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All Alone: The Life and Private History of Emily Jane Brontë
Emily Brontë was one of six Bronte children born in quick succession. Famous for the novel Wuthering Heights she, and her sisters, are major figures of English Literature.
Biographer Rowan Wilson, a Yorkshire woman herself, presents a hypothesis of Emily’s life based on the poems and fiction she wrote.
One theory presented is of Emily being shut up in a room, most likely the room her mother died in … potentially a haunted room, by her Aunt Branwell.
It is thought that Emily may have had a fit at this point. This would explain the recurring theme of prison seen in many of Emily’s poems. Charlotte may also have recalled this scene later in her novel, Jane Eyre.
Emily was a strong-willed individual. She was happy alone and spent a good amount of time with her siblings on the bleak moors that surrounded their home in Haworth. Isolated, she relied on her siblings for companionship.
Patrick Brontë was thought to have had a temper. It is believed he was hard on his wife, who died early on from cancer. As Maria struggled with her battle against cancer, the six children were increasingly left to themselves.
Growing up on the moors, it is believed Branwell (Emily’s only brother) and Emily became quite wild, naughty and reckless. Emily, high-spirited as she was, loved the wild free life and would not suffer repression. However, she believed she was the ‘unwanted child’. Although thoughts of being orphans were shown by her other siblings in their work.
Patrick’s reaction to Emily’s wild behaviour may have seeded this deep thought of being unwanted and a few of her poems point towards this thought process. Of the four remaining children, Emily was the one who was thought to have been suppressed, the one who dedicated a significant amount of time to household chores.
Charlotte believed Emily to be shy and easily embarrassed. However, this was thought to be Emily’s way of portraying her internal agony. There is not much about Emily as she was quite a private person. Charlotte’s discovery of Emily’s poems, both before and after her death were considered a highly valuable find and led to their first publication.
Romer Wilson’s All Alone is a classic biography of this famous author.
Rowan Wilson (born Florence Roma Muir Wilson; 1891 – 1930) grew up in Yorkshire and spent her childhood on the moors. She started her first novel during the war. Her novels contain a philosophical trend surrounding major concerns of her time. She is also the author or Green Magic (1928), The Hill of Cloves (1929) and Red Magic (1930).
Biographer Rowan Wilson, a Yorkshire woman herself, presents a hypothesis of Emily’s life based on the poems and fiction she wrote.
One theory presented is of Emily being shut up in a room, most likely the room her mother died in … potentially a haunted room, by her Aunt Branwell.
It is thought that Emily may have had a fit at this point. This would explain the recurring theme of prison seen in many of Emily’s poems. Charlotte may also have recalled this scene later in her novel, Jane Eyre.
Emily was a strong-willed individual. She was happy alone and spent a good amount of time with her siblings on the bleak moors that surrounded their home in Haworth. Isolated, she relied on her siblings for companionship.
Patrick Brontë was thought to have had a temper. It is believed he was hard on his wife, who died early on from cancer. As Maria struggled with her battle against cancer, the six children were increasingly left to themselves.
Growing up on the moors, it is believed Branwell (Emily’s only brother) and Emily became quite wild, naughty and reckless. Emily, high-spirited as she was, loved the wild free life and would not suffer repression. However, she believed she was the ‘unwanted child’. Although thoughts of being orphans were shown by her other siblings in their work.
Patrick’s reaction to Emily’s wild behaviour may have seeded this deep thought of being unwanted and a few of her poems point towards this thought process. Of the four remaining children, Emily was the one who was thought to have been suppressed, the one who dedicated a significant amount of time to household chores.
Charlotte believed Emily to be shy and easily embarrassed. However, this was thought to be Emily’s way of portraying her internal agony. There is not much about Emily as she was quite a private person. Charlotte’s discovery of Emily’s poems, both before and after her death were considered a highly valuable find and led to their first publication.
Romer Wilson’s All Alone is a classic biography of this famous author.
Rowan Wilson (born Florence Roma Muir Wilson; 1891 – 1930) grew up in Yorkshire and spent her childhood on the moors. She started her first novel during the war. Her novels contain a philosophical trend surrounding major concerns of her time. She is also the author or Green Magic (1928), The Hill of Cloves (1929) and Red Magic (1930).
- GenresBiography
243 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1928
About the author
Romer Wilson
29 books2 followersDuring a brief writing career (almost entirely limited to the 1920s) Romer Wilson wrote produced novels, two novellas, a play, a biography, and a posthumously published collection of short stories. She compiled and edited three volumes of fairy tales from around the world. Her novels, highly philosophical and sometimes lyrically overblown, treat the existential and epistemological dilemmas facing postwar Europe. Many of her protagonists are artists or philosophers struggling to achieve or understand perfection in a world riven with suffering and imperfection. She often explores the impact of love and the effects on society of war or of mechanisation, in fiction which suggests a longing for a pre-industrial pastoral past. (From: http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/s... )
From Virginia Woolf's letter to Sydney Waterlow (number 1176), May 23, 1921: "I am reading Miss Romer Wilson's new novel [The Death of Society], which Jack Squire says is the greatest work of genius ever written by a woman (or words to that effect). Naturally one doesn't like that. And I am hopeless at judging novels. I keep thinking that I should write them better."
Romer Wilson's The Death of Society won the Hawthornden Prize in 1921.
Born: 26 December 1891 Florence Roma Muir Wilson
Died: 11 January 1930 RW died of tuberculosis at Lausanne in Switzerland
From Virginia Woolf's letter to Sydney Waterlow (number 1176), May 23, 1921: "I am reading Miss Romer Wilson's new novel [The Death of Society], which Jack Squire says is the greatest work of genius ever written by a woman (or words to that effect). Naturally one doesn't like that. And I am hopeless at judging novels. I keep thinking that I should write them better."
Romer Wilson's The Death of Society won the Hawthornden Prize in 1921.
Born: 26 December 1891 Florence Roma Muir Wilson
Died: 11 January 1930 RW died of tuberculosis at Lausanne in Switzerland
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 16, 2015
From the opening paragraphs this is clearly not a typical biography. A very evocative turn of phrase conjuring up a distinctive mental image of the scenery with its pink beads of heather buds, sets the scene very effectively and illustrates the author's affinity with the landscape. Some good insights into how Patrick's character was formed partly in response to everything he lost in leaving Thornton are thoughtfully offered.
The whole book uses Emily's poetry to illustrate her character leading to some speculative claims such as a rejection at four years old which led to her believing she had always been unloved, a dangerous leap from fiction. It leads also to the chapter called The Fit alleging that aunt Branwell probably imprisoned a rebellious Emily in the room where her mother had died and in a fit Emily imagined her mother return to comfort her. The author supports this with the red room scene from Jane Eyre dubiously alleging Charlotte was incapable of such imaginative creation.
The alleged sense of imprisonment based on Emily's poems leads to an interpretation of jealousy of Branwell and frustration at the restrictions of her female life even as a child.
The author shares a great passion and identifies with the wild moorland in empathy with Emily's great love of the same moors.
Some conclusions feel overly sweeping; on the flimsy basis of Shirley's feelings about Cowper and Rousseau the author states Emily shared those feelings. Sadly so very little is known about Emily except through her poems and novel there is a fascination in this sometimes plausible and intriguing speculation. This takes on a particularly disturbing possibility in relation to the "evidence" gathered to support the theory Emily experienced some form of horror or of traumatic betrayal which led to her fascination with the dark hero and such deep anger and feelings of imprisonment in 1838. Some conclusions, such as Branwell not being the model for Heathcliff are well argued on clear date based evidence.
Inevitably Charlotte's life is discussed in some detail and as a character she suffers as merely talented in comparison with Emily's genius.
The author has invested a great deal of thought and close study of Emily's work to produce a deeply moving story. The complete lasting effect of reading this is of fascination and sadness but it is impossible to leave off reading even though so much is already known about the Brontes.
The whole book uses Emily's poetry to illustrate her character leading to some speculative claims such as a rejection at four years old which led to her believing she had always been unloved, a dangerous leap from fiction. It leads also to the chapter called The Fit alleging that aunt Branwell probably imprisoned a rebellious Emily in the room where her mother had died and in a fit Emily imagined her mother return to comfort her. The author supports this with the red room scene from Jane Eyre dubiously alleging Charlotte was incapable of such imaginative creation.
The alleged sense of imprisonment based on Emily's poems leads to an interpretation of jealousy of Branwell and frustration at the restrictions of her female life even as a child.
The author shares a great passion and identifies with the wild moorland in empathy with Emily's great love of the same moors.
Some conclusions feel overly sweeping; on the flimsy basis of Shirley's feelings about Cowper and Rousseau the author states Emily shared those feelings. Sadly so very little is known about Emily except through her poems and novel there is a fascination in this sometimes plausible and intriguing speculation. This takes on a particularly disturbing possibility in relation to the "evidence" gathered to support the theory Emily experienced some form of horror or of traumatic betrayal which led to her fascination with the dark hero and such deep anger and feelings of imprisonment in 1838. Some conclusions, such as Branwell not being the model for Heathcliff are well argued on clear date based evidence.
Inevitably Charlotte's life is discussed in some detail and as a character she suffers as merely talented in comparison with Emily's genius.
The author has invested a great deal of thought and close study of Emily's work to produce a deeply moving story. The complete lasting effect of reading this is of fascination and sadness but it is impossible to leave off reading even though so much is already known about the Brontes.
April 23, 2009
Romer Wilson introduces some ideas that I've not seen in my other research of Emily, but quite a bit of it requires a leap of faith...quite a bit of speculation, as it were.
He makes some compelling arguments with well-constructed prose.
I was disappointed in the vanity-press presentation. It takes away from the legitimacy of the information. If his research is valid, why the cut-rate publishing? Very odd.
I don't know if I would recommend this book or not. To a serious scholar who could weigh the information and theories inside, yes, pick it up and handle with care. To the casual reader looking for information on the Brontes, there are some great sources I can point you to in other realms.
He makes some compelling arguments with well-constructed prose.
I was disappointed in the vanity-press presentation. It takes away from the legitimacy of the information. If his research is valid, why the cut-rate publishing? Very odd.
I don't know if I would recommend this book or not. To a serious scholar who could weigh the information and theories inside, yes, pick it up and handle with care. To the casual reader looking for information on the Brontes, there are some great sources I can point you to in other realms.
January 28, 2018
Much of this builds on suppositions from Charlotte Bronte’s letters, since Emily’s personal writing seems to be so scant. Nevertheless, through analysis of the Bronte family history, there is a great deal of insight and a vivid picture starts to form of Emily physically and spiritually. Wilson’s style is also engaging and includes analysis of Emily’s poetry which is sometimes overlooked. Well worth it.
December 9, 2015
Biography based mostly on assumptions about Emily's poems. Interesting psychological theories about Emily as can be expected from a book written in the era when psychology was fashionable. It traces the development of Heathcliff as Emily's "Dark Hero".
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews