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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I honestly had no idea what was going on. I wasn't in the right headspace for this book at this time.
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
This is one classic I know for sure I will read again.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
Tres mujeres victorianas de Yorkshire irrumpe en la literatura inglesa. Probablemente conozcas a Charlotte Brontë y su novela Jane Eyre. Y sí, definitivamente has oído hablar de Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë y de Anne Brontë con La inquilina de Wildfell Hell. Tres hermanas alejada de la especulación publica adoptando nombres o seudónimos: Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell con el fin de que sus libros sean juzgado por el merito de su escritura. Una crítica de Jane Eyre escribió: "si atribuimos el libro a una mujer, no tenemos otra alternativa que atribuirlo a alguien que, por alguna razón suficiente, ha perdido durante mucho tiempo a la sociedad de su propio sexo"
Con este libro clausuro el ciclo de lectura de las hermanas Brontë. Un texto que a modo epistolar, quien narra nos advierte que serán muchos capítulos que leeremos. Las cartas de Gilbert llevan al lector "de vuelta conmigo al otoño de 1827", al pueblo de Linden-Car (el Lindenhope de la obra), donde la llegada de una misteriosa viuda, Helen Graham, ha despertado un interés intrusivo de la comunidad local. La nueva inquilino de Wildfell Hall, una mansión en ruinas en las afueras del pueblo, es una pintora talentosa, que se apoya a sí misma y a su pequeño hijo Arthur con la venta de sus obras de arte.
La agonía de un matrimonio arrastrado por el abuso doméstico, la batalla por la custodia de un hijo, la mentira, la infidelidad, el alcoholismo, el libertinaje, la degradación, la muestra de un ser que le da igual quien tiene a su lado como esposa, donde el respecto esta pegado al suelo son algunas de los puntos que veremos, pero en lo social nos encontraremos con una sociedad del chisme, de la indiferencia, del criterio establecido, que es inviolable. A todo esto solo una mujer le hace frente y es Helen, recordando que es una mujer escapada de los abuso de su marido, aun mas allá de su creencia que reformar el comportamiento de su marido era una obligación religiosa. Con un cierre romántico termina el texto, aunque debo decir que cogió lucha Gilbert para casarse con Helen tras reconciliarse. De los tres libros de las hermanas Brontë: Cumbres borrascosas y La inquilina de Wildfell Hall leído, creo que estos dos se debate quien llegara primero a la meta.
Con este libro clausuro el ciclo de lectura de las hermanas Brontë. Un texto que a modo epistolar, quien narra nos advierte que serán muchos capítulos que leeremos. Las cartas de Gilbert llevan al lector "de vuelta conmigo al otoño de 1827", al pueblo de Linden-Car (el Lindenhope de la obra), donde la llegada de una misteriosa viuda, Helen Graham, ha despertado un interés intrusivo de la comunidad local. La nueva inquilino de Wildfell Hall, una mansión en ruinas en las afueras del pueblo, es una pintora talentosa, que se apoya a sí misma y a su pequeño hijo Arthur con la venta de sus obras de arte.
La agonía de un matrimonio arrastrado por el abuso doméstico, la batalla por la custodia de un hijo, la mentira, la infidelidad, el alcoholismo, el libertinaje, la degradación, la muestra de un ser que le da igual quien tiene a su lado como esposa, donde el respecto esta pegado al suelo son algunas de los puntos que veremos, pero en lo social nos encontraremos con una sociedad del chisme, de la indiferencia, del criterio establecido, que es inviolable. A todo esto solo una mujer le hace frente y es Helen, recordando que es una mujer escapada de los abuso de su marido, aun mas allá de su creencia que reformar el comportamiento de su marido era una obligación religiosa. Con un cierre romántico termina el texto, aunque debo decir que cogió lucha Gilbert para casarse con Helen tras reconciliarse. De los tres libros de las hermanas Brontë: Cumbres borrascosas y La inquilina de Wildfell Hall leído, creo que estos dos se debate quien llegara primero a la meta.
"You too have suffered, I suppose."
"I suffered much, at first."
"When was that?"
"Two years ago; and two years hence you will be as calm as I am now-- and far, far happier, I trust, for you are a man, and free to act as you please."
As many, many people have remarked before me, this is no Jane Eyre, but it is an exceptionally well-written novel that places Anne Brontë among not only among the premier novelists of her day, but also among the striking visionaries (along with her sister Charlotte) who were communally asserting that women had independent minds and wants, and deserved to be written in literature as they existed in real life. I love Jane Eyre, so I may be very biased on this point, but I can see that Anne is trying to imitate the full, intimate nature of Jane's mind in the character of Helen, but only fails by conveying her to us at a narrative distance too far to deliver the same impact. But I know that reading reviews about classic literature can be overwhelming (and often unhelpful if you don't know the other works with which the reviewer is analyzing and comparing the present one), so I'll instead give a basic list of positives and negatives about this admittedly long and ambitious novel.
Likes:
The fleshed-out web of characters makes the story seem more real and avoids the sort of tunnel vision that 19th-century British novels often succumb to because of isolated social situations.
As a heroine, Helen strikes a near-perfect balance of playing out her patient and loving character but still being reasonable in her limits. She seems very real (in being a woman of her time and station in life). It's also clear that Anne put a lot of thought into how someone as traumatized as Helen would behave henceforth around strangers.
Although the dialogue struggles sometimes, Anne is a wonderful writer. Surprisingly, she seems more comfortable writing from Gilbert's point of view than Helen's, despite the latter having much more of her personality as well as obviously sharing more similar experiences.
Dislikes:
Because the narrative jumps around, it is rather difficult to keep up with the characters (Who is who, who is related to who, where each person lives and what their occupations are, etc.) especially when we return to the present at the end of the novel.
The second volume, which is entirely taken up by Helen's diary, is far too long and pulls us out of the present for too long for us to return without feeling out of place and confused.
Gilbert, despite supposedly being the patient hero, can be very dramatic and irritating (when he flings himself over the wall and has a fit on the ground, I had to put the book down and stare into the distance for a minute).
General comments:
This is not a light read. Although nothing conventionally triggering actually occurs, one of the characters is so deplorable that you may still want to look up the content warnings.
This is not a love story. Romance is a part of it, but if you are looking for something more like Jane Eyre, steer toward Jane Austen and not the other Brontë sisters. The "romance" in this story has about three pages of payoff at the very end out of the 383 pages in my edition.
If you think the first volume is dragging so much that you might not finish the novel, I would say you could skip to the second volume (where Helen's diary is introduced) and not miss much of anything other than the romance mildly building.
TL;DR: A great classic, but not exactly pleasure reading, and I would recommend you start with Jane Eyre if you're venturing into Brontë literature! :)
"I suffered much, at first."
"When was that?"
"Two years ago; and two years hence you will be as calm as I am now-- and far, far happier, I trust, for you are a man, and free to act as you please."
As many, many people have remarked before me, this is no Jane Eyre, but it is an exceptionally well-written novel that places Anne Brontë among not only among the premier novelists of her day, but also among the striking visionaries (along with her sister Charlotte) who were communally asserting that women had independent minds and wants, and deserved to be written in literature as they existed in real life. I love Jane Eyre, so I may be very biased on this point, but I can see that Anne is trying to imitate the full, intimate nature of Jane's mind in the character of Helen, but only fails by conveying her to us at a narrative distance too far to deliver the same impact. But I know that reading reviews about classic literature can be overwhelming (and often unhelpful if you don't know the other works with which the reviewer is analyzing and comparing the present one), so I'll instead give a basic list of positives and negatives about this admittedly long and ambitious novel.
Likes:
The fleshed-out web of characters makes the story seem more real and avoids the sort of tunnel vision that 19th-century British novels often succumb to because of isolated social situations.
As a heroine, Helen strikes a near-perfect balance of playing out her patient and loving character but still being reasonable in her limits. She seems very real (in being a woman of her time and station in life). It's also clear that Anne put a lot of thought into how someone as traumatized as Helen would behave henceforth around strangers.
Although the dialogue struggles sometimes, Anne is a wonderful writer. Surprisingly, she seems more comfortable writing from Gilbert's point of view than Helen's, despite the latter having much more of her personality as well as obviously sharing more similar experiences.
Dislikes:
Because the narrative jumps around, it is rather difficult to keep up with the characters (Who is who, who is related to who, where each person lives and what their occupations are, etc.) especially when we return to the present at the end of the novel.
The second volume, which is entirely taken up by Helen's diary, is far too long and pulls us out of the present for too long for us to return without feeling out of place and confused.
Gilbert, despite supposedly being the patient hero, can be very dramatic and irritating (when he flings himself over the wall and has a fit on the ground, I had to put the book down and stare into the distance for a minute).
General comments:
This is not a light read. Although nothing conventionally triggering actually occurs, one of the characters is so deplorable that you may still want to look up the content warnings.
This is not a love story. Romance is a part of it, but if you are looking for something more like Jane Eyre, steer toward Jane Austen and not the other Brontë sisters. The "romance" in this story has about three pages of payoff at the very end out of the 383 pages in my edition.
If you think the first volume is dragging so much that you might not finish the novel, I would say you could skip to the second volume (where Helen's diary is introduced) and not miss much of anything other than the romance mildly building.
TL;DR: A great classic, but not exactly pleasure reading, and I would recommend you start with Jane Eyre if you're venturing into Brontë literature! :)