The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Penguin Classics)
A powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom, from the youngest of the Brontë sisters
Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. It is only when she allows Gilbert to read her diary that the truth is revealed and the shocking details of the disastrous marriage she has left behind emerge. Told with great immediacy, combined with wit and irony, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom.
This Penguin Classics edition of Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her groundbreaking study of a woman's valiant struggle for independence from an abusive husband, is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis. In her introduction Davies discusses The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as feminist testament, inspired by Anne Brontë's experiences as a governess and by the death of her brother Branwell Brontë, and examines the novel's language, biblical references and narrative styles.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Community Reviews
A much underrated and underread book, and one I prefer to Wuthering Heights.[return][return]A mysterious woman (with a child but no husband) moves into Wildfell Hall, and one of the local landowners Gilbert Markham becomes intrigued with her remoteness. Gilbert falls in love with Helen Graham, but feels that he is getting nowhere, and becomes suspicious of her relationship with her landlord.[return][return]Gilbert confronts her, and she reveals that she is in love with him, and hands over her diary for him to read. It provides reasons for her living apparently unmarried but with a child; her marriage to a violent drunken husband; her relationship with her landlord; her need and desire to protect her son; trying to earn a living in a society that does not allow women to independently have a serious job or career without the "protection" of a husband (living with a violent drunk always being preferred to walking away).[return][return]Rightly or wrongly I've always seen Gilbert as the "younger man". I think in terms of years, he is probably older than Helen, it's just in terms of emotional maturity and life lessons, she is much older than him. He has had a reasonably easy and unchallenging life whilst she has had so much to confront.
“Arthur has returned to nearly his former condition and habits, and I have found it my wisest plan to shut my eyes against the past and future, as far as he at least is concerned, and live only for the present—to love him when I can, to smile (if possible) when he smiles, be cheerful when he is cheerful and pleased when he is agreeable. And when he is not, to try to make him so—and if that won't answer, to bear with him, to excuse him and forgive him as well as I can, and restrain my own evil passions from aggravating his.”