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Penguin Book Club Presents: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

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Anne Brontë

Born

in Thornton, Yorkshire, England

January 17, 1820

Died

May 28, 1849

Genre

Fiction, Poetry

Influences

Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë ...more

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Anne Brontë was an English 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. Mainly because the re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte Brontë after Anne's death, she is less known than her sisters. However, her novels, like those of her sisters, have become classics of English literature.

The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. In Elizabeth Gaskell's b Anne Brontë was an English 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. Mainly because the re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte Brontë after Anne's death, she is less known than her sisters. However, her novels, like those of her sisters, have become classics of English literature.

The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. In Elizabeth Gaskell's biography, Anne's father remembered her as precocious, reporting that once, when she was four years old, in reply to his question about what a child most wanted, she answered: "age and experience".

During her life Anne was particularly close to Emily. When Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited Haworth in 1833, she reported that Emily and Anne were "like twins", "inseparable companions". Together they created imaginary world Gondal after they broke up from Charlotte and Branwell who created another imaginary world – Angria.

For a couple of years she went to a boarding school. At the age of 19 she left Haworth and worked as a governess between 1839 and 1845.

After leaving her teaching position, she fulfilled her literary ambitions. She wrote a volume of poetry with her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846) and two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848 and was an instant, phenomenal success; within six weeks it was sold out.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is perhaps the most shocking of the Brontës' novels. In seeking to present the truth in literature, Anne's depiction of alcoholism and debauchery was profoundly disturbing to 19th-century sensibilities. Helen Graham, the tenant of the title, intrigues Gilbert Markham and gradually she reveals her past as an artist and wife of the dissipated Arthur Huntingdon. The book's brilliance lies in its revelation of the position of women at the time, and its multi-layered plot.

Her sister Emily's death on 19 December 1848 deeply affected Anne and her grief undermined her physical health. Over Christmas, Anne caught influenza. Her symptoms intensified, and in early January, her father sent for a Leeds physician, who diagnosed her condition as consumption, and intimated that it was quite advanced leaving little hope of recovery. Anne met the news with characteristic determination and self-control.

Unlike Emily, Anne took all the recommended medicines, and responded to the advice she was given. That same month she wrote her last poem, " A dreadful darkness closes in", in which she deals with being terminally ill.

In February 1849, Anne decided to make a return visit to Scarborough in the hope that the change of location and fresh sea air might initiate a recovery. However, it was clear that she had little strength left.

Dying, Anne expressed her love and concern for Ellen and Charlotte, and seeing Charlotte's distress, whispered to her to "take courage". Conscious and calm, Anne died at about two o'clock in the afternoon, Monday, 28 May 1849. ...more

Combine Editions
Anne Brontë’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 236,425 ratings · 19,644 reviews · 769 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 4.04 avg rating — 136,268 ratings — published 1848 — 230 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Agnes Grey 3.71 avg rating — 85,545 ratings — published 1847 — 2000 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Brontë Sisters - The Complete Novels + Extras by Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë 4.39 avg rating — 1,635 ratings — published 1899 — 97 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë, Phyllis Bentley (Introduction), Peter Dennis (Illustrator) 4.08 avg rating — 512 ratings — published 1922 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Poems of Anne Bronte by Anne Brontë (Editor), Clement King Shorter (Editor) 3.84 avg rating — 240 ratings — published 1971 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Collected Novels of the Brontë Sisters by Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë 4.39 avg rating — 153 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Agnes Grey & Poems by Anne Brontë, Anne Smith (Introduction) 3.83 avg rating — 128 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Volume I 4.22 avg rating — 108 ratings — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Autolouange et autres poèmes by Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë 3.76 avg rating — 97 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Volume II [EasyRead Edition] 4.30 avg rating — 79 ratings — published 1848 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Anne Brontë…

Quotes by Anne Brontë (?)

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.”
― Anne Bronte

tags: beauty, defenses, roses, thorns

3468 likes

“It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble your foe.”
― Anne Brontë

1761 likes

“I love the silent hour of night,
For blissful dreams may then arise,
Revealing to my charmed sight
What may not bless my waking eyes.”
― Anne Brontë, Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters

tags: dreams, night, poetry

873 likes

See all Anne Brontë's quotes »

Polls

August 2017 Revisit the Shelf Reread

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939, 479 pages

45 votes, 13.5%

Persuasion by Jane Austen, 1817, 249 pages

43 votes, 12.9%

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 1856, 329 pages

38 votes, 11.4%

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, 1943, 496 pages

22 votes, 6.6%

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, 1891, 518 pages

21 votes, 6.3%

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 1884, 327 pages

19 votes, 5.7%

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 1859, 672 pages

19 votes, 5.7%

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902, 256 pages

17 votes, 5.1%

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 1957, 592 pages

17 votes, 5.1%

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy, 1905, 204 pages

14 votes, 4.2%

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847, 867 pages

14 votes, 4.2%

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, 1848, 489 pages

14 votes, 4.2%

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1605, 1023 pages

14 votes, 4.2%

Paradise Lost by John Milton, 1667, 453 pages

13 votes, 3.9%

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, 1935, 302 pages

12 votes, 3.6%

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1864, 136 pages

11 votes, 3.3%

333 total votes

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