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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

by Anne Brontë

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 23,709 ratings · 1,200 reviews

This sensational, hard-hitting and passionate tale of marital cruelty sees a mysterious new tenant at Wildfell Hall, Helen Graham, unmasked not as a 'wicked woman' as the local gossips would have it, but as the estranged wife of a brutal alcoholic bully, desperate to protect her son.
Using her own experiences with her brother Branwell to depict the cruelty and debauchery fr...more

Paperback, Penguin English Library, 524 pages

Published June 28th 2012 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1848)

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Feb 26, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Juliet and Marianne

Shelves: in-by-of-england, victorians-and-wannabes, bio-memoir-diaries-letters, reviewed, bronte-bronte-bronte

I wrote a long, introspective review of this book last night. I am now grateful for the internet outage that lost it. First reactions are wonderful to capture. I love the energy of them, but I miss some of the ideas that only come from reflection. So I'm glad I never posted it. The book deserves long, careful thoughts (and I'm also sure that the story about traveling to York and breaking my toe was not really relevant either to the book or my reading of it).

I did ask a lot of questions, mostly...more

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May 09, 2012 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, drama, family-drama, love-story, romance, feminist

The tenant that is being referred to in the title of this book, The Tenant of the Wildfell Hall is not actually a tenant. She owns the place being the child of the owner. She is born there and only comes back because she is running away from her alcoholic husband. The husband is slowly introducing alcohol to their 5-y/o child and so she bangs the door to her husband’s face, runs away to her former home, the estate called Wildfell under a fictitious name. The act of a married woman running away f...more

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May 14, 2010 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindred-characters

Poor Helen. Poor Anne. Poor book...

Anne is just as much a Brontë as her sisters! Her voice, in many ways, completes the harmony and picks up where the two of them leave off. True, there are no fires, ghosts, or windswept moors. But, as one critic noted, "The slamming of Helen's bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England."

I struggle with Victorian literature, because I don't have a clear sense of context. It's difficult for me to separate the author from her time....more Poor Helen. Poor Anne. Poor book...

Anne is just as much a Brontë as her sisters! Her voice, in many ways, completes the harmony and picks up where the two of them leave off. True, there are no fires, ghosts, or windswept moors. But, as one critic noted, "The slamming of Helen's bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England."

I struggle with Victorian literature, because I don't have a clear sense of context. It's difficult for me to separate the author from her time. This book suffers from the usual problems inherent to the period. The story is, by necessity, a little drawn out. There's the contrived excuse for narration, superfluous to contemporary readers, etc.

The story, however, is evenly written and the characterization is stunningly deep. I admit, I initially found Helen a little too rigid, too cold, and perhaps emotionally dependent on her son. I came to understand her and her choices. (Yes, a pious...Victorian...mother was somehow made relatable to me!)

Helen is not especially worldly. She's not especially brazen. Yet there's courage in that quiet demeanor. There's a still, small voice that refuses to waver. It's true, her beliefs aren't my beliefs. But I admire her fortitude. I'm touched by her steadfast devotion. She stood firm in her own convictions, even as her swaggering husband laughed at them. --In addition to being a book about feminism and piety, this is one of the better books about alcoholism.

Helen was warned about Arthur yet married him anyway. She did the best she could. She tried with all her heart. Sometimes that's all you can do. To paraphrase from another book, If I knew then what I know now...it wouldn't matter a ~~damn~~ darn. (Sorry, Ms. Brontë).

"He is very fond of me - almost too fond. I could do with less caressing and more rationality: I should like to be less a pet and more a friend, if I might choose - but I won't complain of that: I am only afraid his affection loses in depth where it gains in ardour. I sometimes liken it to a fire of dry twigs and branches compared with one of solid coal, - very bright and hot, but if it should burn itself out and leave nothing but ashes behind, what shall I do? But it won't - it shan't, I am determined..."

Sadly, I can relate.(less)

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Apr 25, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, 19th-century

I thought I would read Anne Brontë before reading Charlotte Brontë; Why? Because I didn’t want to go with the most popular of the three; before exploring Anne and Emily. I loved Wuthering Heights for its unexpected story, with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I was secretly hoping from more of that. But instead I was presented with a book that while it with very much a Victorian novel; it did push topics, like Divorce, Abuse, Alcoholism, Feminism, Adultery and many more issues to do with morels.

I’v...more

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Aug 16, 2009 Chandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-brontes, anglophilia, 2009-reads, classics, nerdy-girl-bookclub, love-romance

This novel is told in a dual narrative structure – starting first with letters from Gilbert Markham. In these letters addressed to a close friend he describes the arrival of a mysterious young widow and his eventual infatuation with her. At first everyone in the small village is curious about Helen ‘Graham’. She makes her meager living painting and is intensely private and protective of her only son. Predictably the town’s curiosity is soon replaced with their contempt and derision because of he...more This novel is told in a dual narrative structure – starting first with letters from Gilbert Markham. In these letters addressed to a close friend he describes the arrival of a mysterious young widow and his eventual infatuation with her. At first everyone in the small village is curious about Helen ‘Graham’. She makes her meager living painting and is intensely private and protective of her only son. Predictably the town’s curiosity is soon replaced with their contempt and derision because of her unconventional lifestyle. Gilbert, however, isn’t discouraged by the gossip; nor by Helen’s persistent rebuffs. Then the second narrative reveals the truth via Helen’s personal journal. She tells us of how she fell hopelessly in love with Arthur Huntingdon and, despite the protestations of her Aunt regarding his unworthiness, she marries him anyway. She chronicles in great detail their subsequent marriage and its rapid deterioration due to Arthur’s penchant for drink and revelry.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It’s terribly long and drawn out at times, but also well written and engaging for the most part. At the time it was an unprecedented portrait of a marriage undone by vice and moral decay. And while there is nothing really shocking by today’s standards; the reader will still feel keenly the utter hopelessness of a woman who inadvertently made a bad match in this era. Since one can’t help but compare Anne to her more famous sisters there are two things worth noting about this novel. First, Anne has done a very interesting thing by having her female protagonist also play the role of the mysterious hero tortured by a shameful secret. Second, she has turned a pervasive literary myth on its head - that a woman’s love can reform the darkest soul. Take that Heathcliff and Rochester!

Why only three stars? First, as I mentioned earlier it’s really just too long and it’s quite clear from the outset where it’s all headed. Second, Anne’s penchant for didacticism and religious moralizing is almost unendurable at times. Helen is distinctly not relatable with her unfailing piety and goodness. I often found myself feeling a bit sorry for Arthur having married such an insufferable goody goody and then I remember that he’s supposed to be the villain. Oops! And finally, while her writing does have an appealing earnest quality about it; I still have to conclude that (based on this book alone) Anne just wasn’t as strong a writer or storyteller as her sisters. Having said all that I do have to emphasize yet again that I did enjoy this and I consider it an essential for fans of Victorian lit and the Brontes in particular.

For a novel with a similar feel try: A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcot(less)

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Mar 23, 2013 Bethany rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, to-be-bought

I can't believe that this book isn't more widely read, I mean Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice are usually mentioned when discussing classic works of fiction by women- yet this is relatively ignored.
I honestly didn't know of this books existence before I went to the library and saw it on the shelf. I didn't know Anne had written anything other than poems. I often feel that Anne is in Emily and Charlotte's shadow but this piece of work is truly inspiring - perhaps more so at...more

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Jun 21, 2008 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Carol said I must list my all time favorite books. What a challenge this is! I have read everything those Bronte girls wrote, even their childhood poetry and I love all of it. But Anne will take the showing on my list for her bravery. Of course Charlotte was the most prolific and Emily the true brainiac, but Anne has my complete respect for being a true literary pioneer: she was the first woman to write of a wife leaving her abusive husband - and then goes on to lead a happy, successful life! Up...more

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Feb 17, 2010 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, victorian-fiction, brontes, authors-ab

Anne Bronte's second novel is often overshadowed by her sisters' more famous novels, Charlotte's Jane Eyre (and three others) and Emily's Wuthering Heights, but it is equally worth reading. It tells the story of Helen Huntingdon, a mysterious woman who comes to live at Wildfell Hall with her child and one servant, and Gilbert Markham, the young man who is powerfully drawn to her and eventually learns her secret: that she left her dissolute, drunken husband in order to shield their son from his i...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Whitaker rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canon, e-book, united-kingdom, 2012-read

I felt, reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, as if I was watching a black-and-white silent movie. There was the same sense of expressions and gestures exaggerated, made larger than life. Emotions were felt ten-fold. Characters are never just sad, they must be sullenly despondent; they are never just in love, but passionate, painfully so:

She turned from me to hide the emotion she could not quite control; but I took her hand and fervently kissed it. 'Gilbert, do leave me!' she cried, in a tone of

...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Renae M. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, literary-fiction, gothic, epistolary

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the first Brontë novel I’ve read cover to cover. (I attempted to read Jane Eyre when I was ten and made it through three-fourths before I decided Jane was silly and boring.) Reading this book now, several years later, has shown me why this family is so popular (though I understand than Anne's writing is vastly different than Charlotte and Emily's).

Please note: I compare Anne Brontë to Jane Austen in this review. I like both authors for separate reasons, and I real...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 12, 2009 Boof rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: British classics lovers

Shelves: classics, read-in-2009, british-authors, 1001-books, victorians, uk

After reading Jane Eyre (for the first time) just recently and falling totally head over heals with that book, I had an urge to try some more Bronte (albeit the lesser known one) and picked up The Tennant of Wildfell Hall . I wanted to love it, I really did, and to be fair I adored the first half.

The Bronte's have a way of pulling you in, making the characters jump off the page. For the first 200 pages of The Tennant I was in love with this book. I loved Gilbert, the narrator, and I was in...more

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May 29, 2008 C.A. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-victorians

Anne Bronte is severely, severely underrated. This book is fascinating. It's a work of quiet rebellion; the rebellion of Helen and of Anne herself, who is working to subvert some of the Romantic conventions. My edition had a great introduction that posited Helen as a Byronic hero. Admittedly I'm stuck on books that create the female artist (I actually think this has a lot in common with Emily's Quest-- the heroine coded with some male virtues of independence and mystery, the threat of the Heathc...more

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Jun 22, 2007 Mary Harju rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Loving a rake can have it's downside. Just as for men there's a madonna/whore complex, for women there's a priest/devil complex when it comes to men. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall presents this rake at his worst and gives us a female protagonist, Helen Huntingdon, who's strong enough to overcome his charm and escape from his power. Helen is, in fact, a thoroughly Byronic character in her own right, who turns up in a small town with a hidden history and a mysterious allure that fascinates more than...more

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May 15, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pre-1900s, sassysassenachs, novels, oxford-classics, distaff

Tackling Brontëism #2—The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The second novel Anne wrote before she caught pulmonary tuberculosis shortly after her 29th birthday. Certainly not something on those 100 Things To Do Before You’re 30 Lists. 1) Paragliding. 2) Kayaking. 3) Catch pulmonary TB and die. See? Good. The problem with those lists is they presuppose readers like the outdoors and have a private income of some three zillion units. Far better the lists have simpler aims for us mortals: 1) Eat a probiotic y...more Tackling Brontëism #2—The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The second novel Anne wrote before she caught pulmonary tuberculosis shortly after her 29th birthday. Certainly not something on those 100 Things To Do Before You’re 30 Lists. 1) Paragliding. 2) Kayaking. 3) Catch pulmonary TB and die. See? Good. The problem with those lists is they presuppose readers like the outdoors and have a private income of some three zillion units. Far better the lists have simpler aims for us mortals: 1) Eat a probiotic yoghurt. 2) Bumslide down a banister. 3) Help drywall your father’s shed. 4) Post an actual letter. 5) Touch something with a DANGER OF DEATH sign. That sort of thing.

Anyway. Anne’s second novel shows her evolving considerably as a prose composer—if not in terms of style or structure, certainly in terms of content and ideas. The structure is peculiar—the first 100pp concern Gilbert Markham’s attempts to chat up a reclusive new tenant at the titular Hall, before switching to the letters of said tenant, Helen Graham/Huntingdon. This is what we MFA graduates call a fucking huge narrative lurch, but the story becomes far more interesting as Helen’s narrative voice is the strongest (Gilbert doesn’t quite convince as a man) and more rife with intrigue, struggle and heartbreak, etc.

She marries Arthur Huntington despite her supposed intelligence, an alcoholic in remission whose condition returns during his frequent trips to the dens of London. He soon morphs into a monster and Helen’s patience is tested to snapping point, forcing her to flee her fallen hubby. The novel is one of the strongest (and earliest) depictions of the human rights abuses the marriage laws of the period were capable of encouraging . . . by marrying a man the woman was entitled to hand everything she owned to the husband and become an obedient slave-creature. The prose meekly screams at this pathetic injustice and rightly so.

The writing style is extremely circumlocutious in places and only very patient, bedridden readers will want to wade through the long monologues and nature descriptions . . . I mean this in comparison with other novels of the period, so heed that warning. The structure works surprisingly well as the narrative is handed back to Gilbert, although the clumsy recourse to letters to keep the story going makes the last quarter a painful flop technically speaking . . . plot-wise, I was bursting to know how things turned out for the long-suffering Helen. Excellent work. First Brontë has passed the test. Next: Charley.
(less)

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Proustitute The writing style is extremely circumlocutious in places and only very patient, bedridden readers will want to wade through the long monologues and na...more
May 15, 2012 12:54pm

MJ Nicholls I didn't realise this had been getting attention. From whom? I guess the structure does have a minor Cloud Atlas box-in-box thing going on there, but...more
May 15, 2012 01:30pm

Proustitute MJ wrote: "Have you read all of Charlotte's novels? Should I be wary of any?"

I have. The Professor is probably the weakest; she would expand on it, on...more
May 15, 2012 01:44pm

Dec 27, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Shelves: 2011, bookgroup

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm loving this book that I am meant to be discussing tonight; instead of braving Hurricane Bawbag and being inundated with spoilers I am in the sanctity of my toasty (and messy) home and savouring the three hundred or so pages yet to read. And am glad I didn't listen to the BBC radio adaptation which apparently served up a secret right at the start that is only relinquished in tge novel half way through the diary section (don't tell me, I'm not there: yet).......

UPDATE INCLUDING SPOILER ALERT -...more

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Oct 31, 2011 skein added it · review of another edition

As I slept last night I listened to the cat wail and dreamt it was Anne Bronte, sobbing and crying and screaming at her brother, and I --

Crap. I can't write this now.

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Jun 20, 2011 Chelsea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 19th-century, 1001, read-in-2011, british-literature

3 stars for the story; 4 stars for exquisite narrative writing

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Jul 09, 2012 Jeannette rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, women, 2012-read, books-i-own, kindle

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I wanted to like this book, but I didn’t. First, I just don’t think this story worked as an epistolary novel. The entire story is recounted by one of the main protagonists, Mr. Markham. In Part I, he is writing to a person who is never really introduced to the reader. There are long passages of “explained” actions, and reactions. In Part II, Markham relates Helen Graham’s story by copying out large chunks from her diary. This part of the book was just way too long. Over and over again the point...more I wanted to like this book, but I didn’t. First, I just don’t think this story worked as an epistolary novel. The entire story is recounted by one of the main protagonists, Mr. Markham. In Part I, he is writing to a person who is never really introduced to the reader. There are long passages of “explained” actions, and reactions. In Part II, Markham relates Helen Graham’s story by copying out large chunks from her diary. This part of the book was just way too long. Over and over again the point was driven home how good, and righteous, and giving, and pious dear Helen is/was. Her husband, Arthur, on the other hand, was depraved, base, and a drunk, as were all of his friends. This point was driven home repeatedly, too. In Part III, Markham tells the end of the story, and this is the only place where I feel the story picks up a bit.

I got the immediate impression that Anne Bronte just did not like men. There was not a single male character in the book who was not portrayed without some sort of inherent weakness. Arthur and his friends were the worst, with their drinking and abusive behavior. Mr. Markham was a spoiled mama’s boy, who couldn’t control himself or his temper. The minor male characters, including Helen’s brother, Frederick, all seemed rather spineless, and/or mean-spirited, or both.

Helen, the saint of the story, really wasn’t. I felt for her until I reached the passage where she deliberately made her son sick on wine, to turn him from the habit. This seemed a bit abusive to me, and I lost any respect for Helen at this point. She really was wrapped up in being a good, dutiful wife and mother, but she seemed rather hard-hearted. Her character was a bit rebellious and gay at the beginning, turned strict and pious in the middle, and then slipped into a totally different mindset at the end, bold and liberated. I just could not understand, nor sympathize with her.

The ending was wrapped up with a neat little happily-ever-after bow, that I also found a bit sickening. Most of the “bad men” reformed, and became loving and doting fathers and husbands. The wicked were punished (Lady Lowborough, in particular) according to the severity of their transgressions, with poor Arthur losing his life. I actually felt sorry for him in the end, thinking he had deserved better somehow.

I’m glad I read this, just to be able to say I’ve read all three Bronte sisters, but it was a chore.(less)

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Apr 07, 2012 Irina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Irina by: Daiana

Shelves: english

“Was first published in June 1848 to imediate succes. Its bold treatament of the subject of women’s equality, at a time when convention dictated submissiveness, meant that it has often been hailed as the first sustained feminist novel.”

I love Bronte sisters. Firstly, I read Wuthering Heights and then, after 3 years, I moved on to the secondly book of Bronte’s and now I really don’t know why I’ve waited so long.
This was the first book I’ve read in english so I suppose this is why I’m considering...more
“Was first published in June 1848 to imediate succes. Its bold treatament of the subject of women’s equality, at a time when convention dictated submissiveness, meant that it has often been hailed as the first sustained feminist novel.”

I love Bronte sisters. Firstly, I read Wuthering Heights and then, after 3 years, I moved on to the secondly book of Bronte’s and now I really don’t know why I’ve waited so long.
This was the first book I’ve read in english so I suppose this is why I’m considering it absolutely fascinating, not just for the content itself but for the different light I started to see reading and translating in special. I realize that I’m never gonna read ever again the translated version of any important book… It’s a great difference, not only in the structures but in number of pages (: . Anyway, it was full of old fashioned words but I’d love it! (I’m sure is a generous number of quotes on my blog now from this book)

I really like how Anne writes. It’s so pure and sincerely and the fluid of thoughts captivated me. It’s the simple philosophy in simple manners… and the final was unpredictable… I mean, it changed really quickly and the small gestures from it’s ending were absolutely cute and adorable. Helen is now one of my favorite characters ever and I have like 3 sketches with her from the Geography of Great Britain class (haha).

I can’t wait to read the first book published by Anne cause it’s definitely one of my favorites writers, not for her romantic but dramatic novels, neither for the characters so well described… but most for the courage she had to express herself and her considerations in that times which were so tough with women and society so neglected by the differences between sexes… and of course because she was desconsidered by her sister, Charlotte, but this never stopped her from writing more.
The first book is more tragically (I’ve heard so) so, even if I know this sounds a little bit eccentric, I really can’t wait to read it. She said by herself that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was censured. I guess knowing the truth of tragic situations in that time was not accepted. Too tough for the ones who caused it.

“I wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.”

From my blog: http://elseavers.tumblr.com/post/6661...(less)

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Oct 31, 2011 Amy Sturgis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, gothic

It seems that when I want to ground myself in the sheer beauty of narrative, I return to a few key authors. Chief among them are Mary Shelley and the Brontë sisters. Falling into the logic and design of their stories is so utterly effortless...

This novel ranks below Jane Eyre for me, which almost all novels do, but it is a powerful work in its own right, on a similar if different footing from Emily Brontë's work. I appreciate the alternating voices of the male and female narrators, how sympathet...more

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Aug 22, 2011 aPriL MEOWS often with scratching rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary

Very interesting righteously judgmental novel on being rich and alcoholic and proud of it vs. "it is well for me that I am doing my duty," said I, with a bitterness I could not repress, "for it is the only comfort I have; and the satisfaction of my own conscience, it seems, is the only reward I need look for!". Page 428. Actually, I agreed with the book on all counts. Alcoholism, money, patriarchal powered legal system, powerless women and children, and false morality can lead to officially sanc...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: selected-2010-reads, favorites, classics

I adored 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'. To me, it combined the best bits of 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' and smashed them together in a wonderful story of intrigue, at the heart of which Helen Lawrence.

Helen is a fascinating character, who attracts the attention of Gabriel Markham who serves a similar role of Lockwood in 'Wuthering Heights', in that Helen's backstory is told with the help of him; when he obtains her diaries. The main difference is probably that Markham plays a more intera...more

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Sep 02, 2011 Kaion rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cont-historical, feminism

Better than Jane Eyre.

I appreciate Anne Bronte's realistic takedown of the romantic concept of the Byronic hero. Newsflash: sexy alcoholic jerkass who plays mind games with you? He'll still be a alcoholic jackass when y'all be married and the mind games won't be so sexy when it's no longer a flirtation tactic but one of marital warfare.

Unfortunately Anne Bronte doesn't really make the book more nuanced than this message, and it's one that hasn't aged particularly well. Women have rights to their...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Nicki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: victorian, 2010, beloved-favorites, 2013

Second read : 2/10 - 2/25/2013

First read: 1/24 - 2/11/2010 -
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a woman named Helen. Helen has come to Wildfell Hall to escape an unhappy and abusive marriage to Huntingdon, a man who at one time she found herself so infatuated with that she refused to see or let anyone tell her of his faults and misgivings. She bears the consequence when she finds herself permanently entangled with this over-bearing, pleasure-seeking, fickle, alcoholic of a man who nearly ruins her.

A...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Furqan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: classics, the-brontës, favourite-books, victorian-literature, re-read, british-literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. [Reread at 23rd March 2012]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was Anne Brontë's last novel and revolves around the life of Helen Graham - the newly arrived and mysterious "tenant" of the mansion named "Wildfell Hall". The newcomer who arrives with her child predictably excites the curiosity of her neighbourhood which soon gives rise to malicious gossip and slander concerning her dealings with certain young men, including Gilbert Markham - the man who falls in love with her. An inevitable situation dema...more [Reread at 23rd March 2012]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was Anne Brontë's last novel and revolves around the life of Helen Graham - the newly arrived and mysterious "tenant" of the mansion named "Wildfell Hall". The newcomer who arrives with her child predictably excites the curiosity of her neighbourhood which soon gives rise to malicious gossip and slander concerning her dealings with certain young men, including Gilbert Markham - the man who falls in love with her. An inevitable situation demands Helen to vindicate herself and through the pages of her diary, the reader is suddenly plunged into the extravagant world of English upper-classes, where alcoholism, physical and psychological abuse, adultery and violence are forcefully brought together by Anne Brontë's intimate yet fearless voice.

There is a scene in the middle of the novel where Helen slams her bedroom door in her husband's face. This little but powerful act demonstrates in a very symbolic way the essence of Anne Bronte's message - a woman's right to protect herself and her child from her profligate husband at the time when she had no rights. Helen defies the social and legal laws of the time by fleeing from her abusive husband and earning her own money as an artist. This makes The Tenant of Wildfell Hall most radical of all the Brontes' novels and an essential proto-feminist text.

Anne is criticised for being a moraliser, and if I had read only Agnes Grey I would've agreed with it. As I mentioned in the review of Agnes Grey, Anne didn't write for amusement but to call for social reform through her novels. Both of her novels deal with the social ills of the Victorian England. Her Anglican faith was almost enviable - the doctrine of Universal salvation which Helen believes is very admirable that even incorrigible sinners will eventually receive God's blessing.

Helen is as passionate as Jane Eyre, if not complex as Lucy Snowe. She might see alcoholism as a moral vice, not a disease as we see today, but her frank portrayal of its pernicious effects on the sufferer and his family is still as relevant today as it was in Victorian England.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. (less)

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Jan 13, 2012 Tatiana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001

Funny how things change. I used to love this book. I pretty much can't stand it now. 3 stars (it was 5 before today) is just an obligatory i-appreciate-but-not-really-care-for-it rating.

Anne Brontë and I would have never been friends, because it's hard to be a friend with someone so damn righteous and unbendable. Sure, Helen Graham and Agnes Grey are fictional characters, but is there a doubt they are reflections of the author? Not in my mind.

Granted, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a huge impro...more

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Jun 05, 2008 Rian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-reading

Enjoyable for what it is, but not my favorite romance. Anne, thankfully, departs from the colloquial writing and phonetic spellings of her sisters (except by a few servants and other drudging, minor characters), which makes the novel easier to digest; but her constant sermonising and preaching creates a pretty heavy-handed narrative. To be fair, religion is the centre and grounding for Helen Huntingdon, but her constant referral to Bible passages and the grace of God, and devotion almost to a fa...more

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Jan 30, 2008 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19thcentury

A classic with some surprisingly good gems that I wasn't expecting. Don't get me wrong, I like a good classic, but I'm generally not impressed with the characters, especially female ones, if I analyze them too strongly using modern criteria. This is one book where I can and am still quite satisfied.

I'll start first by saying that I found the frame story far less interesting, and would have liked the book even better had it not been for that. Second, there was way too much god in this book for my...more

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Feb 19, 2009 Sanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 03, 2009 Paul Dinger rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a disappointment after the wonderful Agnes Grey. Where that book had a relentless realism, Tenant has all the worst aspects of Victorian literature. The heroine has a total bastard of a husband who cheats on her while being a depraved loser. You wonder in these types of books why women do this to themselves, and this one will too. Esepcially when she goes back to him when he gets sick and dies nobelly. I wanted to shoot him half way thru the book! I even searched for this book in hardco...more

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Do you feel Tenant ranks with Emily and Charlotte's work?	11	38	May 22, 2013 05:40pm
The Brontë Family: Downton Abbey	19	42	May 16, 2013 02:33pm
Gothic Literature: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (W3) ch. 27-39	6	15	May 07, 2013 12:18pm
Gothic Literature: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (W2) ch.14-26	8	14	Apr 15, 2013 01:45pm
Gothic Literature: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (W1) ch. 1-13 discussion	18	26	Apr 15, 2013 08:08am
Gothic Literature: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (W4) ch 40-53 Finis!	3	9	Apr 11, 2013 05:31pm
Boxall's 1001 Bo...: January {2012} Discussion -- THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL by Anne Brontë	35	209	Feb 04, 2013 03:43pm

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About Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family. Anne's two novels, written in a sharp and ironic style, are completely different from the romanticism followed by her sisters, Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë. She wrote in a realistic, rather than a romantic style. Her novels, like those of her sisters, have become classics of English literature.

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“But smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad.” — 155 people liked it

“I cannot love a man who cannot protect me.” — 112 people liked it

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