Emily Brontë Books in Order: Complete Reading Guide

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) died at thirty of tuberculosis, having published one novel and a handful of poems. That novel — Wuthering Heights — is among the half-dozen most important in the English language.

Emily Brontë’s Published Works

1. Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell — 1846

A self-published collection of poems by the three Brontë sisters, published under their male pseudonyms. Emily’s contributions are now recognised as among the finest lyric poems in English — particularly “No coward soul is mine” and “Cold in the earth.” Sold two copies on publication.

2. Wuthering Heights — 1847

Her only novel. Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, the foundling her father brought home from Liverpool, are bound together by an obsession that destroys everyone around them across two generations. Narrated indirectly through a frame story, set on the Yorkshire moors in weather that is never simply weather.

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What to Read After Wuthering Heights

The other Brontës: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) were published alongside or just after Wuthering Heights and give the context of what three sisters were simultaneously producing in the same house. Anne’s novel is the most underrated of the three.

Hardy’s moorland novels: The Return of the Native and Far from the Madding Crowd share the elemental landscape of Wuthering Heights — the natural world as active participant in human fate.

Contemporary reworkings: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys rewrites Jane Eyre from the perspective of the first Mrs. Rochester. Nothing directly rewrites Wuthering Heights as successfully, but Nelly Dean by Alison Case (2019) retells the story from the housekeeper’s point of view.

A Single, Immortal Novel

Emily Brontë holds a unique place in English literature as the author of a single novel, Wuthering Heights, a work of such extraordinary power and originality that it has secured her immortality on the strength of one book. Brontë published only one novel in her short life, but that novel, Wuthering Heights, is a work of such singular intensity, originality, and power that it has become one of the most celebrated and enduring works in English literature, securing its author a permanent and exalted place in the canon. That a writer should achieve such immortality on the strength of a single novel is remarkable, a testament to the extraordinary power and originality of Wuthering Heights, which stands as one of the most distinctive and unforgettable works in the language. Brontë, who wrote under a pen name and who died young, left behind this one novel, and it has proven more than enough to secure her a place among the immortals of English literature. The singular power of Wuthering Heights, its intensity, originality, and unforgettable force, has made it one of the most celebrated novels in the language, and it stands as the sole but immortal achievement of its author. For readers, Wuthering Heights is Brontë’s single, immortal novel, a work of extraordinary power and originality that has secured her place among the greatest writers in English. A single, immortal novel is Emily Brontë’s legacy, for she published only Wuthering Heights in her short life, but that one novel, of such extraordinary power and originality, has secured her a permanent and exalted place in English literature.

A Vision of Passion and the Moors

The extraordinary power of Wuthering Heights derives from its vision of overwhelming passion set against the wild landscape of the Yorkshire moors, a vision of elemental intensity that has no real parallel in English fiction. The novel is animated by a vision of passion so intense, elemental, and overwhelming as to transcend the ordinary bounds of human feeling, a passion that is wild, destructive, and almost supernatural in its force, and this vision of overwhelming passion is at the heart of the novel’s singular power. This elemental passion is set against, and seems to arise from, the wild landscape of the Yorkshire moors, which Brontë renders with a power and intimacy that make the landscape itself a presence in the novel, an embodiment of the wild, elemental forces that drive its characters and their passions. The fusion of overwhelming passion and wild landscape, of human feeling raised to an elemental intensity and the wild moors that mirror and embody it, gives Wuthering Heights its singular and unforgettable power, a vision of passion and landscape that has no real parallel in English fiction. The novel’s depiction of a love and a hatred so intense as to transcend death itself, set against the wild and elemental landscape of the moors, is among the most powerful and original visions in English literature. For readers, the vision of passion and the moors is the source of the novel’s extraordinary and unforgettable power, the elemental intensity of feeling and landscape that has no parallel in English fiction. A vision of passion and the moors gives Wuthering Heights its extraordinary power, the fusion of overwhelming, elemental passion with the wild landscape of the Yorkshire moors, a vision of intensity that has no real parallel in English fiction and that has made the novel one of the most unforgettable in the language.

The Enigma of Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë remains one of the most enigmatic figures in English literature, a writer of intense privacy and reserve about whom relatively little is known, and whose single, powerful novel seems to have emerged from a mysterious and solitary genius. Brontë was intensely private and reserved, leaving behind little record of her inner life and thoughts, and she remains an enigmatic figure, her personality and the sources of her genius largely a mystery. That such a powerful and original novel as Wuthering Heights should have come from this private, reserved woman, who lived a quiet and largely isolated life, has only deepened the fascination and mystery surrounding her. The contrast between the wild, passionate intensity of her novel and the quiet, secluded life of its author is striking, and it has made Emily Brontë a figure of enduring fascination and speculation, her solitary genius and the sources of her extraordinary novel remaining largely enigmatic. Her early death, which came not long after the publication of her novel, only added to the sense of a mysterious and solitary genius whose single great work emerged from depths that remain hidden. This enigma of Emily Brontë, the mystery of the private, reserved woman who produced one of the most powerful and original novels in English, is part of her enduring fascination. For readers, the enigma of Emily Brontë adds to the fascination of her single, powerful novel, the mystery of the solitary genius from whom it emerged. The enigma of Emily Brontë is part of her enduring fascination, for she remains one of the most mysterious figures in English literature, an intensely private and reserved woman about whom little is known, and whose single, powerful novel seems to have emerged from a solitary and enigmatic genius.

Emily Brontë and the Critics

Wuthering Heights was poorly received on publication — it was considered too violent and morally incoherent. Charlotte, in her preface to the 1850 edition, felt obliged to explain and somewhat apologise for her sister’s work. The novel’s rehabilitation to its current canonical status took most of the twentieth century and is one of the great reversals in literary criticism.

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