Introduction

W uthering Heights is the only novel by Emily Brontë,

considered one of the finest writers of the nineteenth
century. A haunting story of love and revenge, it takes place
at Wuthering Heights, a house on the wild and beautiful
Yorkshire moors. (The word ‘wuthering’ refers to violent
winds on the moors.)
Heathcliff begins his life as a homeless orphan, taken to
Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw to live with his children,
Catherine and Hindley. The fiercely passionate Catherine
and Heathcliff fall in love with each other, but their
relationship is dark and stormy, like the moors.
Wuthering Heights was published in December 1847
under the pen-name Ellis Bell. Richly imaginative and
intensely emotional, it was noted for its unusual structure
but received mixed reviews. About a year after Emily
Brontë’s death in 1848, her sister Charlotte (author of Jane
Eyre) revealed the truth of the novel’s authorship. The novel
later came to be considered a classic. It has been filmed
several times.

About Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was an English writer best
remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, first
published under the pen-name Ellis Bell. Not much is known
directly of her; almost everything that is known about her
comes from the writings of others, especially her sister
Charlotte (who later wrote Jane Eyre).
Emily was born in Yorkshire, northern England, into a
clergyman’s family. She was the younger sister of Charlotte
Brontë and the fifth of six children. The family lived in
Howarth, a West Yorkshire village in the middle of the
moors. After their mother died in 1821, four of the sisters
 Introduction vii

were sent to a boarding school, where living conditions were

so bad that two of them died. After that, the remaining
children stayed at home and educated themselves by reading
widely.
To escape their unhappy childhood, they wrote stories,
plays and poems to amuse themselves. Their daily
environment—the wild, remote moors that Emily loved—
became the setting of Wuthering Heights.
Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was published in 1847 (also under a
pen-name) and became an immediate success. Emily’s
Wuthering Heights, with its complex story and descriptions
of passionate love and cruelty, appeared the same year and
received mixed reviews, though today it has become a classic
of English writing.
Emily died of tuberculosis in 1848, having caught a cold
at her brother’s funeral.
 1
The Earnshaws of
Wuthering Heights
Heathcliff’s arrival

B efore I came to live here at Thrushcross Grange, I, Ellen

Dean, was nearly always at Wuthering Heights. My
mother was employed there as a children’s nurse, and I was
allowed to play with the two children, Hindley and 5
Catherine. I liked to do small jobs, too, and waited around the
farm, ready for anything that anybody would give me to do.
One fine summer morning at the beginning of the harvest,
in 1771 I think it was, Mr Earnshaw, the old master, came
downstairs dressed for a journey. First he told Joseph, the 10
servant, what was to be done during the day. Then he turned
to Hindley and Catherine. Speaking to his son, he said, ‘Now,
my young man, I’m going to Liverpool today. What shall I
bring back for you? You may choose what you like, but it
must be small, for I shall walk there and back. It’s sixty miles 15
each way, and that’s a long distance.’
Hindley chose a toy violin. Then the master asked Miss
Catherine. She was not quite six years old, but she could ride
any horse in the stable, and so she chose a whip. He did not
forget me, for, although he was rather strict sometimes, he 20
had a kind heart. He promised to bring me some apples and
pears. Then he said goodbye to his wife, kissed his children
and set off.
It seemed a long time to us all—the three days that he was
away. Little Catherine often asked when her father would be 25
home.
Mrs Earnshaw expected her husband by supper time on
the third evening. Although we ate our meal late, there was
no sign of him coming. The children asked if they could stay
up and wait for him. Then, at last, at about eleven o’clock, 30
the door opened quietly and the master stepped in. He threw
himself into a chair. He looked happy, and glad to be home,