'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' -Anne Bronte (1848)

                                                  

                 "Wildfell Hall is a feminist manifesto of revolutionary power and intelligence'

                                           Stevie Davies (1996)

                  "It ( The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ) was written too obviously as a work of propaganda, a treatise against drunkeness, to be considered a work of art "    

                                                   Winifred Gerin (1959) 

                         

Self Potrait by Anne Mary Newton (1996)

                                                  Novelist, poet and one time governess Anne Bronte was born on 17th January 1820 the youngest of six children, and sister to Emily and Charlotte Bronte. Anne's second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , credited to 'Acton Bell', was both controversial and an immediate success, the latter probably driven by the hostile outpourings of some literary critics : 

" There seems in writer a morbid love for the coarse, not to say the brutal;so that his (sic) level subjects are not very attractive, and the more forcible are displeasing or repulsive " (Unsigned review' the Spectator, 8th July 1848) ALLOTT

And interest in this novel continues to grow in the 21st century.  Sadly, Anne Bronte became seriously ill during the following year, and wanted to view the sea for a final time. Anne, accompanied by Charlotte,managed to visit Scarborough before dying there on 28th May 1849, where she is buried at St Mary's Church DINSDALE. Charlotte at age of 30, had outlived her five siblings, and as Anne's literary executor, delayed further editions of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. 

And the book's detractors could be found well into the 20th century: Such as the esteemed literary critic W.A.Craik stating in 1968 

"  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall contains much that is unusual, uncongenial, and unpleasant to readers in 1848 and unpleasant by any standards........Whilst knowing that the subject of her novel is dreadful, she never considers that she herself maybe thought shocking for undertaking it."  CRAIK

It is interesting to have this duality of allegedly dreadful novel and shocking writer .Though originally the author was the more male sounding 'Acton Bell', Anne let it be known that she was the author a few months after the novel was published when a second edition was being prepared. All three Bronte Sisters originally assumed names to get their literary work accepted.

To summarise The Tenant of Wildfell Hall : A young lady by the name of Helen Graham moves into Wildfell Hall, a crumbling Elizabeth country pile, along with an infant son. There are few neighbours in this rural area, and she seems to discourage visitors. Helen is also a painter who sells her work, in other words generating her own income.The latter is rare, though the 1851 census was to reveal 584 women artists, ELLIS , it is not necessarily clear how many were surviving economically from the proceeds of their work. Due to the inferior status of women at the time, any money generated by a married woman would belong to the husband even if they were estranged. 

During the few conversations Helen embarks on with neighbours, she makes it clear that she does not want her son to be raised as a typical male child, and appears to be over protective of him, generating criticism and derision: Such debate concerning how gender roles are constructed would become more mainstream in 1970's/1980's second wave feminism, but extraordinary for 1848.  Ultimately Helen is portrayed as a woman who lives quite an unusual existence,not afraid to live life on her own terms, and able to generate an income.

A young gentleman farmer, Gilbert Markham, becomes strongly attracted to her. Helen is content to have some sort of friendship, though can be quite aloof at times. Unkind rumours start circulating about her, particularly when it is noticed that her son looks like the landlord of Wildfell Hall. Gilbert steps up to defend Helen's reputation,confronting the gossips who include a local minister. In fact Gilbert becomes obsessive to the point where he severely beats up said landlord whom he regards as a love rival. Eventually Helen promises to tell Gilbert the truth if he agrees to meet up with her on the following day. Gilbert does not show up. Eventually they meet again, and Helen gives him her journal to read, though insists on tearing out a page. A large section of the novel is then based on Helen's written account of her own life.

Helen admits that she was raised by an aunt and uncle, and turned down a rather plain and dull suitor by the Dickensian name of Boreham, to marry Arthur Huntingdon, a charming, attractive, and quite charismatic chap, who appears to be some sort of leftover Regency rake. They settle in a country pile called Grassdale. The marriage fault-lines soon appear. Helen cares for her painting, music, and books.  Huntingdon is more interested in hitting the bottle, hunting, partying with his cronies, and permissive, going off to London for nefarious purposes. 

A son,also called Arthur, is born, Huntingdon becomes more violent to his wife and servants, encouraging the boy to try alcohol and to swear. Several rather unpleasant house guests appear, one of Huntingdon's cronies starts to physically assault his wife in front of the rest of the house party.  Huntingdon also destroys Helen's art work and painting material; in those times the wife's property belonged to her husband. During one particularly unpleasant weekend at Grassdale, Helen realises that Huntingdon was being intimate with his friend's wife,whilst another man from the party is trying to seduce Helen. It is open to question whether Anne Bronte alludes to the fact that Huntingdon rapes Helen. (It would take until 1991 for marital rape to be outlawed in Britain.) Helen now admits that she hates her husband. 

Finally Helen, along with Arthur junior, and her old family servant establish themselves at Wildfell Hall. It later transpires that the poor chap that Gilbert has so severely assaulted is in fact Helen's brother -as well as the owner of Wildfell Hall-though the two men manage to become friends after Gilbert apologises. 

Helen later learns that Huntingdon is dying after gangrene has set in from an injury occurred when he fell from his horse.  Helen visits him back at Grassdale. Her Christian faith is a little unorthodox, believing that salvation is universal, but those who have committed misdeeds will have to be spiritually purged and purified first.And such a process maybe long lasting.  Anne Bronte appears to have been influenced by a sect called the Moravians, whom had quite a presence in North and West Yorkshire, who held such views  HOLLAND (1) and (2). This doctrine in turn arguably goes back to Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century, who advocated for the ideal of Apokatastasis, the restoration of original creation before the Fall.  Earlier on, the reader learns that Helen has studied the Bible and disputes the notion of eternal damnation. It is very likely that Helen's commentary on religion reflects Anne Bronte's personal views HOLLAND (3) 

Helen works hard to persuade Huntingdon to be reconciled to God and forgives his ill treatment of her, she is no avenging angel figure. Helen is pious, and however much resentment she feels towards Huntingdon and his ghastly friends,  she actively practices her faith. 

The 'veiled lady' with a mysterious past appears in many 19th century novels. She could have committed crimes such as 'Lady Audley' from Elizabeth Mary Braddon's novel or 'Mercy Merrick' in Wilkie Collins's The New Magdalene. Possibly becoming a criminal such as 'Hortense' in Charles Dickens's Bleak House. Alternately the 'lady with a secret' could be vulnerable and exploited such as 'Lady Dedlock' in Bleak House or Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbevilles, both who have had children before being married, something that 'respectable' society found extremely hard to forgive. 

What makes The Tenant of Wildfell Hall particularly significant is that Helen as the  leading lady breaks society's rules but is not somehow punished for doing so,but after enduring trials and tribulations,finally finds emotional security and contentment. Such portrayals of women  rarely occur in fiction from this era. 

The decline of Huntingdon is depicted in great detail, as he slides towards self destruction. Anne of course witnessed her brother Branwell losing his struggle with alcoholism and laudanum dependency,eventually dying at the age of 31 (after The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was written) . Moreover, Anne seemed aware of a lady by the name of Mrs Cannon who visited her father-Patrick Bronte- in his capacity as a church minister, who had been ill treated by a drunken beast of a  husband, and Anne was aware how vulnerable a woman in Mrs Cannon's position would be.The Reverend Bronte appeared to have encouraged Mrs Cannon to leave her husband, and she later became a successful hostel owner in Manchester. ELLIS, HOLLAND (3) 

A potential weakness of the novel is that all the more pleasant mild mannered men are dull, whilst the apparently more active dynamic men are examples of what we would now call 'toxic masculinity'. As we have seen, even Gilbert Markham -whom Helen eventually marries -is capable of violent jealousy and sexual obsession. He also strings along a local lass who is clearly in love with him without any compunction. Helen eventually proposes to him after a long wait. Some readers have found that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall simply dwells too long on the domestic abuse scenes to the risk of blunting the novel's message. Or perhaps the novel is " possibly too full of challenges conventional complacency ever to be much liked" to quote Anne 's biographer Winifred Gerin in 1959 GERIN.  And the 'feminist novel' tag risks constraining the book's potential appeal as discussed in a recent Radio 4  discussion panel IN OUR TIME.

Comparisons with Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are inevitable. Whether these two works are superior as literature and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, though remarkable and 'worthy' as social concern fiction, simply does not reach the atmospheric and neo-Gothic elements that the other Brontes managed to achieve, is hard to gauge. It is difficult to envisage The Tenant of Wildfell Hall being turned into a musical or film or being the subject of a Pop record, though a four part TV dramatisation appeared in 1996. On the other hand Anne Bronte set out to write a novel that dealt with the 'darker' aspects of life of her time which still resound today, and succeeded in doing so. An achievement indeed. 

Memorial slab on grave of Anne Bronte, Scarborough 

Image credit 

Portrait : In the Public Domain courtesy of Wikipedia Britain.

Gravestone:  Used under Creative Licence with thanks-  to  Plucas58 ( Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27778567 ) 

On Line 

annebronte.org Excellent website, 'In search of Anne Bronte and her Family' run by author and Bronte specialist Nick HOLLAND 

Anne Bronte The Final Journey  Youtube documentary presented by Ann DINSDALE from 2015 ( last accessed 7th May 2024). 

The Bronte Society Bronte Parsonage Museum

Bronte Society -useful links

The Critics of Wildfell Hall  Glen DOWNEY, University of British Columbia, Victorian Web article. 

Anne Bronte, Mary Taylor and the Road to Moravia  Nick HOLLAND (1) 

In Our Time The Tenant of Wildfell Hall  BBC Radio 4 programme IN OUR TIME presented by Melvin Bragg, 30th September 2021.

Books etc

'The Brontes-The Critical Heritage' ,Edited by Miriam ALLOTT, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974

'The Brontes', Juliet BARKER, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994 

'The Brontes' , part of the 'Modern Critical Views' series , edited with an introduction by Harold BLOOM, 

'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' , exert from the 'The Bronte Novels' by W.A.CRAIK, Methuen ,1968 from BLOOM above. 

'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' Anne Bronte  (1848) ,Penguin Classics edition (1996) , introduction by Stevie DAVIES

'Take Courage Anne Bronte and the Art of Life', Samantha ELLIS, Vintage, 2017

 'Anne Bronte- A biography', Winifred GERIN, Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1959

'The Madwoman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination, Sandra M GILBERT and Susan GUBAR

'In Search of Anne Bronte', Nick HOLAND (2), The History Press 2016

'Crave the Rose : Anne Bronte at 200' ,  Nick HOLLAND (3) Valley Press, 2020

'The Bronte Cabinet-The Lives in Nine Objects', Deborah LUTZ, W.W.Norton, 2015

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Michael,

Brighton, England, 

24th May 2024 

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