The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Hardcover

Brontė, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0460016857 ISBN 13: 9780460016858

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1980

Synopsis

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by the English author Anne Brontė. It was first published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Probably the most shocking of the Brontės' novels, it had an instant and phenomenal success, but after Anne's death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication. The novel is framed as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham to his friend and brother-in-law about the events leading to his meeting his wife. A mysterious young widow arrives at Wildfell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion which has been empty for many years, with her young son and servant. She lives there in strict seclusion under the assumed name Helen Graham and very soon finds herself the victim of local slander. Refusing to believe anything scandalous about her, Gilbert Markham, a young farmer, discovers her dark secrets. In her diary, Helen writes about her husband's physical and moral decline through alcohol, and the world of debauchery and cruelty from which she has fled. This novel of marital betrayal is set within a moral framework tempered by Anne's optimistic belief in universal salvation. This is a Green Bird Publication of a quality paperback.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Anne Brontė’s second and last novel was widely and contentiously reviewed upon its 1848 publication, in part because its subject matter domestic violence, alcoholism, women’s rights, and universal salvation was so controversial. The tale unfolds through a series of letters between two friends as one man learns more about Helen Huntingdon and the past that brought this young painter and single mother to Wildfell Hall. Powerfully plotted and unconventionally structured, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is now considered to be a classic of Victorian literature.

This Broadview Edition includes a critical introduction that situates the novel in significant Victorian debates, and provides appendices that make clear Brontė’s intellectual inheritance from important eighteenth-century writers such as Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecraft. Material on temperance, education, childrearing, and nineteenth-century women artists is also included in the appendices.

About the Author

Anne Bronte was born in 1820, the youngest of the Bronte family. She was educated at home, and was particularly close to her sister Emily. Her first novel was Agnes Grey, and it was followed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848, written under a pseudonym. She died in 1849.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0460016857
• ISBN 13: 9780460016858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English