Reviews - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

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3.62k reviews for:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Anne Brontë

4.07 AVERAGE

coovadia's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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: Complicated

What a joy to read! I wish I’d read it sooner!

mcconk's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's a great feeling to go into a novel that was 'shocking' in its time and still be genuinely shocked by it. As the social comedy of blundering Gilbert Markham folds seamlessly into Helen's impassioned and chillingly foreshadowed account of her husband's decadence and abuse, I found myself as appalled as I was gripped. Reading the Brontës gives you the feeling of being in intimate and sometimes uncomfortable proximity to reality, for better or worse. With few other novels of the time do you get the same powerful sense of its author's lived experience informing their sharpest insights and darkest episodes. It's Anne's masterstroke that Arthur Huntingdon is not an archetype of irredeemable demonic cruelty, but something more painfully human than that: a shell of aristocratic, boyish debauchery wrapped around a void of purpose. As a proxy for her alcoholic brother Branwell, she imbues the character with a nuance that only someone with personal experience could comprehend and relate. It's no wonder that the book was so controversial at the time of its publication, nor (however crushing the betrayal) that her sister Charlotte sought to suppress it after Anne's death. It's simply so real, so raw and so painfully accurate in its observation of human (and uniquely male) devastation that it leaves an indelible, lingering mark: one that is easier to reproach and ignore than willingly confront.

strelitzia's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emscrem's review against another edition

4.0

slow-paced

kathisharp's review against another edition

5.0

CraftLit version read by Eden Ballantyne and Maia Daguerre
http://craftlit.libsyn.com/517-chapter-1-the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall?tdest_id=186098&fbclid=IwAR2LpS64V3LJi-McrsOPut1MKuWJDSWjTnzOMKWIvZ9XoHcS_V7KQKjo8o0

toni_wyatt's review against another edition

4.0

There is something about Anne’s writing that I enjoy. I just get along with it.

In this novel, we meet Mrs. Graham, who is a new resident at Wildfell Hall, and a mystery to everyone in the village. When she finds that a local man is falling in love with her, she spurns his affection, but must in the end tell the truth of her circumstances.

I highly enjoyed this. 4 stars.