The Tenant of Wildfell Hall --Buddy Read > Likes and Comments

Here's the thread where Reggia and I (and anyone else in the group who wants to join us) will discuss our buddy read of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. I've already begun reading the book, so participants can join in any time!

Please note that in the case of this novel, what printing you read makes a BIG difference! That's because most public-domain printings follow the abridged (to the point of butchering) posthumous 3rd edition, even if they claim to be "unabridged." Your copy should start with the words: "To J. Halford, Esq. Dear Halford, When we were together last, you gave me a very particular and interesting account of the most remarkable occurrences of your early life, previous to our acquaintance; and then you requested a return of confidence from me." If it doesn't, you're reading the mutilated version!

I'm glad you gave this heads-up Werner! And I hope you both enjoy one of my favourite Victorian books.

Well I'm trying to read a classic every month, so I'm jumping in on this one since I haven't read it. 😊

Thanks, Jean; I'm sure we will!

Glad you're reading with us, Vickie!

Phew! Just checked -- it's the right one. Will start today.

Branwell Bronte (1817-1848), the alcoholic brother of the famous Bronte sisters, served as the model for one of the important characters in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Anne Bronte wrote the novel partly as a warning against the dangers of alcohol indulgence. Her sister Charlotte, ultra-protective of Branwell, intensely disliked the book for that reason, and thought it never should have been written. After Anne's death in 1849, Charlotte requested the publishers not to print any more copies, and publicly disparaged the book (without being candid about her reason). Her friend and influential biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell, bought into that viewpoint and repeated it in her biography.

In 1854, the shady publisher Thomas Hodgson took advantage of England's then-lax copyright laws and brought out the pirated and heavily abridged edition mentioned above (without indicating that it was abridged!). In the absence of any legitimate reprints (because of Charlotte's request to the original publisher), that version became the standard one which most readers assumed was the original, and was the source of all of the public domain reprints until the Oxford Univ. Press edition in 1992 recovered the complete text.

As a result of Charlotte and Mrs. Gaskell's slurring comments, and of the genuinely awful disjointedness of the mutilated version, most readers and critics, from the late 19th on down through much of the 20th centuries, formed an unfairly negative or dismissive view of Anne as the decidedly inferior Bronte sister, who didn't deserve much if any attention. The restoration of the true text of this novel, however, makes it possible for modern readers to fairly appreciate the genuine quality of her work.

Thanks for all that insight, Werner, and wow, that's kind of awful to see such dissension within the family.

Great summary of the position, Werner. As you may remember, I went into this a lot in my review, as I thought it had been considered a lesser novel for far too long!

So just to add, Charlotte did everything she could to suppress Anne's novel. She actually said that the novel "should never have been written, and it would be better for everyone if it never saw the light of day again". At the time you mention, when the (now officially known as) "bowdlerised edition" was published, she had written to the publishers:

“Wildfell Hall” it hardly appears desirable to preserve. The choice of subject in that work is a mistake.”

I'm not reading it again just yet, but may I add just another note, that Branwell was not always an alcoholic! The reason for his decline are complex, and Daphne du Maurier has written an excellent biography of him, (having had exclusive access to many records) called The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë. (I've reviewed that one too.)

I think many people would be surprised to learn that for most of his life, all five of Branwell's siblings - and their father (Rev. Brunty) - believed the artist, poet and story writer Branwell to be the most talented of them all! As an example of his inner agony, the portrait we so often see of the three younger Bronte sisters was painted by Branwell, and the strange suggestion of a smudge in the background is where he painted himself out of the picture. 😢 I think it is worth remembering this, as all he is often remembered for now, is as an adjunct (and alcoholic).

Oh just one more thing ... the scornful comment about “soft nonsense” you may read in her Preface to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was a veiled reference by Anne to Emily’s novel, Wuthering Heights!

As you say Vickie, it's so sad to see these divisions within a family. All four siblings were so different, with different aims - and who can say what the two older forgotten sisters, Maria and Elizabeth would have produced, had they lived.

Thanks, Jean, and thanks for the additional information about Branwell, and the Bronte family in general! (I'd forgotten about the two older sisters who died very young.) Yes, I did remember your excellent review of this novel (and if you want to share that link at some point, I'm sure others might be interested!). Wikipedia has a fairly extensive write-up on Branwell (which contains no spoilers, or any reference at all, to Anne's novel), here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branwel... .

Thanks - that looks fairly comprehensive - and you can see the portrait I mentioned there as well.

The Wordsworth Classics edition I'm reading has a substantial Introduction by British academic Peter Merchant; but because it definitely contains spoilers, the publishers prefaced it with a note that says, in part: "...because the pleasures of reading are inseparable from the surprises, secrets and revelations that all narratives contain, we strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction." That's probably very good advice to take with ANY edition of a classic that has an Introduction!

Similarly, the Wikipedia article on this novel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten... ) is quite detailed, and would be a great resource for reflection AFTER you've read the book. But again, it's laden with spoilers, so shouldn't be read before your read of the novel is completed!

Actually, I've just checked, and my review contains no spoilers whatsoever! (I didn't use wiki.)

It's all about the furore and how the book finally came to be published, the basic structure, the Bronte family circumstances, the places and people Anne used ... but even the name of the character Werner correctly identified as based on Branwell, is under a spoiler!

And obviously the review of the biography I mentioned as being so good has no spoilers either - again - just interesting facts, such as: "Daphne du Maurier has tracked down evidence, both written and testimonial, from those who witnessed an episode of Branwell reading from an early draft, to show that Branwell and Emily probably collaborated in the first stages of the novel." But I warn you, it's long!

So thanks Werner. (I just happened to see this on my feed 😊). You're welcome to share either of these reviews, as, when and if you see fit.

Jean, thanks for that permission! Without further ado, then, here's the link to Jean's excellent review of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . And this is the link to her also excellent review of The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Even if we don't read the latter book ourselves, the review itself is a solid background resource for understanding Anne's final novel.

Anne Bronte biographer Nick Holland (author of In Search of Anne Brontë) has written a fascinating blog post devoted just to Anne's Preface to the second edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, here: https://www.annebronte.org/2017/03/26... . The whole thing is well worth reading, but one of his comments that I found particularly interesting is this one:

"On the proper subject of fiction: ‘If I can gain the public ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much soft nonsense.’ (This has sometimes, wrongly, been taken as an attack on Wuthering Heights, but it is instead a rebuttal of critics who said that the vérité scenes of her novels were not a fitting subject for literature.)"

Over a period of about 300 years, the literature/culture of the English-language world (and really the Western world generally) was shaped by three successive movements. From ca. 1688-1789, the Neoclassical school of thought was dominant. Neoclassicists glorified the thought and culture of an (idealized and very selectively re-imagined!) Greek and Roman antiquity, emphasizing Reason, order, stability, and artifice, and disparaging emotion and disorder. (We can think of them as something like Vulcans with round ears.)

After 1789, cultural dominance swung to the polar opposite, Romantic school, which glorified and privileged the expression and evocation of honest emotion, Nature, originality and spontaneity. Later in the 19th-century, Romanticism was challenged in art and literature by the Realist school, which didn't necessarily disparage emotion, but was more concerned with the exact, accurate portrayal of normal, everyday life in typical situations. Realism rose to cultural dominance in its turn, but later in some countries than others; in the U.S., for instance, from 1865 on into much of the 20th century, but in the UK really not until around 1900.

To me (though not necessarily to everybody else! :-) ), it's interesting to try to situate particular writings I read in relation to these movements. That can be more complicated than it might seem, though. Just because one or the other school was "dominant" (that is, most common, and most favored by critics and the majority of readers) at a given time doesn't mean that ALL writers in that era adhered to it. And we're not talking about card-carrying, dues-paying organizations with neat membership lists. Rather, these are cultural trends, "spirits of the times" that many writers, like other people, imbibed to some degree and expressed, but not always consciously, and often to different degrees. It's also very possible for given writers to embody features of both Romanticism and Realism, because (unlike Romanticism and Neoclassicism) they aren't polar opposites --just differences in what their practitioners were mainly seeking to do with their writing. (For instance, I think of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy as writers who exhibit both Romantic and Realist traits.)

As we read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, you may (or may not) find it interesting and fun to try to form your own estimate of which, if any, of these approaches Anne Bronte was coming from. But if you do, be aware that others might have a different estimate --and if so, that's perfectly fine; it just makes for more interesting discussion! (And it's also possible that, if we someday meet Anne in heaven, and ask her if she was a Romantic or a Realist, she might look at us bemusedly and ask, "Uh... what exactly are you talking about?" :-) )

Just as a progress update, I'm almost done with Chapter 13. But I don't expect to be able to read at all tomorrow (though when I have to miss a day's reading, I make it up).

Although the Wordsworth Classics edition has some ten pages of notes, since it's a British publication, one clarification it doesn't provide is the different meaning of "corn" in British vs. American English. American readers visualizing the English countryside as much like an Iowa vista, with cornfields as far as the eye can see, should be made aware that to Anne Bronte and her readers, "corn" means "grain" (usually wheat). British speakers refer to what we know as "corn" as "maize" (a term derived, through Spanish sources, from the Taino Indian's term for it).

I'm several chapters in... there was more I had to say, but it all just disappeared in that big pink box that comes up sometimes after clicking "Post". Anyway, I already am feeling involved with the story.

Reggia wrote: "....I already am feeling involved with the story."

Glad to hear that, Reggia!