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A Life of Emily Brontë
How could a young woman without much formal education and little experience of life produce such a work as "Wuthering Heights"? How did a lively, extrovert child turn into a reserved and defensive mature woman, highly self-critical and secretive? This new biography of Emily Bronte uses hitherto relatively neglected material to provide a portrait of Emily's life and art. Concentrating on her childhood, the author examines Emily's relationship with her family and her contacts with people outside the family, and develops his previous research into the influence of her father's Irish background. He has made a study of extant manuscripts and takes into account recent advances in scholarship and improved poem texts. The book looks as questions such as - what was the nature of Emily's feelings for Charlotte, Anne and Branwell, when was "Wuthering Heights" conceived and was there a major revision, and was Emily writing a second novel when she died?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 4, 2010
I knew I was going to like this biography when Chitham started out in the introduction being very firm about working from facts and clearly identifying speculation. This is especially important in Bronte biography, since so many legends and misconceptions have grown up around all of the sisters, and perhaps particularly Emily. Chitham calls this "investigative biography", and I think he does an excellent job staying true to his standards.
Chitham does take for granted, I think, that his readers are already at least somewhat familiar with the Brontes' story, and so I was happy that I'd read other biographies both of Emily and of the family. I might recommend the more detailed biography by Winifred Gerin to go along with Chitham (though he does identify some instances where even Gerin has apparently accepted tale as fact), but this is on the whole a very enlightening, lucid account of Emily's life. I've already ordered Chitham's biography of Anne and am looking forward to reading it.
Chitham does take for granted, I think, that his readers are already at least somewhat familiar with the Brontes' story, and so I was happy that I'd read other biographies both of Emily and of the family. I might recommend the more detailed biography by Winifred Gerin to go along with Chitham (though he does identify some instances where even Gerin has apparently accepted tale as fact), but this is on the whole a very enlightening, lucid account of Emily's life. I've already ordered Chitham's biography of Anne and am looking forward to reading it.
March 23, 2022
This book seemed to be a lot about Emily Bronte's life based on her poetry and it is helpful to be familiar with it (along with Wuthering Heights).
It seemed hard for the author (Edward Chitham) to get close to Emily Bronte though. She seems to have kept many of her thoughts about daily life, and academic ideas close to herself.
Some of her ideas were controversial at the time, so this may well have been to have avoided arguments with her (surviving) sisters (Charlotte and Anne); also to have avoided being labeled in a derogatory manner.
There was also a brother, Branwell, whose behavior had to be guarded against, in order to keep the family peace. He was addicted to illicit substances, liked to drink too much and subsequently ran up debts.
Emily Bronte's parents were the Reverend Patrick Bronte and his wife, Maria Bronte (Branwell). Maria died early in the children's lives (1821) and this, plus an early schooling experience (Cowan Bridge) seems to have left a residue of sadness in the girls' lives.
Definitely inspires one to read Wuthering Heights again, also to read the poetry. The themes about Wuthering Heights were useful. Also, how the characters in Wuthering Heights evolved from Emily Bronte's earlier work. Again, it helps to have familiarity with Emily Bronte's childhood writing.
We are told that this work encompassess "the intense and absorbing feelings of childhood and early adolescence." Also that there is a focus on lonely, imprisoned and emotional children.
Themes include: 1.Nature, 2.Infidelity, 3.Separation/Reunion, 4.Duality, 5.Literary (Shelley - Epipsychidion - Horace - Ars Poetica, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Sir Walter Scott), 6. Oral - 1798 Rebellion in Ireland, family/founding.
There are also some useful pointers on Emily Bronte's religious views: "Charlotte was in the ultimate a Christian, and could not accept the nihilistic side of Emily."
I would like to see what Edward Chitham has to say about Wuthering Heights in his book about that book.
It seemed hard for the author (Edward Chitham) to get close to Emily Bronte though. She seems to have kept many of her thoughts about daily life, and academic ideas close to herself.
Some of her ideas were controversial at the time, so this may well have been to have avoided arguments with her (surviving) sisters (Charlotte and Anne); also to have avoided being labeled in a derogatory manner.
There was also a brother, Branwell, whose behavior had to be guarded against, in order to keep the family peace. He was addicted to illicit substances, liked to drink too much and subsequently ran up debts.
Emily Bronte's parents were the Reverend Patrick Bronte and his wife, Maria Bronte (Branwell). Maria died early in the children's lives (1821) and this, plus an early schooling experience (Cowan Bridge) seems to have left a residue of sadness in the girls' lives.
Definitely inspires one to read Wuthering Heights again, also to read the poetry. The themes about Wuthering Heights were useful. Also, how the characters in Wuthering Heights evolved from Emily Bronte's earlier work. Again, it helps to have familiarity with Emily Bronte's childhood writing.
We are told that this work encompassess "the intense and absorbing feelings of childhood and early adolescence." Also that there is a focus on lonely, imprisoned and emotional children.
Themes include: 1.Nature, 2.Infidelity, 3.Separation/Reunion, 4.Duality, 5.Literary (Shelley - Epipsychidion - Horace - Ars Poetica, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Sir Walter Scott), 6. Oral - 1798 Rebellion in Ireland, family/founding.
There are also some useful pointers on Emily Bronte's religious views: "Charlotte was in the ultimate a Christian, and could not accept the nihilistic side of Emily."
I would like to see what Edward Chitham has to say about Wuthering Heights in his book about that book.
October 26, 2018
the author had a theory that emily, at the bronte's first school, cowan bridge, somehow refused to help her older siblings at a time where they were being unjustly punished and that this punishment contributed to their tragic deaths soon after they left the school, and that emily subsequently carried guilt for her inaction her entire life. this is used as the reasoning behind any guilt emily may talk about in her writing, and this theory is repeated often throughout the book, and re-used in branwell's death as well (she apparently feels guilty for not stepping in and helping him). this was just kind of odd to me, especially since, when talking about the guilt charlotte would feel after emily's death, he talks about it being an unnecessary/undeserved guilt, when i don't believe he said emily's guilt was undeserved. and of course neither of them have anything to be feeling guilty about, but aren't they both (allegedly) feeling guilty about the same thing? so why is emily's implied to be deserved and charlottes not? especially since emily's inaction at their school happened when she was under 10 years old and had literally zero power to help her sisters, despite the author insisting that she could have stepped in to help since she was a favorite of the teachers. what was she supposed to do, fight the headmistress?? it just seemed like a bit of a leap.
other than that i have no real problems with the book. super informative!
other than that i have no real problems with the book. super informative!
April 2, 2024
As stated by the author, it is an investigative biography, as a result, there was a lot of speculations ongoing. An ambitious attempt to dive into the personality of a writer from which we found little factual data. Regardless, I would recommend this book, but I suggest the interested reader to be well acquainted with the works of Emily Brontë to fully grasp the author's analysis as it was not my case.
August 8, 2021
Best biography I have read on Emily Brontë, with its cautious approach. Very informative. I would recommend.
Read
September 18, 2021Dnf half way through. I love Emily Bronte but couldn't get on with this and of course a lot of it is speculation.
October 31, 2025
The reader must be very familiar with the Bronte's novels and poetry for this biography to have much meaning. Learnt very little about Emily. Mostly speculative.
August 30, 2008
I am fascinated by Emily Bronte. This is the latest of the biographies I have read about her (noting that the book itself was published in 1987).
Many will be familiar with the Bronte sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Many readers will know Emily Bronte as the author of ‘Wuthering Heights’: a novel which is probably loved and loathed in equal measure. Some of us also are familiar with Emily’s poetry. But of Emily herself we tend to know very little directly and this makes her fascinating to those of us who seek to try to understand how a young woman – barely 30 years old when she died) could create ‘Wuthering Heights’ and the contrasting natural worlds in her poetry.
In writing this biography (first published in 1987) Edward Chitham readily acknowledges that Emily sets the biographer a difficult task. In writing this book, Edward Chitham has undertaken an approach which he calls ‘investigative biography’. He moves from the known facts, through the aspects of the world that Emily must have seen by dint of her existence in time and place, to theories and their supporting bases of evidence. So, what do we learn from this book? In some ways, there are even more questions to explore but it seems unlikely now that we will ever obtain a complete and accurate picture of Emily Bronte. To me this seems entirely appropriate: Emily was secretive, inhabited a rich inner world and seemingly made limited concessions to the ‘real world’. In short, and to quote Mr Chitham: ‘[..]‘Wuthering Heights’ is in all ways consistent with Emily’s life as we know it, and in particular with her inner life, as that emerges before us in her rare oracular statements, and especially in her poetry.’
This book will be of interest to those seeking to gain additional insights into Emily. It includes a valuable select bibliography to which I would add the books published since (during the 1990s) by Juliet Barker.
Many will be familiar with the Bronte sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Many readers will know Emily Bronte as the author of ‘Wuthering Heights’: a novel which is probably loved and loathed in equal measure. Some of us also are familiar with Emily’s poetry. But of Emily herself we tend to know very little directly and this makes her fascinating to those of us who seek to try to understand how a young woman – barely 30 years old when she died) could create ‘Wuthering Heights’ and the contrasting natural worlds in her poetry.
In writing this biography (first published in 1987) Edward Chitham readily acknowledges that Emily sets the biographer a difficult task. In writing this book, Edward Chitham has undertaken an approach which he calls ‘investigative biography’. He moves from the known facts, through the aspects of the world that Emily must have seen by dint of her existence in time and place, to theories and their supporting bases of evidence. So, what do we learn from this book? In some ways, there are even more questions to explore but it seems unlikely now that we will ever obtain a complete and accurate picture of Emily Bronte. To me this seems entirely appropriate: Emily was secretive, inhabited a rich inner world and seemingly made limited concessions to the ‘real world’. In short, and to quote Mr Chitham: ‘[..]‘Wuthering Heights’ is in all ways consistent with Emily’s life as we know it, and in particular with her inner life, as that emerges before us in her rare oracular statements, and especially in her poetry.’
This book will be of interest to those seeking to gain additional insights into Emily. It includes a valuable select bibliography to which I would add the books published since (during the 1990s) by Juliet Barker.
September 25, 2011
Edward Chitham does Emily Bronte justice with this well researched, thoroughly thought-out description of the author's life. In it, I found the same impassioned, mercuriel woman who had enough dark intensity to write Wuthering Heights. I also came away with a better understanding of her sister Charlotte. Chitham still depicts the elder sister as one unable to understand Emily but the author shows, through painstaking examples that this inability was more a result of Emily's intense privacy (even with those who loved her) than Charlotte's purposeful intention to mislead.
The Bronte story has always been Charlotte's to tell and perhaps Emily wouldn't have had it any other way. In fact, most likely, she would have abhorred the idea that her story being told at all. I suppose she would rather the depths of her character be spoken through the characters she created. Emily Bronte seemed like a deep, tortured soul, one who was impacted deeply by the losses and difficulties she had endured in her childhood and who, as a result, grappled greatly with questions of human nature and spirituality. More than her sisters, she carried the burden of her genius, not knowing how she or her unbridled emotions fit into the world. FINISHED: 9-25-11.
The Bronte story has always been Charlotte's to tell and perhaps Emily wouldn't have had it any other way. In fact, most likely, she would have abhorred the idea that her story being told at all. I suppose she would rather the depths of her character be spoken through the characters she created. Emily Bronte seemed like a deep, tortured soul, one who was impacted deeply by the losses and difficulties she had endured in her childhood and who, as a result, grappled greatly with questions of human nature and spirituality. More than her sisters, she carried the burden of her genius, not knowing how she or her unbridled emotions fit into the world. FINISHED: 9-25-11.
October 16, 2010
This is a revised edition of an earlier book, but not having read the original, I can't say what the differences are. Chitham, a Bronte scholar, is very cautious in his approach and ultimately this reaps rewards. He builds a well-documented, credible picture of a subject about whose life relatively little is known and who has been much-mythologised. He contrasts Emily Bronte as a vivacious little girl with the withdrawn, but brilliant woman she became and left me with a fresh sense of sadness that her light went out so soon. Chitham's study of her only novel, The Birth of Wuthering Heights, would make an excellent companion to this biography.
September 5, 2016
I didn't think this work was very scholarly at all. Chitham sets out his stall to do a thorough investigation and, in my view, then descends into pure unsupported speculation. He uses the usual manuscript materials published and unpublished but I could not agree with his analyses. I don't recommend this book at all.
February 25, 2016
It was interesting to read a book dedicated solely to Emily, as the focus is usually on Charlotte. As an avid reader of all things to do with the Brontes it didn't tell me that much I didn't already know, but I don't think I had grasped that Emily was so anti-religion.
September 26, 2011
Journeys to Belgium. Her life and her books. Missing a little more of her life.
June 22, 2014
It stretches out quite a bit and in places I found it hard to keep on reading - but at the end I felt it had been definitely worth it and an insightful journey!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews