Because biographical, textual, and critical and cultural studies of the past quarter of a century have provided more and better information about the Brontes and their times, we can better situate Emily's novel among those of her sisters and also better understand the cultural context of someone reading the 1847 or 1850 editions of Wuthering Heights. This edition's selective bibliography provides a guide to the Bronte scholarship which has made possible the fourth Norton Critical Edition of Wuthering Heights. I give primacy to the 1847 edition, because given both the independence of Emily's mind and art and the qualifications Charlotte's edition made to the work, it is helpful to read Wuthering Heights first as it appeared in 1847 and then to deal with it as edited and promoted by the then better-known Charlotte.

This best-selling Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1847 first edition of the novel. For the Fourth Edition, the editor has collated the 1847 text with several modern editions and has corrected a number of variants, including accidentals. The text is accompanied by entirely new explanatory annotations.

New to the Fourth Edition are twelve of Emily Bronts letters regarding the publication of the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights as well as the evolution of the 1850 edition, prose and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and Edward Chitham's insightful and informative chronology of the creative process behind this beloved work.

Five major critical interpretations of Wuthering Heights are included, three of them new to the Fourth Edition. A. Stuart Daley considers the importance of chronology in the novel. J. Hillis Miller examines Wuthering Heights's problems of genre and critical reputation. Sandra M. Gilbert assesses the role Victorian Christianity plays in the novel, while Martha Nussbaum traces the novel's romanticism. Finally, Lin Haire-Sargeant scrutinizes the role of Heathcliff in film adaptations of Wuthering Heights.

A Chronology and updated Selected Bibliography are alsoincluded.

Preface to the Fourth Edition

The Text of Wuthering Heights

Backgrounds and Contexts

 THE 1847 WUTHEFIING HEIGHTS

 Emily Bronts Diary

 November 24, 1834

 June 26, 1837

 July 30, 1841

 July 30, 1845

 "The Butterfly"

 Edward Chitham·Sculpting the Statue: A Chronology

 of the Process of Writing Wuthering Heights

 Publishing the 1847 Wuthering Heights

 April 6, 1846

 July 4, 1846

 November 10, 1847

 December 14, 1847

 December 21, 1847

 February 15, 1848

 Reviews of the 1847 Wuthering Heights

 Athenaeum

 Atlas

 Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper

 Examiner

 Britannia

 Unidentified Review

 New Monthly Magazine

 Palladium

 North American Review

 THE 1850 WUTHERING HEIGHTS

 The 1850 Wuthering Heights in Progress

 September 5, 1850

 September 5, 1850

 September 13, 1850

 September 20, 1850

 September 27, 1850

 November 19[?], 1850

 December 8, 1850

 Charlotte Bront··Biographical Notice of Ellis and

 Acton Bell

 Charlotte Bront··Editor's Preface to the New

 Edition of Wuthering Heights

 Emily Brontfi's Poems for the 1850 Wuthering Heights

 Charlotte Brontfi·Selections

 Poems

 40 [A little while, a little while]

 42 [The bluebell is the sweetest flower]

 39 [Loud without the wind was roaring]

 84 [Shall Earth no more inspire thee]

 79 [The night wind]

 85 [Aye there it is! It wakes to night]

 128 [Love is like the wild rose briar]

 112 [From a Dungeon Wall]

 106 [How few, of all the hearts that loved]

 98 [In the earth, the earth thou shalt be laid]

 35 [Song by J. Brenzaida to G.S.]

 32 [For him who struck thy foreign string]

 120a [Heavy hangs the raindrop]

 120b [Child of Delight!]

 123 [Silent is the House]

 89 [I do not weep]

 201 [Stanzas]

 125 [No coward soul is mine]

 Reviews of the 1850 Wuthering Heights

 Examiner

 Leader

 Athenaeum

 Eclectic Review

Criticism

 A. Stuart Daley·A Chronology of Wuthering Heights

 J. Hillis Miller·Wuthering Heights: Repetition and

 the "Uncanny"

 Sandra M. Gilbert·Looking Oppositely: Emily Brontfi's

 Bible of Hell

 Martha Nussbaum·Wuthering Heights: The Romantic

 Ascent

 Lin Haire-Sargeant·Sympathy for the Devil: The

 Problem of Heathcliff in Film Versions of

 Wuthering Heights

Emily Bront: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography