Emily Jane Bronte was the most solitary member of a unique,
tightly-knit, English provincial family. Born in 1818, she shared
the parsonage of the town of Haworth, Yorkshire, with her older
sister, Charlotte, her brother, Branwell, her younger sister, Anne,
and her father, The Reverend Patrick Bronte. All five were poets
and writers; all but Branwell would publish at least one book.
Fantasy was the Bronte children's one relief from the rigors of
religion and the bleakness of life in an impoverished region. They
invented a series of imaginary kingdoms and constructed a whole
library of journals, stories, poems, and plays around their
inhabitants. Emily's special province was a kingdom she called
Gondal, whose romantic heroes and exiles owed much to the poems of
Byron.
Brief stays at several boarding schools were the sum of her
experiences outside Haworth until 1842, when she entered a school
in Brussels with her sister Charlotte. After a year of study and
teaching there, they felt qualified to announce the opening of a
school in their own home, but could not attract a single pupil.
In 1845 Charlotte Bronte came across a manuscript volume of her
sister's poems. She knew at once, she later wrote, that they were
"not at all like poetry women generally write...they had a peculiar
music-wild, melancholy, and elevating." At her sister's urging,
Emily's poems, along with Anne's and Charlotte's, were published
pseudonymously in 1846. An almost complete silence greeted this
volume, but the three sisters, buoyed by the fact of publication,
immediately began to write novels. Emily's effort was Wuthering
Heights; appearing in 1847 it was treated at first as a lesser work
by Charlotte, whose Jane Eyre had already been published to great
acclaim. Emily Bronte's name did not emerge from behind her
pseudonym of Ellis Bell until the second edition of her novel
appeared in 1850.
In the meantime, tragedy had struck the Bronte family. In September
of 1848 Branwell had succumbed to a life of dissipation. By
December, after a brief illness, Emily too was dead; her sister
Anne would die the next year. Wuthering Heights, Emily's only
novel, was just beginning to be understood as the wild and singular
work of genius that it is. "Stronger than a man," wrote Charlotte,
"Simpler than a child, her nature stood alone."
"It is as if Emily Brontë could tear up all that we know human
beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a
gust of life that they
transcend reality."
--Virginia Woolf
"It is as if Emily Bronte could tear up all that we know human
beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a
gust of life that they
transcend reality."
--Virginia Woolf
This splendid remake of Emily Bronte's novel shows it's possible to create a new version of a beloved classic that, while different from its predecessor, is equally compelling. Film buffs might think no one can come close to Laurence Olivier's masterful portrayal of Heathcliff, Bronte's brooding antihero. But they and audiences new to the story on film will be thrilled by Tom Hardy's brilliant interpretation as well as equally fine performances from the other talented cast members. The tale of the mysterious gypsy boy adopted by the Earnshaws, his abuse by his adoptive brother, Hindley (Burn Gorman), his profound love for his adoptive sister, Cathy (Charlotte Riley), and the revenge he wreaks on his tormentors unfolds amid beautifully filmed landscapes of the English moors. Even familiarity with the story won't detract from the film's dramatic impact. This entertaining and very reasonably priced program is highly recommended for all fans of literature and classic film.-Sheila S. Intner, Prof. Emerita, Simmons GSLIS at Mount Holyoke Coll., South Hadley, MA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
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