She brooded over it till she believed it to be a duty to reproduce every detail (of course, with fictitious characters, incidents and situations), as a warning to others.

had, in the course of her life, been called on to contemplate near at hand, and for a long time, the terrible effects of talents misused and faculties abused hers was a naturally sensitive, reserved and dejected nature what she saw sank very deeply into her mind: it did her harm. Did her years as a governess have such an impact? Charlotte actually prevented a re-publication of The Tenant arguing the book ” hardly seems to me desirable to preserve”. The book caused so much scandal at the time, that after Anne’s death Charlotte had to justify why a maiden from the moors, daughter of the parson of an isolated village, wrote about physiological abuse and female independence in such terms. If that doesn’t make you want to read it, I don’t know what will At the time, Fraser’s Magazine pronounced it “utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls“. In a modern book we’d actually be able to read the abuse, but for a Victorian novel it’s still very powerful stuff! We’re not talking Austen and Gaskell’s cheeky wit, or the other Bronte sister’s dramatic passion, but descriptions of drunken brawls and open adultery that will make you cringe. Huntingdon, gathering his coat-laps under his arms, and setting his shoulder against the mantel-piece, turned to me, and, addressing me in a low voice, scarcely above his breath, poured forth a volley of the vilest and grossest abuse it was possible for the imagination to conceive or the tongue to utter. Huntington (the husband) thinks Helen’s been unfaithful: It's such a surprising book that you have the feeling that if the language was just a bit updated, any modern writer could have written the story in all its sheer crudeness and realism, with very few glimpses of Victorian melodramatics.

Her plan is to lead a reclusive life and earn her own money by painting, but the curiosity and malicious gossip of her new neighbors puts her secret, honor and safety in jeopardy. When Helen starts to realize the dangerous influence her husband has on their son, she decided to run away. As time goes by he reveals himself an abusive husband, a gambler, alcoholic and generally a scoundrel. The Tenant is the story of Helen, who in her late teens, and against the advice of her family, falls in love and marries a man who apparently is all charm and passion. Just I had foreseen after reading Agnes Grey earlier this year, after The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne-the-forgotten-sister officially became my favorite Brontë. Topics: Love, (abusive) Marriage, Parenthood, Alcoholism, Religion, (Proto)Feminism

Review the tenant of wildfell hall