Emily Jane BronteEmily Jane Bronte remains a mystery. Very little is known about her. There is little information and much of what we have is contradictory. She is the author of only one novel and some pieces of poetry. This gives people little to go on. Most of what we know about her comes from her sister, Charlotte, who is another well-known author. From what is known, it would appear that Emily led the ordinary life of a 19th century woman. She attended boarding school and learned domestic skills at home. In other ways his life was unusual and even eccentric, contributing to the originality of his great novel. Emily Jane Bront was born on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire. She was the fifth child and fourth daughter of the Reverend Patrick Bront and Maria Branwell Bront. When he was two years old, the family moved to Haworth. This remained his home until his death in December 1848 at the age of thirty. Both of Emily's parents influenced her literary education. His mother published an essay and his father published four books and a small poem. In 1821 Mary died of cancer, leaving Emily and her four siblings motherless. Her sister, Elizabeth, came to live as a governess and was responsible for training the girls in the domestic arts. While she did housework at home, Emily secretly worked on poetry. In 1845, Charlotte discovered some of Emily's poems and confessed that she too had written poems. Apparently, Anne had too. After much persuasion, the poems were published in a small book entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis and ActonBell. Pseudonyms were used because the girls wanted their poetry to be taken seriously. Only two copies were sold. The failure led all three to begin work on novels: Emily on Wuthering Heights, Charlotte on Jane Eyre and Anne on AgnesGrey. All three novels were successful and were published in 1847 and 1848. During this time, their brother Branwell had become addicted to alcohol and drugs and was dying. Emily, the one closest to him, was the only one