Happy 201st Emily!

Born this day in 1818, Emily would become the so-called Sphinx of English Literature. Despite - or because of - her silence about herself she may be the Brontë sibling to have changed more with the times and has been used to champion practically every cause. They even tried to get her own novel away from her!

We know precious little about Emily and that little usually has a mysterious air about it. Surely Emily was not conventional and not easily understood. Wuthering Heights proves that. When it comes to looking at Emily we not only study her from what we know about her but also by what we don't know: her Gondal prose written for many years - well into adulthood - along with Anne, her mysterious second novel, her imagination, her rambles on the moors, the reasons behind Wuthering Heights...

We humbly suggest that to celebrate her birthday you not only read her novel - or fragments of it - but also her poems, which are less well-known but in a way help us understand the mind that gave birth to such a powerful novel as Wuthering Heights and are a delight to read.

(Originally published in 2006)