576 pages
English language
Published May 7, 1996
Librarian note: Alternate cover editions for this ISBN are: "Woman in white dress" (with the title on white and black background), "Woman at the easel" on a black and blue background, and "Furniture, easel and window".
Anne Brontë's second novel is a passionate and courageous challenge to the conventions supposedly upheld by Victorian society and reflected in circulating-library fiction. The heroine, Helen Huntingdon, after a short period of initial happiness, leaves her dissolute husband, and must earn her own living to rescue her son from his influence. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is compelling in its imaginative power, the realism and range of its dialogue, and its psychological insight into the characters involved in a marital battle.
While I acknowledge the success of the present work to have been greater than I anticipated, and the praises it has elicited from a few kind critics to have been greater than it …
Librarian note: Alternate cover editions for this ISBN are: "Woman in white dress" (with the title on white and black background), "Woman at the easel" on a black and blue background, and "Furniture, easel and window".
Anne Brontë's second novel is a passionate and courageous challenge to the conventions supposedly upheld by Victorian society and reflected in circulating-library fiction. The heroine, Helen Huntingdon, after a short period of initial happiness, leaves her dissolute husband, and must earn her own living to rescue her son from his influence. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is compelling in its imaginative power, the realism and range of its dialogue, and its psychological insight into the characters involved in a marital battle.
While I acknowledge the success of the present work to have been greater than I anticipated, and the praises it has elicited from a few kind critics to have been greater than it deserved, I must also admit that from some other quarters it has been censured with an asperity which I was as little prepared to expect, and which my judgment, as well as my feelings, assures me is more bitter than just.
It is scarcely the province of an author to refute the arguments of his censors and vindicate his own productions; but I may be allowed to make here a few observations with which I would have prefaced the first edition, had I foreseen the necessity of such precautions against the misapprehensions of those who would read it with a prejudiced mind or be content to judge it by a hasty glance.
anne brontë evidently hates men, marriage, and marriage to men so this book is an 11/10.
also, fergus, sancho, and rover are the stars of this show.
I thought I would read Anne Brontë before reading Charlotte Brontë; Why? Because I didn’t want to go with the most popular of the three; before exploring Anne and Emily. I loved Wuthering Heights for its unexpected story, with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I was secretly hoping from more of that. But instead I was presented with a book that while it with very much a Victorian novel; it did push topics, like Divorce, Abuse, Alcoholism, Feminism, Adultery and many more issues to do with morels.
I’ve heard this to be one of the better books on Marriage, Love, Social Realism, Piety, Alcoholism, Status and identity of its time and while I do agree. I sometimes felt as if the story dragged on more than it really had to. I know many books in the 1800’s like to go off in many directions without moving the story forward, and …
I thought I would read Anne Brontë before reading Charlotte Brontë; Why? Because I didn’t want to go with the most popular of the three; before exploring Anne and Emily. I loved Wuthering Heights for its unexpected story, with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I was secretly hoping from more of that. But instead I was presented with a book that while it with very much a Victorian novel; it did push topics, like Divorce, Abuse, Alcoholism, Feminism, Adultery and many more issues to do with morels.
I’ve heard this to be one of the better books on Marriage, Love, Social Realism, Piety, Alcoholism, Status and identity of its time and while I do agree. I sometimes felt as if the story dragged on more than it really had to. I know many books in the 1800’s like to go off in many directions without moving the story forward, and I’m fine with that; if the story was interesting and the plot wasn’t predictable. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was a beautifully written book and I highly recommend it to everyone, I just think predictability stopped me from loving this book.
A beautifully written, and surprisingly progressive novel.
Je suis depuis des années fan d’Emily et Charlotte, ce coup-ci, j’avais décidé de découvrir Anne. Tout est pour me plaire dans ce livre. Pourtant, à un tiers du livre, j’ai réalisé le nombre de livres qui m’attendent dans ma PAL. J’ai réalisé que malgré tous les bons côtés du livre (le style, l’époque, le sujet, la psychologie des personnages, même l’édition que j’adore pour son papier tout moche et ses couvertures magnifiques), je commençais à m’ennuyer sérieusement. J’ai bizarrement et inexplicablement décroché de l’histoire de la locataire, Helen Graham. Je pense qu’à partir du moment où c’est à son tour de raconter, trop de choses me font penser à Jane Austen (en moins mièvre tout de même). Et surtout, le manque évident de surprise me déçoit, on sait comment ça commence, comment ça finit, et entre les deux, rien ne me retient. Je reprendrai sans doute cette lecture plus …
Je suis depuis des années fan d’Emily et Charlotte, ce coup-ci, j’avais décidé de découvrir Anne. Tout est pour me plaire dans ce livre. Pourtant, à un tiers du livre, j’ai réalisé le nombre de livres qui m’attendent dans ma PAL. J’ai réalisé que malgré tous les bons côtés du livre (le style, l’époque, le sujet, la psychologie des personnages, même l’édition que j’adore pour son papier tout moche et ses couvertures magnifiques), je commençais à m’ennuyer sérieusement. J’ai bizarrement et inexplicablement décroché de l’histoire de la locataire, Helen Graham. Je pense qu’à partir du moment où c’est à son tour de raconter, trop de choses me font penser à Jane Austen (en moins mièvre tout de même). Et surtout, le manque évident de surprise me déçoit, on sait comment ça commence, comment ça finit, et entre les deux, rien ne me retient. Je reprendrai sans doute cette lecture plus tard, mais là, je pense que l’humeur n’y est pas, donc je prends la rare décision de passer à autre chose, car ma curiosité habituelle ne suffit pas ce coup-ci à me pousser à le finir. J’en reste moi-même pantoise…
