Emily Bronte

This lucid and perceptive study subjects the Emily Brontë myth to radical scrutiny, questioning the validity of memorabilia and eye-witness accounts. Contrasting her art with the daguerreotype realism coming into vogue in the 1840’s, Stevie Davies reads Emily Brontë’s life in terms of her own image of landmarks buried or half-buried beneath drifting snow which disguises or betrays underlying realities. A radical reading of Wuthering Heights explores it as a poet’s and musician’s novel, which can be ‘scored’ as in opera or the piano transcriptions of symphonies, which Emily Brontë possessed and played. Close study of her sheet music; her germinal Brussels essays; books and journals in her possession; and translations into European languages will demonstrate the phenomenal intellectual range, originality and acuity of an author who can be regarded as a European.