The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful and sometimes violent novel of expectation, love, oppression, sin, religion and betrayal. It portrays the disintegration of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon, the mysterious tenant of the title, and her dissolute, alcoholic husband. Defying convention, Helen leaves her husband to protect their young son from his fathers influence, and earns her own living as an artist. Whilst in hiding at Wildfell Hall, she encounters Gilbert Markham, who falls in love with her. On its first publication in 1848, Anne Bront?s second novel was criticised for being coarse and brutal. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenges the social conventions of the early nineteenth century in a strong defence of womens rights in the face of psychological abuse from their husbands. Anne Bront?s style is bold, naturalistic and passionate, and this novel, which her sister Charlotte considered an entire mistake, has earned her a position in English Literature in her own right.