Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. It is only when she allows Gilbert to read her diary that the truth is revealed and the shocking details of the disastrous marriage she has left behind emerge. Told with great immediacy, combined with wit and irony, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful depiction of a woman’s fight for domestic independence and creative freedom.
Review
It's been a week since I've closed the novel, and I'm still shaken. I don't know what I expected when I started that read, but I most certainly didn't expect to be so taken, involved and left brimming with emotions and thoughts as I was once I had finished it.
The first thing that positively hooked me in (and I went hook, line and sinker I have to admit) was the writing style. Anne Brontë has mastered the art of balance between describing the scenes, making the characters interact and showing their internal dilemmas and reflexions. The epistolary genre she uses is perfect for the tone and rhythm of her story. The fact that she manages in a subtle yet impressive way to intricate into the core narrative of the letters a private journal? From another narrator? Still not over it.
The second thing was the development of the main characters. This story is about hardship and flaws and how growth can always, always, happen in life. To have, in the midst of the terrifying retelling of Mrs Graham's life, our main narrator, Gilbert Markham, being so dramatic about her and her impact on his life, was a tone saver. He is very emotional, and open about it in his letters. His comments about his own behaviour towards Mrs Graham had me in stitches more often than not. And the fact that he gets to have his own emotional growth while learning about Mrs Graham's own journey? What a masterful narrative. What a masterful narrative.
I'm not going into the romance growing between Mr Markham and Mrs Graham, although it might be the type of relationship I enjoy the most for the growing respect and understanding between the characters. It was unexpected for me to read our main narrator's change in behaviour throughout the story. He is certainly not perfect but you can see him doing his best and trying and that was also such a heartfelt part of the narrative considering the themes of the main part of the book.
Obviously, the story doesn't only involve two characters and I have to say I've rarely felt so much for all of the characters mentioned in a story. While not all of them will be remembered fondly, all will always be linked to an emotional empathy that is really hard to let go of. And that's another key to Anne Brontë's writing. The characters may be awful, but you can't help, along with her narrator Mrs Graham to feel that maybe something better can come out of them. It's heartbreaking.
As you can see, I could write entire essays about that book now that I've finished it. About all the aspects of the story which echo the narrative itself (the romance, the parallels between characters, the setting...) and about the many many subtle details that built up a great masterpiece. But I'd like to focus on some points only which were highlighted right as I discovered them and never left me alone :
- the main subject matters dealt with by the novel (domestic abuse and child abuse) are handled uniquely. The narrative doesn't shy away from describing the inner works of such social mechanisms. The writing takes at it with an unexpected frankness for the time the novel was written. It also shows an inner understanding of the subtle ways in which abuse grows, and destroys people. While reading I kept on wondering if I had ever read a novel talking about such issues which handled them in that way (ie. From the point of view of the victims) and I could not come up with any title. If anyone has any book in mind that could fit the bill please tell me.
- the child's place in the narrative and how the male narrator explores his own relationship with the child of a woman he loves??? I beg your pardon??? Nothing could hold me up once I realised the narrator had an honest interest and was seriously taking into account, in his interactions with the mother, her child. The place the child has in the narrator's text, someone who is not expected to be concerned by or even spare a thought to the darling boy, felt groundbreaking. Gilbert enjoys the boy's company, talks with him and even admits when he snobs him out of anger and emotions towards his mother. The child is always there, considered and mentioned. I've said it before, but the last novel I remember which had a similar narrative (two adults finding love in each other but there's already a child in the middle) held a tone which was disparaging and obviously abusive towards the child. And here? Here? None of that. Not an ounce of disregard towards the child.
- last point that had my mind reeling: the question of social perception and social prejudices are very interestingly managed. The telling and retelling, the reviewing of behaviours according to the newly added knowledge etc etc. I am not done with this novel. I am not.
