to real examples. He also refers extensively to other critical sources, from early reviews of Wuthering Heights to Mrs. Gaskell's appraisal of Emily's stern selfishness, to Juliet Barker's recent biography of the Bronte family.