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A review by erinsca
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
5.0
Anne Bronte is my homegirl. This book was so wonderful. Anne did a wonderful job of telling a (feminist!)morality tale while weaving a romance and personal growth through it all. I don't know why The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is so under-appreciated in today's book culture but I hope that changes soon.
This story is about a mysterious woman called "Helen Graham" who comes to a tight-knit town with her small son Arthur and inhabits the dreary Wildfell Hall and intrigues the gossipy neighbors. She is apparently a widow, she supports herself with her paintings, and she appears to others to be harsh, unforgiving, and overly pious. (She won't drink alcohol and keeps her son near her at all times which irritates the villagers.)
A local farmer, Gilbert Markham is attracted to this beautiful young widow and starts a friendship with her. She is reluctant to become attached to Markham but eventually the two fall in love.
After much time, she decides to reveal to Gilbert that she is not, in fact, a widow but that she is hiding from her abusive, alcoholic, philandering husband so that he can't taint her son and ruin him. The book goes into great detail on the perils of marrying the wrong man and the consequences that women in those days had to endure if their husband was a monster.
It ends happy but not without a period of dreary existence for poor Helen. Stick with it though and in the end Ms.Bronte does a great job of actually showing the relationship of Hero and Heroine unlike so many novels of the time that wrap up the romantic tension in two paragraphs.
This is a must-read for lovers of classic literature. Do yourself a favor and read it!
This story is about a mysterious woman called "Helen Graham" who comes to a tight-knit town with her small son Arthur and inhabits the dreary Wildfell Hall and intrigues the gossipy neighbors. She is apparently a widow, she supports herself with her paintings, and she appears to others to be harsh, unforgiving, and overly pious. (She won't drink alcohol and keeps her son near her at all times which irritates the villagers.)
A local farmer, Gilbert Markham is attracted to this beautiful young widow and starts a friendship with her. She is reluctant to become attached to Markham but eventually the two fall in love.
After much time, she decides to reveal to Gilbert that she is not, in fact, a widow but that she is hiding from her abusive, alcoholic, philandering husband so that he can't taint her son and ruin him. The book goes into great detail on the perils of marrying the wrong man and the consequences that women in those days had to endure if their husband was a monster.
It ends happy but not without a period of dreary existence for poor Helen. Stick with it though and in the end Ms.Bronte does a great job of actually showing the relationship of Hero and Heroine unlike so many novels of the time that wrap up the romantic tension in two paragraphs.
This is a must-read for lovers of classic literature. Do yourself a favor and read it!