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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
inspiring
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
Usually, when I have to read books for class I find myself skimming and dragging my way through it, but this book captured my attention unlike any I have read for class recently. This was my first Bronte book, and after reading it, I was shocked that I did not know the name Anne Bronte before. Her views on marriage, motherhood, womanhood, independence, and social norms were so advanced for her time, and I am sure that this was shocking to readers when it was published. I was invested the entire story, wondering what would happen next and if Helen would make it out. This book was inspiring and showed women at the time that they could make it out.
I'm done with Brontës. I feel like I've given them enough of a chance, but that's it, I'm out.
This barely squeaks by with a 2-star rating, which is only for the first part, that's told from the POV of Gilbert, and is just about gossipy country people. Fergus is actually pretty funny!
Unfortunately, that's it for levity. After that it's all violent alcoholics throwing chairs and having indiscreet affairs and being generally totally horrible. Anne Brontë has no subtlety. The bad guys are REALLY EFFING BAD and literally going to hell, and the good guys are oh so perfect and don't really drink and get in the fields to work with their tenants and have lovely dogs and are quite pious and godly and everybody ends up happily married with tons of money and children, but they didn't have to feel guilty about any of it because they never did anything wrong. I don't even think they had one single kiss when they were unmarried, they just, like, hugged.
Everything was super predictable but it took forever to get there. I'm out, Brontës. I'm out.
This barely squeaks by with a 2-star rating, which is only for the first part, that's told from the POV of Gilbert, and is just about gossipy country people. Fergus is actually pretty funny!
Unfortunately, that's it for levity. After that it's all violent alcoholics throwing chairs and having indiscreet affairs and being generally totally horrible. Anne Brontë has no subtlety. The bad guys are REALLY EFFING BAD and literally going to hell, and the good guys are oh so perfect and don't really drink and get in the fields to work with their tenants and have lovely dogs and are quite pious and godly and everybody ends up happily married with tons of money and children, but they didn't have to feel guilty about any of it because they never did anything wrong. I don't even think they had one single kiss when they were unmarried, they just, like, hugged.
Everything was super predictable but it took forever to get there. I'm out, Brontës. I'm out.
Anyone who still sees Anne Brontë as the boring, self-sacrificing, quiet sister should definitely read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . She was actually the most radical of the three sisters, shocking Victorian society with her powerful attack on its laws and morals.
Eighteen year old Helen marries the rich and handsome Arthur Huntindon, who turns out to be a cheating, alcholic douchebag. This is no surprise to the reader, since he's been giving off “bad guy” vibes from the beginning. Helen, however, has been raised by an overprotective, pious aunt. She doesn't know a thing about men, has barely been allowed to have any contact with them. Only the man her aunt has chosen for her is safe – an old, virtuous bore who seems to think it a great honour for the flawed Helen to marry such a perfect guy as himself. Of course Helen goes for the wild, exciting Arthur.
Anne Brontë shows the great flaw of the Victorian education of women: when you shelter them too much, they won't be able to handle the bad stuff that will inevitably be thrown at them. “You would have her to be tenderly and delicately nurtured, like a hot-house plant – taught to cling to others for direction and support, and guarded, as much as possible, from the very knowledge of evil (…) I would not send a poor girl into the world, unarmed against her foes and ignorant of the snares that beset her path; nor would I watch her and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power, or the will, to watch and guard herself”. Never allowing women to see the world, to make mistakes, to experience life doesn't protect them from evil, Anne seems to say. It only makes them more susceptible to it. Quite a shocking sentiment in the nineteenth century.
And that's not the only problem Anne Brontë points out. She also notices what Victorian morality can do tot men (she witnessed it first-hand when her brother Branwell discovered alcohol). When everyone is taught that women are the weaker sex, the ones who must resist temptation and always be self-sacrificing, what effect will that have on men? When mothers tell their sons “it is your business to please yourself and hers (the wife's) to please you”, is it any wonder that so many men grow up to be selfish assholes? Actually, they never really grow up at all, but remain spoiled children for the rest of their lives. It's not hard to see why Arthur just does whatever the hell he wants, without ever considering Helen's feelings and why he slowly descends into alcoholism. He's been told from childhood that he must put himself first and his wife second, that his pleasures are more important than hers, that drinking alcohol is a great, manly thing to do
Though the other men aren't as bad as Arthur, they do behave a bit like spoiled children. Gilbert Markham, for example, is essentially a good guy, but even he occasionally seems to regard Helen as some kind of possession. He loves her, so it's basically his right to be loved back. When he thinks he's got a rival for her affections, ; when it looks like Helen isn't the perfect angel he thought she was, he considers it an insult to himself. He never seems to realise that it's not all about him.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is not a perfect novel. It's about a 100 pages too long and way too preachy for that. Anne's prose is sometimes a bit dry compared to that of her sisters (though I do think she was overall a better writer than Charlotte) But Tenant was the kick up the ass the Victorian era needed. It's a daring, powerful work that deserves to be as widely read as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
Eighteen year old Helen marries the rich and handsome Arthur Huntindon, who turns out to be a cheating, alcholic douchebag. This is no surprise to the reader, since he's been giving off “bad guy” vibes from the beginning. Helen, however, has been raised by an overprotective, pious aunt. She doesn't know a thing about men, has barely been allowed to have any contact with them. Only the man her aunt has chosen for her is safe – an old, virtuous bore who seems to think it a great honour for the flawed Helen to marry such a perfect guy as himself. Of course Helen goes for the wild, exciting Arthur.
Anne Brontë shows the great flaw of the Victorian education of women: when you shelter them too much, they won't be able to handle the bad stuff that will inevitably be thrown at them. “You would have her to be tenderly and delicately nurtured, like a hot-house plant – taught to cling to others for direction and support, and guarded, as much as possible, from the very knowledge of evil (…) I would not send a poor girl into the world, unarmed against her foes and ignorant of the snares that beset her path; nor would I watch her and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power, or the will, to watch and guard herself”. Never allowing women to see the world, to make mistakes, to experience life doesn't protect them from evil, Anne seems to say. It only makes them more susceptible to it. Quite a shocking sentiment in the nineteenth century.
And that's not the only problem Anne Brontë points out. She also notices what Victorian morality can do tot men (she witnessed it first-hand when her brother Branwell discovered alcohol). When everyone is taught that women are the weaker sex, the ones who must resist temptation and always be self-sacrificing, what effect will that have on men? When mothers tell their sons “it is your business to please yourself and hers (the wife's) to please you”, is it any wonder that so many men grow up to be selfish assholes? Actually, they never really grow up at all, but remain spoiled children for the rest of their lives. It's not hard to see why Arthur just does whatever the hell he wants, without ever considering Helen's feelings and why he slowly descends into alcoholism. He's been told from childhood that he must put himself first and his wife second, that his pleasures are more important than hers, that drinking alcohol is a great, manly thing to do
Spoiler
(Helen gets a ton of criticism when she tells the Markhams that she doesn't want her son to drink wine. It's silly, ungrateful and, of course, girlish not to drink).Though the other men aren't as bad as Arthur, they do behave a bit like spoiled children.
Spoiler
Helen's second husbandSpoiler
he beats the man half to deathThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall is not a perfect novel. It's about a 100 pages too long and way too preachy for that. Anne's prose is sometimes a bit dry compared to that of her sisters (though I do think she was overall a better writer than Charlotte) But Tenant was the kick up the ass the Victorian era needed. It's a daring, powerful work that deserves to be as widely read as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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
It lacked the power of Agnes Gray, at least I personally wasn't pulled in it so much, but overall a good read that never left you feeling bored.
1st reading, 2015, 4 stars:
An excellent novel, with themes of heartbreak, disappointment, struggle, and then romance, redemption and triumph. Very similar to Jane Eyre with its proto-feminist undercurrent, although Jane is probably superior, given the wider girth of that story. Still, it held its own and I liked it far greater than Wuthering Heights. Anne wrote some very long sentences but had a wonderful vocabulary (again, surpassed by her sister).
2nd reading, 2023, 3 stars:
I found it to be predictable and contrived; the plot elements didn't seem organic, but rather calculated to achieve the result of the happy ending. Helen's religious sanctimoniousness was irritating and she was such a goody-two-shoes that I disliked her. I see it as a social justice novel that points out the social problems of women not being able to own property in a marriage or leave that marriage.
An excellent novel, with themes of heartbreak, disappointment, struggle, and then romance, redemption and triumph. Very similar to Jane Eyre with its proto-feminist undercurrent, although Jane is probably superior, given the wider girth of that story. Still, it held its own and I liked it far greater than Wuthering Heights. Anne wrote some very long sentences but had a wonderful vocabulary (again, surpassed by her sister).
2nd reading, 2023, 3 stars:
I found it to be predictable and contrived; the plot elements didn't seem organic, but rather calculated to achieve the result of the happy ending. Helen's religious sanctimoniousness was irritating and she was such a goody-two-shoes that I disliked her. I see it as a social justice novel that points out the social problems of women not being able to own property in a marriage or leave that marriage.
A powerful, often gripping story of a woman's struggle in a dysfunctional marriage. It exposes the injustices experienced by Victorian women, and to some extent women today, in a male-controlled society where they have to fight to maintain their identity in the face of thoughtless, predatory and violent men. Despite the novel's exploration of ideas around the role of women and Christian virtue, it brings the characters and their world to life with immediacy and passion.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
You have to fall in love with this gutsy, principled, heroine who defies convention to maintain her self respect. Even with the emotional religiously-fuelled melodrama it was still bold stuff for its time. Perhaps that’s why sister Charlotte didn't quite appreciate it as much as it deserved.