Emily Bronte is perhaps the greatest writer of the three Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Emily Bronte published only one novel, Wuthering Heights, a story of passionate love and revenge. Her novel was published in 1847, only one year before her death. Bronte and lived a very quiet life, and spent most of her childhood reading. Her and her sisters made imaginary worlds to escape their unhappy childhoods.
Bronte's circumstances heavily influenced her writing. The character Hindley was modeled after her brother, Branwell, who gambled and drank away Bronte's money and ultimately died in despair. Bronte also suffered from many deaths in her family. Her mother died when she was young and her dad lacked parental qualities. Likewise, death and lack of parents are important aspects in Wuthering Heights. Also, Bronte suffered from homesickness whenever she was away from home. On one occasion, Charlotte sent Emily home because Charlotte believed she was slowly dying from homesickness. In a letter to a friend Charlotte wrote, "I felt in my heart she would die if she did not go home, and with this conviction obtained her recall." This experience is much like Catherine's desire to stay at the heights. .
Unlike Charlotte, Bronte had no close friends. Her closest friend was her older sister, Charlotte. Bronte was not outgoing and gave up many opportunities to come home. She was a governess at Law Hill, but only stayed six months. She went to Brussels to learn foreign languages and school management, but returned home the same year. When her Aunt died in 1842, she agreed to come home and take care of her father. .
Emily Bronte died of tuberculosis in the late 1848. After Emily's death Charlotte wrote a letter that relates Emily's life to Wuthering Heights:.
"Well - the loss is ours - not hers, and some sad comfort I take, as I hear the wind blow and feel the cutting keenness of the frost, in knowing that the elements bring her no more suffering - their severity cannot reach her grave - her fever is quieted, her restlessness soothed, her deep, hollow cough is hushed forever.
