A rare first edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is to be sold at auction by Bonhams in London.

The book - published in 1847, less than two years before Emily died aged just 30 - is expected to fetch about £50,000. Emily earned nothing from the book. It is being sold on November 13 by student Anne Hall, 23, of North London, to help pay for her three-year art course.

It was given to her by her grandfather when she was a child.

Only 250 original copies were published and very few survive in their original bindings.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth has one edition. But the three-volume set, which also includes Anne Brontë's book Agnes Grey, was rebound by the previous owner.

Brontë Parsonage librarian, Ann Dinsdale, said: "There are very, very few copies about because there was such a small print run.

"Both Emily and Anne had to pay towards the cost and they were told they would get a percentage of the sales refunded. But they never got anything and it was left to their sister Charlotte, after their deaths, to get something back.

"When you think of the amount of money which will change hands for this book and how little was made by the Brontës, it's very sad."

What made the first edition so precious was that it was printed without corrections that Emily wanted.

"The book was rushed out by the publisher in December 1847 hopefully to cash in on the huge success of the publication of Charlotte's Jane Eyre in October, so he didn't bother to make her corrections." she added.

When first published the three sisters wrote under the pseudonyms Ellis, Acton and Currer Bell.

The classic Wuthering Heights has been in Miss Hall's family for four generations. She said: "It was quite a wrench to part with it after all these years but the money's going to my education."

Simon Roberts, a Bonhams book specialist, said: "I have been in the book trade nearly 20 years and I've never handled a copy of the first edition.

"I took the call when the book came in and it was very exciting to see it.

"It is one of the books you want if you're putting together a collection of key works in English literature."