Group Read, November 2019: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Our group read for November is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Please join in the read and post any comments on this thread

Yay! I have had this on my reread pile for ages - maybe I will finally get to a group read. I have been very slack.

Seeing I suggested this, I've started already. Chapter 1 done. It'll be interesting to see what everyone thinks of it.

I just picked a copy up from the library but I won't be starting it right away.

I have my copy ready but I have promised myself that I will finish Sense and Sensibility before starting The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Should be ready to start next week.

Started this last night. I'd just finished a mediocre modern best-seller (Circe) for my book group, and coming back to the Bronte style of writing was a shock. So challenging just to get through some sentences.

I realized that Anne's other 1001 book was Agnes Grey which I found kind of annoying. I'll have to go back and figure out why. Anyway, I'm actually glad to be launched onto a more challenging read!

Update: am horrified by what a bunch of critical busy-bodies our narrator's friends and family are. The downside of life in small, close-knit communities?

Is anybody else reading this? I've gotten to the section where Helen tells her story (in her diary) and am confused about why this is called by some "the first feminist novel". I am reminded rather of the author's Agnes Grey which I recall being about women who make very bad life decisions when they are far too ignorant or naive or just mature to have better judgement. Seems to be a theme for Anne Bronte! With Helen people actually try to inform her of obvious truths, like "never think you are going to be the person who changes a partner" but she pays no attention. Not that this isn't plausible, it's just not very feminist.

Yes. Ive just reached the end of book 2 of the original 3 volume publication. So far, I must admit, I am with you on rolling my eyes at her. She was warned... I am hoping for better of the final third, but not actually expecting it.

I have completed my read of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and I have to say I absolutely loved it. I think the author used her writing as a warning to other women. In her day, a marriage was forever whether it was good or bad so the woman needed to really know what she was getting into. In this case, Helen married Arthur even though she was warned and in hindsight, she wished she had listened more closely to her aunt. So I think the feminist label comes from her desire to teach other women to think things through.

I've also finished it. I thought having the entire thing told in letter or diary format was, to me at least, not successful. In some of the diary entries, it's an entry of the past year, with conversations written verbatim. It may be that some diary writers could do this, but I found it a bit of a stretch. And this is then all passed on to the letter's reader. I'm glad I'm not his correspondant!

I thought the fact that Anne had the courage to describe a failling marriage would have been for it's time, quite an unusual event, but I found Helen's behaviour to be rather conformist in other ways. She refuses to consider an attachment while she is married, as that would imperil their souls. She never even considers divorce (Lord Lowborough gets one, so while it is probably reserved for the male to petion for, it does exist), yet returns to her husband when he is ill and then marries again. It's an odd mixture of messages there. The look before you leap being, probably, the most important she was trying to pass on.

Can't say I loved it, but am glad I've finally read it.

I've just started this so I can't comment on the feminist aspects of it. However, I am just at the part where Mrs. Graham has come to visit the Markhams with her young boy. I am astounded at how free the Markhams felt to criticize her raising of the child when they hardly know the woman. If that had been me I would have stood up and walked out of the drawing room never to return. Do you think that was common in England at that time?

Finished this and review is on my thread. The last few sections felt awfully rushed. And why is the brother getting married in the dead of winter when his sister, best friend of the bride, is not there? The narrator's sentiments are by this time so over-wrought that I'm not sure why Helen doesn't just let him go. Also, how long after the event is he recounting all these things? He seems to know the fates of people, particularly the objectionable ones, in their distantly future lives.

>11 gypsysmom: I had exactly the same thought! Almost all of the ladies in that community are dreadfully judgmental as well as terrible gossips. I have a feeling that it was common in small communities especially, or even neighborhoods of towns. A kind of community policing of behavior.

I did manage to finish reading this before the end of November (just as I was finishing it off in bed on the evening of the 30th). I quite liked it and gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I read Wuthering Heights about a year ago and much preferred this sister's version of love and marriage in Britain in the 1800s. And having finished it I can see why it is referred to as one of the first feminist novels.