Heroine: Emily Bronte & 'Wuthering Heights'

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Emily Bronte was born on July 30th 1818 at Thornton, Bradford in Yorkshire, the fifth child of the six children.

Her most celebrated and indeed only novel, Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell.


Illustration by Fritz Eichenberg for 1943 Random House edition.

For a clergyman's daughter, Emily harboured some curious views about life and death, and indeed the afterlife. The gothic workings of her mind are spilled out on the pages of Wuthering Heights. Her father, Patrick, encouraged his children's independent learning and even indulged Emily's refusal to attend Sunday services. Charlotte described her sister as 'a solitude-loving raven, no gentle dove'.

Wuthering Heights is a profound work of the imagination, brimming with 'wickedness' and 'villany'. Emily (although assumed to be a male) was described as an author 'who goes at once fearlessly into the moors and desolate places'. One critic advised that the book be burned.



Emily was most at home on the wild moors, much like a heroine from her own work. Her intense love for the Yorkshire landscape that surrounded her is reflected in Wuthering Heights. The sharp northern air, the springiness of the heather and the gloom of the desolate moors are all set out in such lush and graphic detail. Words were Emily's oils and the paper upon which she wrote her canvas. The gothic eeriness of Emily's descriptions of interiors and landscapes in Wuthering Heights conjure up associations with Plath's psychic landscapes. Emily was influenced by the metaphysical works of Lord Byron and Walter Scott, her own childhood experiences at boarding school, the death of her mother and siblings. The macabre and unnatural excited her ghoulish imagination.


Still of the Wuthering Heights from 2009's Wuthering Heights adaption.

For you see, Wuthering Heights is no mere romance gone sour, it's the story of more than one woman's life, the characters are tangled in an emotional and ultimately destructive web their author has created for them and for herself. It poses moral questions; questions the existence of God and an afterlife, it struggles to find the boundaries between obsession and love, ideals of masculinity and femininity are Emily's dark creativity is all encompassing, perhaps exacerbated by her own seclusion from the world outside her own immediate physical and emotional world.


Wuthering Heights, 1970.


Wuthering Heights, 1992.
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The lives of the Bronte's was an ill-fated one, two sisters died in their childhood (1825) and the only brother Branwell's dependence on drink and opium heightened his sense of self pity and worthlessness. Emily passed away in December 1848, aged thirty years old. Branwell had died three months beforehand of consumption, at thirty-one. Anne died the next year, aged twenty-nine and Charlotte followed her sisters six years later in March 1855. Patrick Bronte outlived all his children, he died at Haworth in 1861, aged eighty-four.



I've found people either love it or hate it, and isn't it great that Emily was able to rouse such opposing emotions in her readers?! Of course I'm the former! This book is a rebel yell against the feminine constraints of Victorian society. Sexual frustration, violence, resentment, human frailty, suffering and mortality all come into cruel play in this ultimate gothic 'romance'. (If you like your romance ultimately destructive and leaving you feel distressed that is). I like to feel that Emily built a little of herself into Heathcliff, it was how she could masquerade in male form and give the (intellectual) finger to the patriarchy by making him as brutal as possible.

"I'm wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there; not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart; but really with it, and in it." (Wuthering Heights, 1847, Emily Bronte).

Further reading:
BrontëBlog
Bronte Sisters, Haworth
Emily Bronte, Poet of Solitude
Wuthering Heights community


Wuthering Heights, 2009.

Film/tv adaptions:
Wuthering Heights, 1939
Abismos de pasión, 1954
Wuthering Heights, 1970
Wuthering Heights (TV), 1978
Hurlevent, 1985
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, 1992
Wuthering Heights (TV), 1998
Sparkhouse (TV), 2002
Cime tempestose (TV), 2004
Wuthering Heights (TV), 2009
Wuthering Heights, 2011


Wuthering Heights, 1992.
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I wrote this to celebrate my heroine Emily Bronte, on International Women's Day 2011.

At Home with the Georgians

My friend Hannah alerted me to this, we're both a pair of decorative art/domestic interior boffins, so naturally we got excited over this.


Look at that sassy historian!



The BBC is airing three-part series based on Amanda Vickery's book Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England, a fascinating, juicy nugget of a book I urge you to read. It's a through the keyhole exploration of Georgian society, 'behind closed doors'. Your home was a stage, where your taste and respectability was on display to your visitors. Day to day life was an acting out of 'polite society', taking tea with your visitors was a formal practice, an opportunity to show off your new hat straight from Paris, as well as your impeccable taste in domestic furnishings. Her book is compelling and a vivacious read as she discusses relations between man and wife, wife and her guests, the women's role in the home, the life of maids, lodgers, etc. Herein began the rise of consumer culture. "Sex, scandal and soft furnishings" as the BBC calls it.

I'll give you a brief and by no means comprehensive background on this period (you'll have to watch the series or read the book, for the 'tell all' reveal on the workings of Georgian society!)
The popular English portrait artist, Arthur Devis (1712–1787), painted a number of wealthy patrons in their tasteful and up-to-date Georgian interiors, notice how the domestic objects are as central to the portrait as the two figures. These paintings were to demonstrate the fashionability and taste of the patrons.


Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bull, c. 1750, Arthur Devis
The prominent persian carpet tells us that this couple is wealthy enough to afford luxurious imported carpets and also note the tea table, probably made from imported mahogany, also a luxury item and the (probably) porcelain set out on the mantelpiece, in full view for the viewer and the visitor. The practice of taking tea (with visitors) was central to the notion of sociability and polite society at this time and also a reminder of the persons wealth (tea at this time was very much a luxury item).


Mr and Mrs Atherton, c. 1740s, Arthur Devis


The TV series is called At Home with the Georgians and Vickery herself, I'm pleased to say, will be presenting the series. It follows on after the success of her BBC4 radio series 'A History of Private Life', that aired last autumn, but alas I did not have the opportunity to listen to it, if anyone could point me in the direction of where to find it I would be most obliged.

The TV series begins tomorrow night on BBC2 at 9pm GMT, I myself will be frantically finishing essays, so will catch up on iplayer next week.


The Dinner-Locust or the Advantages of a Keen Scent 1826, printed etching and aquatint. Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington.



Some other related articles that might be of interest -
Making a Reading Table on Pegs and 'Tails
The book 'Behind Closed Doors' on Austen only

And with that I have to promise myself not to procrastinate for the rest of the day so I can get this essay finished and out of my way! Enjoy!

Downton Abbey (2010)

I have a slight* infatuation with period dramas. Not merely of the Austen heaving-bosom-and-tight-jodphurs kind mind you. Downton Abbey is ITV's latest period offering that I've been following weekly and you should start.



Downton Abbey chronicles the Upstairs/Downstairs life in an English country house. Unlike Gosford Park it is set in the Edwardian era, beginning in 1912. It explores the complicated politics that take place within the running of a country house of its time, barriers are crossed, there's inter-marriage (American money is married into English nobility) bonds are formed, within the fictional noble Crawley household. There's romances to root for, plots to intrigue and characters to despise!

Of course the last episode was this sunday, November 7th. But never fear, they'll be filming a second series next Spring. Which does mean that I will have to involve myself in a number of other costume dramas to entertain myself until next Autumn! The last episode did end on an important note, it will be interesting to see how the impact this event had on Edwardian society will be interpreted.

In the meantime I will entice you with some pictures of Julian Fellowe's glorious series. Photo credit here.











The Edwardian dresses are divine! The lace, the colours, draping, textures, details and collars! And oh my word, the hats!

I love the languorous atmosphere of these publicity shots, they don't feel staged.

Apparently this is ITV's most successful costume drama since Brideshead Revisited.

*may be an understatement...

Mad Men

I know a lot of bloggers are anxious for July 25th, the premiere of season four of Mad Men. It's annoying being stuck in between series, I'm used to watching a series right through instead of tapping my fingers waiting week by week. I don't think I could get into another series, what are you guys watching? I'm watching True Blood week by week.

Anyway, whilst impatiently awaiting the return of Mad Men, I've had to amuse myself in some ways, so jib jab provided some amusement. G'wan have a laugh at my expense!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

And of course after spending hours reading Tom & Lorenzo's costume analysis' of the shows, I had to style myself as a Mad Woman/Minx?


Lastly, this promo poster makes me all giddy and excited.

First impressions - there's definite change of tone in Betty's wardrobe, she's no longer the naive housewife in 50s day dresses, but more assertive, more progressive in her fashion tastes. As for Peggy - woah! That 1950s catholic schoolgirl wardrobe and attitude is certainly dead and gone!

PS. Also - isn't Peggy's hair getting big? It says a lot about her new status and the bigger her hair gets, the more ambitious she's becoming. And that well cut suit, not a peter pan collar or ridiculous bow in sight! She's becoming more masculinized and one of the boys. Go Peggy!