A review by cassreading
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë

dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I found this a really compelling work of feminist fiction that really had something to say about abuse and the patriarchy. Helen is so headstrong and determined but with her own little flaws; she's a characater that's easy to get behind. Gilbert--who tells the frame narrative--is a whole different story, though, and his sections were rougher to get through, although he does show some growth eventually. 

I do understand why some would find it too didactic for their taste. It follows very clear moralistic beats, especially when it comes to alcohol consumption, and my eyes honestly glazed over all the paragraphs where Helen is giving Christian lectures. But at the same time, there's so many complex and open-ended ethical and psychological questions--about how men and women interact, about the rationality and knowability of the human mind, about violence and human nature--that the book end up feeling really thought provokoing and gripping, for the majority of the book anyway.

I would've given this 4 stars, but I didn't love this edition. I hate an editor who does too much interpretive work that closes off or contains interpretation, and Stevie Davies did that (in my opinion) in quite a few of her notes. 
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