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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
I’m catching up on my 18th and 19th century classics and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has to be one of my favorites. I’ll preface this by saying don’t need these stories to feel fresh and relatable and I don’t need to be able to see myself in the protagonists. I’m not gonna love (or even enjoy) every English classic but I can generally take them for what they are. HOWEVER, Mr. Huntingdon has shown me that fuckboys are timeless. Timeless! It’s remarkable how modern their courtship felt. I found myself unable to put this one down because I was rooting for Helen to DUMP HIM!!! (as they say).
The story’s main characters each have one or two defining personality traits that become sort of cartoonish as the book goes on: Helen’s piousness, Mr. H’s selfishness, and Gilbert’s tempestuousness. Mr. Hargraves’…respect…for Helen is another trait that was pursued to its extreme in a way that surprised me. Perhaps this story was meant in part to be a meditation on inflexibility, although I felt like at least one character experienced some growth.
Fun fact: Anne Brontë depicted so much debauchery in this book that she actually apologized for it in the second edition’s introduction. Well, she sort of said “sorry you felt that way, won’t happen again.” Personally I thought it was a lot of fun.
The story’s main characters each have one or two defining personality traits that become sort of cartoonish as the book goes on: Helen’s piousness, Mr. H’s selfishness, and Gilbert’s tempestuousness. Mr. Hargraves’…respect…for Helen is another trait that was pursued to its extreme in a way that surprised me. Perhaps this story was meant in part to be a meditation on inflexibility, although I felt like at least one character experienced some growth.
Fun fact: Anne Brontë depicted so much debauchery in this book that she actually apologized for it in the second edition’s introduction. Well, she sort of said “sorry you felt that way, won’t happen again.” Personally I thought it was a lot of fun.
I think it might be hard to overestimate just how revolutionary this book might have been when it was published. I have not yet read as widely as I intend of 18th and 19th century British literature, but I know that Jane Austen (whose writing I'm most familiar with) would not have gone into this level of detail about vices and the cruelty they may cause. And to have a wife leave her husband, taking his child, must really have been scandalous in that time when both wife and child were a man's property. My hat is off to Bronte for making the reader sympathetic to Helen (I hope that she was sympathetic even to contemporary readers), though my 21st century sensibilities rebelled at the excess of piety, and the tropes of both the long-suffering angel wife, and the zealous reformer who passes judgement and exhorts virtue for the sinner's own sake. When Helen was going to marry Arthur and I could tell, even then, that he was bad news, I sighed a little bit to see that there was more than 200 pages of dissipation ahead before we rejoined with Gilbert's story. But Bronte had a point to make, and make it she did.
I was a little surprised that some of the language seemed so modern. On more than one occasion, I found myself thinking "they knew that phrase back then?" I also loved some of her word choices, for example using the word corrugated as a verb: "he corrugated his brow." I've learned a little bit about the Bronte family in the last few months and the amount of shade thrown at Anne riles me up, M.A. Ward's introduction providing a good example. Charlotte and Emily may have been more obvious geniuses, but Anne was certainly no slouch. I'm glad I read this.
I was a little surprised that some of the language seemed so modern. On more than one occasion, I found myself thinking "they knew that phrase back then?" I also loved some of her word choices, for example using the word corrugated as a verb: "he corrugated his brow." I've learned a little bit about the Bronte family in the last few months and the amount of shade thrown at Anne riles me up, M.A. Ward's introduction providing a good example. Charlotte and Emily may have been more obvious geniuses, but Anne was certainly no slouch. I'm glad I read this.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Wonderful read, very atmospheric.
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not as good as Jane Eyre (and why do we compare these sisters’ works to each other?) but after about a third, I really enjoyed it. Less dramatic than the other Brontes’ works, this one, about a woman in 1824 fleeing a bad marriage, felt fresh. Helen, who with her young son hides from her abusive husband, comes across as too sermonizing at times. I assume it would have been necessary to make her sympathetic to the audience at the time, so it was easy to look past.
reflective
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
Esta obra literaria es muy densa y compleja. Trataré de poner las temáticas que aborda:
Helen Graham, es una joven codiciada de la época con varios pretendientes y una nueva inquilina de Wildfell Hall, llamando la atención de los ingleses cercanos. Sin embargo, pasan una serie de cosas en las que tuvo que abordar ese pasado tan tormentoso con su esposo, quien era un borracho, vicioso, y con toques de vulgaridad y violencia que te hacen detestarlo como lector. Hellen resalta en su búsqueda de refinamiento y su alejamiento de ambientes considerados vulgares. Se insinúa cierta insatisfacción con su situación actual y una búsqueda de mayor confort y sofisticación, aunque su religiosidad predomina en todas sus acciones.
Los personajes secundarios revelan tensiones, preocupaciones y deseos ocultos. Se insinúan conflictos emocionales y sociales que podrían desarrollarse a lo largo de la trama, siendo inclusive molestos en sus conversaciones de ocio.
Se aborda el tema de una separación, con una de las partes expresando una sensación de urgencia y la otra mostrando un enfoque más calmado y racional. La situación se presenta como una cuestión vital y emocionalmente cargada para uno de los personajes.
Se discuten las complejidades del amor, la naturaleza humana y las relaciones interpersonales, mostrando diferentes perspectivas y emociones intensas. El tema de la enfermedad y la muerte también está presente, generando reflexiones sobre la vida y el propósito de la existencia.
Se exploran conflictos internos y externos, como el perdón, la reconciliación y el arrepentimiento, así como la necesidad de compasión y comprensión en las relaciones humanas. La moralidad y la ética se cuestionan en medio de situaciones difíciles y decisiones dolorosas.
Los personajes muestran una amplia gama de emociones, desde la amargura y el resentimiento hasta la compasión y la esperanza. Se abordan temas universales como el sufrimiento, la redención y la búsqueda de significado en medio de la adversidad.
En general es una buena obra, pero es difícil recomendarla, puesto que muestra la sociedad victoriana inglesa, donde la predominancia económica o social, son mayores a los dotes de valores o emocionales, puesto que las mujeres debían cumplir con roles de salvación, vida doméstica, belleza, docilidad o virtudes femeninas.
Helen Graham, es una joven codiciada de la época con varios pretendientes y una nueva inquilina de Wildfell Hall, llamando la atención de los ingleses cercanos. Sin embargo, pasan una serie de cosas en las que tuvo que abordar ese pasado tan tormentoso con su esposo, quien era un borracho, vicioso, y con toques de vulgaridad y violencia que te hacen detestarlo como lector. Hellen resalta en su búsqueda de refinamiento y su alejamiento de ambientes considerados vulgares. Se insinúa cierta insatisfacción con su situación actual y una búsqueda de mayor confort y sofisticación, aunque su religiosidad predomina en todas sus acciones.
Los personajes secundarios revelan tensiones, preocupaciones y deseos ocultos. Se insinúan conflictos emocionales y sociales que podrían desarrollarse a lo largo de la trama, siendo inclusive molestos en sus conversaciones de ocio.
Se aborda el tema de una separación, con una de las partes expresando una sensación de urgencia y la otra mostrando un enfoque más calmado y racional. La situación se presenta como una cuestión vital y emocionalmente cargada para uno de los personajes.
Se discuten las complejidades del amor, la naturaleza humana y las relaciones interpersonales, mostrando diferentes perspectivas y emociones intensas. El tema de la enfermedad y la muerte también está presente, generando reflexiones sobre la vida y el propósito de la existencia.
Se exploran conflictos internos y externos, como el perdón, la reconciliación y el arrepentimiento, así como la necesidad de compasión y comprensión en las relaciones humanas. La moralidad y la ética se cuestionan en medio de situaciones difíciles y decisiones dolorosas.
Los personajes muestran una amplia gama de emociones, desde la amargura y el resentimiento hasta la compasión y la esperanza. Se abordan temas universales como el sufrimiento, la redención y la búsqueda de significado en medio de la adversidad.
En general es una buena obra, pero es difícil recomendarla, puesto que muestra la sociedad victoriana inglesa, donde la predominancia económica o social, son mayores a los dotes de valores o emocionales, puesto que las mujeres debían cumplir con roles de salvación, vida doméstica, belleza, docilidad o virtudes femeninas.
I was surprised at how much of a feminist book this was especially for the time. It challenges the law where women couldn't own or inherit property, couldn't earn a living (through Helen painting), couldn't divorce etc. It was a very straight forward blunt novel discussing taboo topics like alcoholism, gambling, affairs, and domestic violence.