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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Josephine McDonagh (Author), Anne Bront� (Contributor), Herbert Rosengarten (Editor) "Readers who do not wish to �earn details of the plot will prefer to treat the Introduction as an Afterword ..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: OUP Oxford; New Ed edition (17 April 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0199207550
ISBN-13: 978-0199207558
Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 39,771 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#1 in Books > Fiction > The Classics > Bronte, Anne
#15 in Books > Fiction > Women Writers & Fiction > Short Stories
#100 in Books > Fiction > Women Writers & Fiction > Women Authors

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Product Description

Product Description
'he looked up wistfully in my face, and gravely asked - "Mamma, why are you so wicked?"' The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall has a dark secret. But as the captivated Gilbert Markham will discover, it is not the story circulating among local gossips. Living under an assumed name, 'Helen Graham' is the estranged wife of a dissolute rake, desperate to protect her son from his destructive influence. Her diary entries reveal the shocking world of debauchery and cruelty from which she has fled. Combining a sensational story of a man's physical and moral decline through alcohol, a study of marital breakdown, a disquisition on the care and upbringing of children, and a hard-hitting critique of the position of women in Victorian society, this passionate tale of betrayal is set within a stern moral framework tempered by Anne Brontë's optimistic belief in universal redemption. Drawing on her first-hand experiences with her brother Branwell, Brontë's novel scandalized contemporary readers. It still retains its power to shock.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Readers who do not wish to �earn details of the plot will prefer to treat the Introduction as an Afterword. Read the first page

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If only she could have written more., 14 Jan 2009

By	Alun Williams "mathematician manqu�" (Peterborough,England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I avoided reading any books by the Bront� sisters for many years, after failing to finish Villette, and then being put off further by Charlotte Bront�'s well-known remarks about Jane Austen. After coming across an old copy of Jane Eyre I decided it was time to give the sisters another chance. I quite enjoyed Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights, which I read next, I liked less. Then I turned to Anne, not expecting much more than a paler version of her sisters' works.

Instead I find myself reading one of the most powerful English 19th century novels there can be, reminiscent of Dickens in its exposure of the hypocrisies and wrongs of society, but with shock and anger against these expressed not by the author, but aroused in the reader by Anne's unsparing descriptions of events.

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is the story of a mysterious woman, Helen Graham, apparently a young widow with a child, and the development, after initial suspicion on her part, of friendship and finally love for a local farmer named Gilbert Markham. But, much more darkly, it is the story of a woman who learns the real nature of her adulterous husband, as he gradually descends into neglect and then abuse (of both her and their child), and is ravaged by alcoholism.

Few men of the time would have dared to write so frankly on such topics, and for a woman to have done so, especially one of Anne's background, is verging on the heroic, and must be counted a remarkable achievement.

At times the heroine, Helen, may strike some readers as pious or priggish - she reminded me of Fanny Price in Mansfield Park - and the author's firmly expressed Christian beliefs may also put some off. But nobody can fail to admire Helen's courage, endurance, and determination to protect her son.

Another review also suggests that Gilbert is not well drawn. However, I enjoyed the portrayal of his relations with his family and neighbours, though it is true that he is perhaps unaccountably violent and over-emotional at some points.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven book - Warning for SPOILERS !, 25 Oct 2008

By	Sibylle (France) - See all my reviews

1848 was quite a year in History : everywhere in Europe, but perhaps most specifically in France, revolutions were carried by those who felt were left out of the system. Flaubert wrote about it in L'Education Sentimentale. And in a way, the revolutionary elements of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall allow me to say that Anne Bront�, on another level, wrote very much about 1848 too.

The book is presented as a series of narratives reminiscent of the complex struture of Wuthering Heights : Mr Markham, a kind farmer, writes letters to his brother-in-law confiding in him his feelings towards a woman, Mrs Graham, who has just lent the house nearby and who seems to be a widow living alone with her son. Her moral principles and I would say austerity surprise the whole community not used to meeting a woman who takes such great care of her offspring so as to protect him from great or harmless dangers and everything in between. As the story enfolds, Markham gets closer and closer to Mrs Helen Graham even though this advancement can and should be contrasted with the polite coldness with which she accepts his attentions. One day, and this is the second level of narrative, she decides she wants him to understand what happened to her and gives him her diary in which we learn that she and little Arthur, her son, were abused by a self-indulgent, drunk and sadistic (in that he knows exactly what he's doing and takes pleasure in doing it) husband and father, Mr Huntington. To protect her and little Arthur's life, Helen had to flee and live as a recluse in a small village.

As the introduction to my edition reminded me, during the whole book, Helen is an outlaw. Not only was it shocking and not proper for a woman to leave her husband and taking the fruit of the marriage with her, it was just plain illegal and in surrendering her diary to Markham, Helen understands she might as well go to the nearest police station. It did strike me that the most revolutionary part of the story was delivered to us second-hand (by a character who reads the journal containing the story), we are deprived of an expected first-hand account of the events but with a publication in 1848, the heyday of the victorian era, it could be seen as a means for Bront� to somewhat stiffle its power. It is subversive in that it is an appealing portrait of an outlaw but also because in the middle of the 19th century it contains an allusion to suicide (and not related to the one you'd think).
Of course, there's no arguing this is also a feminist book and very much so - Anne Bront�'s makes her point very clearly : in victorian society, women have no status and their only goal in life is to live for somebody else, be it husband (wives) or father (and daughters). Helen has to support herself and Arthur through art. It also depicts the struggle of one person trying to fit boundaries, especially religious and moral ones, when she has broken every other boundary society had imposed on her. It is difficult to warm to Helen for just that reason : even though 21st century readers of course sympathize and understand very well what she's done, because of her austerity (she constantly refers to religion and the Bible, even quoting specific characters of the book to answer questions she's being asked, as my edition very cleverly shows it in its explanatory notes), we are prevented from ever relating to her. If her action is understandable, the part when she falls for Huntington before agreeing to marrying him is way less justifiable : all the clues are already here, he is jealous, spoilt and enjoys teasing her and making her ill-at-ease, yet she is attracted to that dangerous, reckless part of him. Because of this rather cold main protagonist, the reader has to rely on subplots and other characters to keep him or her satisfied, especially in the first part of the book which has many elements of the detective novel : Mr Lawrence is believed by Markham to be wooing Helen although several clues are given to some other connection between them, and Helen herself is a mystery during a great part of the book, an adulterous affair between two married people has to be deciphered. The sirupy end was just another a testament of Bront�'s uneven style.
Even though Anne Bront�'s realistic book kept me interested throughout, I think the way she portrays her characters could have been improved. It is of course way more radical than her sisters' works on the one hand (feminism) but on the other it indulges in some austerity her sisters don't depict this much and I couldn't justify this part. This left me with a feeling of coldness and distance, a shame for a book that contains so much fire.

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