Bronte Tours & Travel. England's finest small group travel in England

A potrait of Emily Bronte

The three Brontë sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, left a legacy of some of the finest literature in the English language.

On our Turner's Lune Valley vacation you'll have chance to visit places with Brontë connections undiscovered by many, whereas our Yorkshire's Heritage tour takes you over the "Wuthering Heights" moors, passing Haworth and many places of interest to lovers of the three Brontë sisters literary works.

"No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
"No coward soul is mine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear."

Emily Jane Bronte was born on July 30, 1818, the fifth child of Reverend Patrick Brontë and Maria Brontë. In 1820, and the family moved to the parsonage at Haworth, Emily's home for much of her life. Her mother died of cancer in 1821 and Emily's aunt, Elizabeth Branwell came to Haworth to help raise the children. The children came to love the beauty of Haworth and the wild surrounding moors of West Yorkshire.

AIn 1824, Patrick sent the four oldest girls to Cowan Bridge School, a school for the education of daughters of the clergy. Maria and Elizabeth developed illnesses which eventually cost them their lives. Charlotte, who also became ill, and Emily were brought home.

During their childhood, the three sisters created imaginary worlds, Gondal and Angria - some say inspired by Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". Others claim that a box of toy soldiers given to Branwell, Emily's brother, in 1826 by his father, became the basis for the Brontes' early writing.

The children took art lessons around 1834 and several of their works survive, for example, Branwell's portrait of Emily, seen above. Apart from a couple of brief spells, to Emily remained in Haworth for most of the remainder of her life. In 1835, Emily went with Charlotte to a young ladies' school near Roe Head but soon developed severe homesickness and returned to Haworth. Later, in 1837, Emily went to teach in Halifax at Law Hill for six months. She also accompanied Charlotte to school in Brussels in 1842 to learn languages and school management, in order to fulfill their plan of running a school. Emily, however, returned home later that year.

The publication of her only novel, 'Wuthering Heights' under the pseudonym of 'Ellis Bell' in 1847 aroused great literary interest. She died the year after it was published, on 19th December, 1848. At the time her work was not well received, however today she has a reputation every bit as significant as her more prolific sisters, on the strength of her vivid descriptions, characterizations, and her ability to portray the complexities of human emotions to the ordinary reader. That is not to mention her amazing representation of the wilderness and splendor of the Yorkshire moors.

Emily caught tuberculosis after attending her brother's funeral in September of 1848. She died on December 19, 1848, at the age of thirty. After the appeareance of Wuthering Heighs some sceptics maintained that the book was written by Branwell, on the grounds that no woman from such circumscribed life, could have written such passionate story.

"From accounts by those who knew Emily Jane Bronte, there emerges a consistent portrait of a reserved, courageous woman with a commanding will and manner. In the biographical note to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Bronte attributes to her sister 'a secret power and fire that might have informed the brain and kindled the veins of a hero', while Monsignor Heger, who taught her in Brussels, was impressed by her 'powerful reason' and 'strong, imperious will'.

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