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sleepswimming_selkie's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
susie_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
historybooksandtea's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
kjoice's review against another edition
5.0
I can't believe this book isn't one of the pillars of female protagonist classics. The trials gone through by Helen and the strength she displays thoughout are remarkable and heartbreaking.
Equally, due to the mysterious nature of her past the whole book has an eerie, engrossing effect just like du Maurier's 'Rebecca'.
Truly couldn't put it down and felt myself connected to the characters and their wellbeing throughout.
Equally, due to the mysterious nature of her past the whole book has an eerie, engrossing effect just like du Maurier's 'Rebecca'.
Truly couldn't put it down and felt myself connected to the characters and their wellbeing throughout.
mphoebeg's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
rosietakesonliterature's review against another edition
5.0
Took me too long to finish, but my favorite of gothic novels, I think. I truly wish for a different ending, as I found the “we got married” quite underwhelming, but for one of the first feminist pieces of literature it was a leap. Beautiful story, I loved the epistolary nature and the fact that it was a novel inside a novel, in a way. Huge fan.
louisegraveyard's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
louisegraveyard's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
erinsca's review against another edition
5.0
Anne Bronte is my homegirl. This book was so wonderful. Anne did a wonderful job of telling a (feminist!)morality tale while weaving a romance and personal growth through it all. I don't know why The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is so under-appreciated in today's book culture but I hope that changes soon.
This story is about a mysterious woman called "Helen Graham" who comes to a tight-knit town with her small son Arthur and inhabits the dreary Wildfell Hall and intrigues the gossipy neighbors. She is apparently a widow, she supports herself with her paintings, and she appears to others to be harsh, unforgiving, and overly pious. (She won't drink alcohol and keeps her son near her at all times which irritates the villagers.)
A local farmer, Gilbert Markham is attracted to this beautiful young widow and starts a friendship with her. She is reluctant to become attached to Markham but eventually the two fall in love.
After much time, she decides to reveal to Gilbert that she is not, in fact, a widow but that she is hiding from her abusive, alcoholic, philandering husband so that he can't taint her son and ruin him. The book goes into great detail on the perils of marrying the wrong man and the consequences that women in those days had to endure if their husband was a monster.
It ends happy but not without a period of dreary existence for poor Helen. Stick with it though and in the end Ms.Bronte does a great job of actually showing the relationship of Hero and Heroine unlike so many novels of the time that wrap up the romantic tension in two paragraphs.
This is a must-read for lovers of classic literature. Do yourself a favor and read it!
This story is about a mysterious woman called "Helen Graham" who comes to a tight-knit town with her small son Arthur and inhabits the dreary Wildfell Hall and intrigues the gossipy neighbors. She is apparently a widow, she supports herself with her paintings, and she appears to others to be harsh, unforgiving, and overly pious. (She won't drink alcohol and keeps her son near her at all times which irritates the villagers.)
A local farmer, Gilbert Markham is attracted to this beautiful young widow and starts a friendship with her. She is reluctant to become attached to Markham but eventually the two fall in love.
After much time, she decides to reveal to Gilbert that she is not, in fact, a widow but that she is hiding from her abusive, alcoholic, philandering husband so that he can't taint her son and ruin him. The book goes into great detail on the perils of marrying the wrong man and the consequences that women in those days had to endure if their husband was a monster.
It ends happy but not without a period of dreary existence for poor Helen. Stick with it though and in the end Ms.Bronte does a great job of actually showing the relationship of Hero and Heroine unlike so many novels of the time that wrap up the romantic tension in two paragraphs.
This is a must-read for lovers of classic literature. Do yourself a favor and read it!