Not long ago I wrote about Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, and I said that you should read that first as an introduction to her writing. And the reason for that is when I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall I was blown away by it.
EG and I have discussed this book a lot because she’s not a huge fan of the Brontes but she has read this one. The narrator is male, who writes a series of letters telling the story, and EGs thoughts were that Anne Bronte wrote that voice in a very convincing way.
So the story. In essence it’s the story of Gilbert Markham who is a gentleman farmer I think. In his neighbourhood arrives a widow, Mrs Graham, and her young son, Arthur. Misunderstandings abound as Markham finds himself being drawn in and ultimately falling in love with Mrs Graham. Who actually does everything that she can to repel him, not because she doesn’t return his feelings but because she has a secret.
The other side of the story is about the life of Arthur Huntingdon, a wealthy land owner who is squandering his wealth on a dissolute lifestyle in London. What is interesting about Huntingdon is that he is not led astray by this lifestyle, rather he is the one who is leading others astray. There’s an excellent exchange between Huntingdon and his friend, Lord Lowborough, who wants to make a clean start and break free from the addictions and vices that he has. He tells Huntingdon that in order to do so he must break free from Huntingdon because he has such an influence on him that it would be impossible otherwise.
Anne Bronte portrays with astonishing accuracy her characters that are so real you have no problem in believing in them. I would say that she certainly rivals if not surpasses Jane Austen in her perception of human character.
Other characters breeze in and out, many of them are snake like, such as Annabella Wilmott and Walter Hargrave, and are exasperating in their scheming and lack of concern for others. But there are also characters such as Millicent, who you feel sorry for because she is caught up in the traditions and expectations of the times and gets married almost against her will.
By the time you get to the last section of the book you’re glad of the calm that it seems to bring. You’re now out of the frenetic atmosphere of the out of control characters in the rest of the book. But misunderstandings still abound and there’s a low level tension right until the end. But the end, when you get there, feels like the morning after a terrible storm. Although not a dramatic ending it is pleasing and takes into account all that as happened. The simplicity of it works in great contrast with the rest of the book.
If you never read any other classic in your life read this. It was way ahead of its time in the way it challenged the social norms of its day and I’m sure that not many would dispute that this is an important work of literature.
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