The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

[Dominique]

As I am sick and currently seeking extensions for my assignments I allowed myself to read "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" until I finished it tonight . I really enjoyed it, I thought it was wonderful. The main characters, Helen, Gilbert and Mr Huntingdon, were so well drawn. Mr Huntington's demise and conduct I felt was very realistic. Helen's story was so interesting and I thought it was great how she seemed so strange at first until her story unravelled.

The ending however was a bit slow and drawn out, it made me a bit impatient.

I highly recommend this book though and thank neh for lending it to me

[sagedautumn]

i've read it as well and i loved the book. for me it took a while to get into the book. i couldn't stand gilbert in the beginning because i felt he was so childish

[Bina]

It was good, but I haven´t reread it since. I remember being very confused about the pov.

[Dominique]

yeah Helen's point of view was much more interesting than Gilbert's.

[Bina]

I think it took me awhile to figure out it was a man´s pov That was annoying.

[neh]

I'm a sucker for Gilbert now because i've seen the BBC version where he is played by Toby Stehpens (drool) but yes, he is very young-acting at first. I think Helen is a great protagonist; i think Anne was very brave in creating her. I'm glaf you like the book Dom!

[lostgirl]

I love the book. It' so sad that Anne is usually the overlooked sister. She was just as brilliant as Charlotte and Emily in her own way. The Tennant of Wildfell Hall is a favorite of mine

[Dominique]

I agree, although I prefer Wuthering Heights to it still I thought the main difference between the other sisters and this novel was that there seemed to be less emphasis on the gothic setting? Certainly Wildfell Hall was a gothic setting and all, but Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights seemed to have more about it? Maybe I'm imagining things...

[sagedautumn]

Wildfell was a lot more of that romantic book rather than Wuthering Heights

[neh]

Agreed. At least in this one i actually felt a good deal of sympathy for Helen and genuinally wished her to be with Gilbert for the sake of their own happiness and the sheer nicety of it all. As oppossed to wanting Cathy and Heath to fry in a tub of hot oil together.

[sagedautumn]

HAHA! My feelings were a lot more conflicted and confused in Wuthering Heights and not just about Catherine and Heathcliff but about every other character as well!! But from a literary viewpoint I think that it made the book a lot more realistic having all these jumbled feelings even with all the Gothic Elements.

[lostgirl]

I think from a literary point of view Wuthering Heights is the most intriguing. That said the characters in it are the least likable. I find it easier to love Jane and Rochester or Gilbert and Helen than Cathy and Heathcliff. But WH created an sense of atmosphere eschewing the traditional gothic elements (big mysterious house, locked room,etc) and utilised some incredable prose.

It's odd isn't it? I mean that we'll compare Dickens to Thakery to whomever, but we always tend to compare the Bronte's to each other

[neh]

Yes and it seemed to have been the case for many years... even in their own lifetimes possibly. That must have sucked, for lack of a better term - to first be in a family full of such talent and passion, but to continually feel some form of competition from your siblings (was that not one of the reasons for Branwell's demise) must have been immensely depressing at times, and indeed is unfair and unwaruanted.

[sagedautumn]

i think that they got along pretty well. I mean it wasn't like they were really well known as Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte until their deaths. They were known by other names, Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Plus other than Charlotte, the other Bronte sisters were virtual recluses. Going with what lostgirl said, I think that we tend to like Jane Eyre or Tenant at Wildfell Hall a lot more because it is so much more simplistic than WH. The characters are almost stagnant compared to that of Emily Bronte's. Here the characters aren't always moral. They face internal dilemmas as well as external ones. Each character has many faces. To me this feels more realistic. Most people have different shades to them. They act differently when in contact with other sorts of people. To be human is to be in a constant struggle both internally and externally; I feel that WH is able to portray that very well, no matter how exaggerated the problems are.

[neh]

Good points, good points. *salutes* To extend this post so it isn't just spam, i think it will be interesting indeed to see in the upcoming Bronte film who they decide to play with the creatrion of each girl's most famous work and it's reception and so on.... i'm really hoping they divide screentime and focus evenly amoungst each sister but i'm not getting too excited - it IS Hollywood afterall!