The Authorship of "Wuthering Heights"

Abstract

HE CLAIM that Branwell Bronte wrote or had a hand in writing Wuthering Heights rests upon evidence that has only to be examined critically to be suspected. claim was first made twenty years after the date of publication of the novel. circumstances were entirely casual ones, as follows: In June, i867, the Halifax Guardian printed an extract from an anonymous article in the People's Magazine which expressed astonishment that Wuthering Heights had been conceived by a timid and retiring female:' Thereupon a Mr. Dearden, under the nom de plume of William Oakendale' wrote a letter to the Halifax Guardian (June i5) with the headline: WHO WROTE WUTHERING HEIGHTS? He began by saying that this question had occurred to him after reading the extract from the article above referred to. He then proceeded to quote an extract from the preface to a drama entitled The Demon Queen which he said that he had written a long time before but had not published. extract commenced: