First Edition of Wuthering Heights Sets New Brontë Record
The 1847 cloth-bound bound volumes were part of a printing that numbered a mere 250
Reclusive, eccentric Yorkshire parson’s daughter Emily Brontë, who died of tuberculosis at age 30 in 1848, would most likely be shocked to learn that a first edition of her lone novel, Wuthering Heights, sold for $1,592,580 in an auction at Christie’s London. The copy in question was a rare survivor of a small 1847 first printing, and rarer still has its original cloth binding intact. Most remaining copies have been rebound over the years. This very special Wuthering Heights set the new auction high on three remarkable levels: for Emily Brontë, for 19th-century literature, and for any book ever written by a woman.
Anne Brontë’s debut novel Agnes Grey was also included in the sale lot. The Brontë sisters originally chose to publish under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell due in part to their pronounced shyness, but also because of the issues that faced a woman attempting to make her own money. Much of Emily’s literary production and notes aside from Wuthering Heights no longer exist because Charlotte Brontë, who was distraught to find herself the last of six siblings by the age of 32, burned her sisters’ juvenalia and other unpublished work.
“This is exactly the kind of book collectors dream about but almost never see. A first edition of Wuthering Heights in original cloth is extraordinarily rare,” said specialist Mark Wiltshire. “It’s a true survival—and a landmark result for Brontë collecting. It is an honor to have been entrusted with such an exceptional work.” The previous record for Brontë memorabilia was $1.25 million for a tiny manuscript of poems handwritten by Charlotte herself.
The Wuthering Heights sale was part of Christie’s “The Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures,” a highlight among summer auctions. Other memorable items in “The Exceptional” included an Ancient Egyptian Limestone Pair statue that sold for $4,897,200 and a humidor that was a gift from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
