Bingo Chart Review: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë

This is the third book I can cross off my bingo reading chart challenge, and I must say I am quite proud of myself for getting these books read so soon in the new year. 

I decided to read a “Brontë book” that wasn’t “Jane Eyre”, because I have already read “Jane Eyre” and I love it. And you always hear about the Brontë sisters, but I have never read anything else by them. I picked “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” because I feel like that is the best known one after “Jane Eyre”. 

The book is about a young woman who comes to live in a small neighborhood in the country. She rents Wildfell Hall from a young man and lives secluded here with her young son. The neighborhood being as small as it is, its inhabitants are very curious as to any new addition. Some families go to visit the young lady, Mrs. Graham, and she is practically forced into society. A young man, Mr. Markham, ends up falling in love with her, almost despite himself, but Mrs. Graham, a young widow, is adamant, that they cannot be together. Rumors start up that Mrs. Graham is having an affair with the young man from whom she rents the hall and the small society turns against her. Mr. Markham refuses to believe it, but eventually certain things convince him that it must be true. Mrs. Graham then defends herself by giving him her daily journal of the past few years, wherein he learns that she is actually married and that she has left her wicked husband and is now hiding from him. Things unfold from here. 

I thought the book in general was good. It was well written and it was an interesting storyline presented from two perspectives; Mr. Markham and Mrs. Graham. However, I did feel that it became quite tedious in the middle. This is the part presented by the diary and giving an account of how Mrs. Graham as a young woman fell in love and married her husband. And then how this husband turned out to be thoroughly wicked. I feel like Helen (Mrs. Graham) was being a stupid young woman, caught up in the handsome looks and flattery of someone, whom everyone else, including the reader, knows is no good. And the fact that she senses his wickedness, but still is determined to “love him back to goodness” and forgive every fault irritated me slightly. This goes on for a good few years, and as I said it it just the same over and over for pages on end. When she finally decides to leave, the story picks up again and has some pace to it. 

It was interesting, and a bit scary, to see how much women depended on men in those days, and how easily a woman could be ruined by idle (or malicious) gossip. When the people of the neighborhood start gossiping about her, it is based on nothing but jealousy and fear that she will steal the men from the young women in the neighborhood. And when she is staying with her husband, she has to rely on the honor of his wicked friends in order to save her reputation, which he himself has tarnished. It is insane to think how little it would take to completely ruin a woman, even when she is as pious as Helen. I think some of the lessons in this book still hold true today. Gossip can still ruin someone, perhaps not as thoroughly as in those days, but once people start talking, there is always a hint of suspicion, even if the rumors turn out to be completely false. And the fact that Mr. Hargrave felt like he “deserved” Helen after being nice to her for a little while is also a present day issue. Today this would be considered “friend-zoning” by the less deserving, when really it is just about every human’s right to say no.

I really liked this book and gave it 3 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.