Emily Bronte

This lucid and perceptive study subjects the Emily Bront 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 1840s, Stevie Davies reads Emily Bronts 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 poets and musicians novel, which can be scored as in opera or the piano transcriptions of symphonies, which Emily Bront 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.