Happy 190th, Emily!

Emily Jane Brontë, the only Brontë child to have a middle name, was born 190 years ago today. Her 190th year sees the first all-Emily exhibition ever at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, No Coward Soul, now featuring her famous and intriguing portrait by Branwell and her also famous Gondal Poems manuscript. If you are in the area, and even if you have been there already, we can't think of a better way to celebrate her birthday today, perhaps followed by a trek on the moor afterwards and a few chapters of Wuthering Heights or a few poems too.

If you are not in the area, BBC News posted a short video on the exhibition and BBC Radio 7 recently broadcast an excellent dramatisation called Gondal, which you cans till listen to. And there area good many other ways to celebrate Emily's life even if you are not close to her home.

And we are soon to watch new screen (and opera, and ballet, and musical, and videogames, you-name-it...) adaptations ( of her only novel.

All this to say that 190 down the line she still appeals to the new generations and her life and works are a source of inspiration, for the academic world and popular culture alike. Whether the so-called 'sphinx of English literature' would have liked all this attention or not is as intriguing as she herself was, but it is perfectly welcome as far as we are concerned. Happy birthday, Emily.

Categories: Emily Brontë, Reminder