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A review by karenluvstoread
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
3.75
After not being overly impressed with Anne Bronte’s novel Agnes Grey, I wasn’t for sure if I would enjoy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I have been really looking forward to reading this one for quite some time. But after reading Agnes Grey, I was a bit nervous that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall might not be as engaging as I was hoping. Thankfully, that was not the case! I enjoyed it so much more than Agnes Grey!
In essence, I really think this is a story of the resilience, tenacity, and enterprising spirit of a woman.
This book felt kind of like a mix of Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights, both in story and writing style. There is a good deal of drama in this one; it’s quite like Wuthering Heights in that respect. It is also fairly fast-paced. So I definitely think I would consider this one a plot-driven novel; yet it is also character-driven to some extent as well.
What I think makes this a great novel for it’s time is that in it, Anne Brontë presents us with a heroine who defies the confines of the time for wives by not only leaving her abusive husband, but taking her son with her. But also, after she leaves her husband, she ekes out an independent life.
I think that, like Jane Eyre, Helen (the heroine of the book) is a budding feminist for her time. I read that Anne actually wrote this book with the intent to protest the social conventions of the time.
I still think Wuthering Heights is my favorite Brontë novel so far, with Jane Eyre being such a very close second. And even though there may be things that bugged me about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (which there definitely was), I enjoyed it and think it is definitely the better of the two novels Anne Brontë wrote.
In essence, I really think this is a story of the resilience, tenacity, and enterprising spirit of a woman.
This book felt kind of like a mix of Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights, both in story and writing style. There is a good deal of drama in this one; it’s quite like Wuthering Heights in that respect. It is also fairly fast-paced. So I definitely think I would consider this one a plot-driven novel; yet it is also character-driven to some extent as well.
What I think makes this a great novel for it’s time is that in it, Anne Brontë presents us with a heroine who defies the confines of the time for wives by not only leaving her abusive husband, but taking her son with her. But also, after she leaves her husband, she ekes out an independent life.
I think that, like Jane Eyre, Helen (the heroine of the book) is a budding feminist for her time. I read that Anne actually wrote this book with the intent to protest the social conventions of the time.
I still think Wuthering Heights is my favorite Brontë novel so far, with Jane Eyre being such a very close second. And even though there may be things that bugged me about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (which there definitely was), I enjoyed it and think it is definitely the better of the two novels Anne Brontë wrote.