The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Michael A. Dover

Jun 1993 · Oxford Paperbacks

About this ebook

Anne Bront--euml--;'s second novel seemed to many contemporary readers shockingly unlike her first Agnes Grey, published in the previous year. There, Charlotte Bront--euml--; had admired her sister's `quiet description and simple pathos', but she was disturbed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which reminded reviewers of Wuthering Heights: it was, in spite of its `excellent moral', `coarse, not to say brutal'. For Anne's heroine, Helen Huntingdon, having endured too many of the `revolting scenes' deplored by reviewers, leaves her dissolute husband in order to earn her own living and rescue her son from his influence. A passionate and courageous challenge to the conventions supposedly upheld by Victorian society and reflected in circulating-library fiction, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is compelling in its imaginative power, in the bold naturalism of its central scenes, the realism and range of its dialogue, and in its psychological insight into the characters involved in the marital battle. The present text is based on the first edition of July 1848, incorporating authorial corrections from the second edition. - ;Anne Bront--euml--;'s second novel seemed to many contemporary readers shockingly unlike her first Agnes Grey, published in the previous year. There, Charlotte Bront--euml--; had admired her sister's `quiet description and simple pathos', but she was disturbed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which reminded reviewers of Wuthering Heights: it was, in spite of its `excellent moral', `coarse, not to say brutal'. For Anne's heroine, Helen Huntingdon, having endured too many of the `revolting scenes' deplored by reviewers, leaves her dissolute husband in order to earn her own living and rescue her son from his influence. A passionate and courageous challenge to the conventions supposedly upheld by Victorian society and reflected in circulating-library fiction, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is compelling in its imaginative power, in the bold naturalism of its central scenes, the realism and range of its dialogue, and in its psychological insight into the characters involved in the marital battle. The present text is based on the first edition of July 1848, incorporating authorial corrections from the second edition. -

About the author

Anne Bronte was the daughter of an impoverished clergyman of Haworth in Yorkshire, England. Considered by many critics as the least talented of the Bronte sisters, Anne wrote two novels. Agnes Grey (1847) is the story of a governess, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), is a tale of the evils of drink and profligacy. Her acquaintance with the sin and wickedness shown in her novels was so astounding that Charlotte Bronte saw fit to explain in a preface that the source of her sister's knowledge of evil was their brother Branwell's dissolute ways. A habitue of drink and drugs, he finally became an addict. Anne Bronte's other notable work is her Complete Poems. Anne Bronte died in 1849.