Emily Brontë Reappraised

Revised edition of this biography with a twist about Emily Brontë, the subject of major 2022 film Emily starring Emma Mackey. Brontë scholar Claire O'Callaghan conjures a new image of Emily Brontë and rehabilitates her reputation by exploring the themes of her life and work. We discover that Emily was a thoroughly modern woman. Emily Brontë occupies a special place in the English literary canon. And rightly so: the incomparable Wuthering Heights is a novel that has bewitched us for almost 200 years, and the character of Heathcliff is, perhaps, the ultimate romantic hero—and villain. But Emily herself remains an enigmatic figure, often portrayed as awkward, as a misanthrope, as no normal being. That's the conventional wisdom on Emily as a person, but is it accurate? Is it fair? It's time for the real Emily Brontë to please stand up.