Product Description

Anne Brontë's second novel seemed to many contemporary readers shockingly unlike her first Agnes Grey, published in the previous year. There, Charlotte Brontë 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #534662 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 520 pages

Review
"The chronology, notes, and explanatory notes makes this a readable text for any college student. The accessibility of the text sets this edition apart from the usual, mediocre preprintings of Victorian texts."--Professor Lawrence Czer, Martin Luther College
"An excellent text with an intelligent and helpful introduction. . . . an attractive book at a very agreeable price, and meticulously scholarly as well. I have not taught this text simply because, until now, there has been no text I liked sufficiently. Now I can. OUP has done academic teaching a major service."--Dr. A.G. Hunter, Curry College
"Anne Bronte sometimes gets lost in the shadows cast by her sisters, so it is a welcome treat to find such a useful, helpful, accessible edition of her fine novel. I look forward to the chance to introduce students to A.B.'s work in this attractive version."--Laura Dabundo, Kennesaw State College
"Clear type, useful notes, excellent binding."--H.A. Simpson, Hampden-Sydney College
"I have never included this novel in my course, but I'm seriously tempted with this version of it."--Sr. Pauline Fox, Mt. Mercy College
"An attractive, affordable copy."--Dr. Robert O'Connor, North Dakota State University
"Great to have new access to an under-represented author and text. Very helpful notes and insightful Introduction."--Rita S. Kranidis, Radford University
"How marvelous to have this out in paperback!"--Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis University
"An admirably edited text, authoritative."--Richard Boyd, University of California, Riverside
"A very valuable addition to the World's Classics series--a rare novel, difficult to find in inexpensive editions."--John H.Wilson, Dakota Wesleyan University

About the Author
Margaret Smith also teaches part-time at the University of Birmingham School of Continuing Studies, and is the joint editor of the Clarendon Brontë series. Together with Herbert Rosengarten, she has edited Shirley, Villette, and The Professor for the World's Classics.

Customer Reviews

A very under-rated work
Anne Brontë seems to have been overshadowed by her two sisters. Hardly surprising, but this is a great work in itself and should not be ignored. Her sister Charlotte did not like it much, she said it was unworthy of publication - but of course, she said the same about Jane Austen's works (whose style is similar to Anne's).

It traces, with remarkable frankness, the collapse of a woman's marriage to an abusive husband (who is loosely based on Brontë's brother Branwell), and her escape from him. The characters have odd and endearing foibles, and one never loses interest as the book progresses.

An excellant book, well worth the read!
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall tells the story of a young woman named Helen who comes to live on the Yorkshire Moors in a semi-derilect house with her young son Arthur and her loyal servant. Once the mistress of a luxurious house, this drastic step is necessitated by a need to rid her son from the corrupting influence of his reckless and almost always intoxicated father, and to escape herself from the humiliation of living with a husband who no longer loves her, and who takes pleasure from flauting his mistresses openly to her.

Assuming a new name and establishing herself as an artist to support herself and her son, Helen finds herself the subject of gossip and mistrust amongst almost all of the local population. Although living in constant fear of discovery by her husband, Helen attempts to make a success of her new life, a life made more bearable by the friendship of local yeoman farmer Gilbert.

But will Helens secret identity be able to remain a secret forever or will her past eventually catch up with her and threaten to destroy her budding romance with Gilbert?

This is an extremely well written book and is rather neglected alongside the successful novels written by her sisters Emily and Charlotte Bronte.

The book contains the passion and drama set around the Moors which you would expect from a Bronte, but it also presents an interesting critique about the place and role of women in 19th century England.

This classic novel is well worth reading.

Compelling and satisfying
This is the second of the two novels Anne wrote and was published in the year before she died of tuberculosis, aged just 29. She died at Scarborough, on England's northeast coast, a beautiful but at certain times of year wild and forbidding area, and it is here also that her two novels are set, although the locale is not specifically named.

Despite the Brontes being ordinary to the point of obscurity, three of the six children went on to become famous novelists, making them one of history's most extraordinary literary families. Like many people, I decided to read the most noted work of each of the three; Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights, and finally Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall. They are all complex, imaginative, atmospheric romantic sagas with dark, obsessive undertones. Charlotte is the most accomplished writer of the three and Jane Eyre remains the perfect romance. Wuthering Heights, despite its imaginative force, is an overheated, masochistic fantasy with a male protagonist too unremittingly cruel to pass muster as a romantic hero. Somewhere in the middle comes Tenant which, while not quite matching Charlotte's depth of feeling or stylistic skill, provides a compelling narrative, employs sympathetic characters and tackles socially important issues in a convincing manner.

The central characters have that anal-retentiveness that was characteristic of Victorian British gentlefolk. Bound by convention and duty to God and country, they can seem frustratingly inert to modern readers. You feel you want to shake them and say, "For Heaven's sake, just tell her how you feel!" or, "If he's so bad, leave him!" But this conflict between personal fulfillment and societal expectation is a large part of what the story is about. It no doubt accurately reflects contemporary attitudes and gives us a valuable insight into those times.

I will not summarize the plot, being averse to spoilers, and would recommend you avoid other reviews, including editorial ones, if you share that aversion, although that warning is probably too late. I will say it is blessedly free of the coincidences that bedevil nineteenth-century novels - including Jane Eyre - and is a classic example of a character-driven plot. The only aspect I could not quite fathom was the startlingly hostile and resentful attitude of the hero toward another of the male characters, at one time spilling over into physical violence. I understood his complaints against this man but his actions seemed inordinately belligerent and out of character.

The ending is interesting in terms of technique. The author draws it out, taking time off here and there to describe how the minor characters ended up. This may all seem a little too neat for some readers but will satisfy those of us who abhor loose ends.