"To you I am neither a man nor a woman. I come before you as an author only. It is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me- the sole ground on which I accept your judgement." - Charlotte Bronte, to a critic (Oates, V) Charlotte Brontë's reputation may be explained in part by the astounding success of her first novel, Jane Eyre; it owes much also to the romantic …showed first 75 words of 1738 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1738 total…than Emily's (37). Later critics have moved in a different direction, finding Emily to be the greater writer. The stark and mythopoeic qualities of Wuthering Heights undeniably reflect a genius and a vision beyond Charlotte's capacities. Yet Emily's enigmatic romance, unique of its kind, was a dead end in English fiction, whereas the painful realism of Charlotte's studies of the human heart gave a fresh impetus and a new direction to the genre of the novel.