A review by verosnotebook
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

4.0

Re-read

"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 and guard her, till, deprived of self-respect and self-reliance, she lost the power or the will to watch and guard herself.”

Here is another book I should have read ages ago! When you hear the name of Bronte, you always think of [b:Jane Eyre|11016|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508416692l/11016._SY75_.jpg|2977639] (which I loved) and [b:Wuthering Heights|6185|Wuthering Heights|Emily Brontë|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587655304l/6185._SY75_.jpg|1565818] (not so keen). Anne however seems to only get a side notation, but she really deserves her place next to her sisters.

Her style is indeed totally different, favouring a realist treatment to a romantic one, bringing to the light some very unsavory elements. Anne didn't just dare to speak in a frank manner of depravity, alcoholism, and the horrendous powerlessness of married women in a patriarchal society that saw them as little more than objects, but she gave us a woman who confronted these. Helen is not perfect, far from it, but she fights back, and Anne gives her the only excuse a Victorian public would have accepted, the well-being and salvation of her child.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised and rushed through the novel.