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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was the second novel written by Anne Brontë, the youngest of the Brontë sisters. First released in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell, it was considered shocking by the standards of the time due to its themes of domestic disharmony, drunkenness and adultery. Perhaps this was why it quickly became a publishing success. However, when Anne died from tuberculosis her sister Charlotte prevented its republication until 1854, perhaps fearing for her sister’s reputation, though some attributed her actions to jealousy.
The story is framed as a series of letters by the protagonist Gilbert Markham to his friend Halford. Markham tells of the arrival of a young widow, Mrs. Graham, in his rural neighborhood. She brings with her her five year old son Arthur and takes up residence in the partly-ruined Wildfell Hall. Gossip soon begins to swirl around her, questioning her mysterious background and the closeness of her relationship with her landlord Frederick Lawrence. Dismissing these concerns, Gilbert Markham becomes deeply enamored of Helen Graham, and she seems to return his affection strongly. He however becomes increasingly suspicious and jealous of Lawrence, who makes frequent visits to the Hall. He secretly espies them walking together one night, apparently in a romantic relationship. After he confronts Helen over this, she gives him her diary of the last few years and tells him to read it to understand everything. Much of the rest of the novel is made up of extracts from Helen’s diary, which tells the story of her unhappy marriage.
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Subjects
Fiction, Married women, Landlord and tenant, Alcoholics, Social life and customs, Alcoholism, Domestic fiction, Literature, Separated women, FICTION / General, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Married people, fiction, England, fiction, Fiction, family life, Fiction, general, Fiction, family life, general, Large type books, Readers, Manners and customs, Women authors, Biography, General, Romans, nouvelles, Femmes mariées, Alcooliques, English literaturePeople
Anne Brontë (1820-1849)Places
EnglandShowing 11 featured editions. View all 545 editions?
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The tenant of Wildfell Hall
2015, CreateSpace Independent Publishing
in English
1517144884 9781517144883
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The tenant of Wildfell Hall
2013, W F Howes Ltd
in English
- Large print edition.
1471241211 9781471241215
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Tenant of Wildfell Hall
2012, Emereo Publishing Pty Limited
in English
- The original classic edition.
1486147127 9781486147120
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The tenant of Wildfell Hall
1997, Modern Library
in English
- Modern Library ed.
0679602798 9780679602798
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The tenant of Wildfell Hall
1996, Wordsworth Editions
in English
- [Complete and unabridged]
1853264881 9781853264887
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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.
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- Created February 9, 2022
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January 7, 2024 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
September 26, 2023 | Edited by bitnapper | Merge works (MRID: 82430) |
September 16, 2023 | Edited by bitnapper | merge authors |
September 13, 2023 | Edited by David Scotson | Edited without comment. |
February 9, 2022 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from standard_ebooks:anne-bronte MARC record. |