A first edition of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte sold at a London auction for £114,000 ($225,500), more than twice the expected price.
A spokeswoman for auction house Bonhams would only divulge that a private collector had purchased the rare 1847 edition of Bronte's gothic love story and that it would remain in England.
Wuthering Heights is the only book Bronte wrote and was first published under the male alias of Ellis Bell, out of fear she would face a prejudice as a female writer.
The author died from tuberculosis in 1848 at the age of 30 and never experienced the acclaim or fame that came with the book, which told of the doomed, passionate love affair between Catherine and Healthcliff against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors.
The novel, now a British classic, has been adapted to screen several times including an Oscar-nominated 1939 version starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier and most recently, a 2003 version made by MTV.
The book's seller, Anne Reid, had been given the edition as a child by her grandfather. It had been in her family for four generations. The auction house said Reid intends to use the money to pursue a career as an artist.
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