"Cliff Notes - Wuthering Heights" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

EMILY BRONTE: THE AUTHOR AND HER TIMES

A graveyard nearly encircled the Haworth parsonage, where
Emily Bronte lived for most of her thirty years. Emily's mother
died in that parsonage in 1821, when the girl was three. Two
years later, Emily and her three older sisters were sent to
boarding school, where two of them, Maria and Elizabeth,
succumbed to typhus and died. Other than such bare, depressing
facts as these, we know very little about Emily Bronte's life.

Jumping from the life of any writer into his or her work is
risky, but usually there is something to narrow the gap just a
bit: letters, diaries, or confidences to friends. There is
almost nothing like that of Emily's, so you have few clues as to
how she felt about any of these facts. In part this is because
Haworth is in Yorkshire, in northern England, far from the
cultural circles of London. But even by the standards of a
quiet country town, Emily was reclusive. The other surviving
children--Charlotte, Branwell, and Anne--at least talked to
other people. And since Wuthering Heights was not widely read
or appreciated in its day (in fact, it was not generally
recognized as a masterpiece until this century), no one bothered
to find out anything about its author. The person who was
pressed for information was Charlotte, after the success of her
second novel, Jane Eyre. In the strong light shed on her, you
catch glimpses of her more gifted younger sister.

The Bronte children were left largely to their own devices.
Their father Patrick, the vicar, was eccentric and domineering.
He spent most of his time in his study and even took his meals
there. The children's aunt, who moved to the parsonage shortly
after their mother's death, didn't like the cold, bleak,
isolated town of Haworth, and stayed mostly in her room with the
fire banked high and the door firmly shut. Discipline was lax;
circumstances seemed to foster an independence of spirit.

The practical Charlotte and the submissive Anne went to
school and found jobs as governesses; but Emily rarely left
home, and little is known of what she did at Haworth. She
wandered over her beloved moors, did the ironing, baked the
bread, listened to the servants' stories.

How could such an inexperienced young woman as Emily Bronte
have written so convincingly in Wuthering Heights of passionate
love? As far as is known, Emily showed no romantic interest in
anyone, but there were plenty of examples of the frustrations of
love around her. (And surely she got some inspiration from
books she read.) A young curate was attentive and flattering to
all the sisters and to a friend Charlotte made at school; Anne