The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

By Anne Brontë and Deborah Lutz

In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë chronicles the disillusionment, heartbreak, and final devastation of an intelligent woman who falls in love with a rake. She flees her disastrous marriage and sets up as a professional artist—a highly unusual and daring step for a woman of her time.  Brontë’s message remains relevant in a time when the dangerous lover—not unlike the dark and mesmerizing Heathcliff and Rochester respectively of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre—still lurks in romance narratives, and the belief in the beautiful illusion of saving the lost soul through love retains its seductive power. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411429024

Anne Brontë

English novelist and poet Anne Brontë was the youngest, and least recognized, member of the Brontë literary family. She wrote a volume of poetry with her sisters, Charlotte and Emily, before publishing two novels under the name Acton Bell. Brontë achieved modest success with her first novel, Agnes Grey, which was based on her time working as a governess, but her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was a triumph, selling out in just six weeks. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is also considered one of the first feminist novels, with depictions of alcoholism and immorality that were profoundly disturbing in the 19th century. Brontë died of tuberculosis in 1849 at the age of 29. Collectively, the Brontë sisters’ novels are considered literary standards that continue to influence modern writers.