Victober 2022 read.

I read this so long ago that I thought it was time to revisit it, now that I'm better acquainted with the lives of the Bronte sisters. It's hard to know how to rate it. It's not pleasant reading; indeed, it's rather oppressive. But of course, Anne didn't write this book to be amusing. She wrote it to highlight truths and double standards and injustices that were being completely swept under the rug at the time, and that reflected traumas going on within her own family. So, as an exercise in authorly courage, it's significant.
And yet I have lukewarm feelings toward it. I think I would have warmed to it more if Gilbert Markham, the narrator, had been more admirable. But, other than his jealous and occasionally violent temperament, he felt like a vacuum. There wasn't much there, certainly not enough to make one feel that Helen would choose him after going through her nightmarish first marriage. Maybe Anne did that deliberately. Maybe she's saying that the best one could hope for in marriage is to find the least evil. I'm not sure. But regardless, it's a sad, long, heavy story that didn't resonate much with me personally.

Incidentally, I'm still not sure how to find the true unabridged original version of the text. What I read had re-inserted the opening letter, but otherwise it was identical to the mutilated version of the text that is generally accepted now. ( )

Some very painful reading! And sometimes I just wanted to slap that Gilbert upside the head, I really did. ( )

Wonderful tale! Though frustrating in the treatment of women. Glad things have improved. Good strong characters. Excellent narration. I'm glad it wasn't too short. I really enjoyed the world that was created here. ( )

I came into this book with some trepidation, not being a great fan of Charlotte Bronte. However, I was thoroughly delighted by Anne. This was Austinian with significantly more grit and depth. Highly recommend ( )

A much underrated and underread book, and one I prefer to Wuthering Heights.[return][return]A mysterious woman (with a child but no husband) moves into Wildfell Hall, and one of the local landowners Gilbert Markham becomes intrigued with her remoteness. Gilbert falls in love with Helen Graham, but feels that he is getting nowhere, and becomes suspicious of her relationship with her landlord.[return][return]Gilbert confronts her, and she reveals that she is in love with him, and hands over her diary for him to read. It provides reasons for her living apparently unmarried but with a child; her marriage to a violent drunken husband; her relationship with her landlord; her need and desire to protect her son; trying to earn a living in a society that does not allow women to independently have a serious job or career without the "protection" of a husband (living with a violent drunk always being preferred to walking away).[return][return]Rightly or wrongly I've always seen Gilbert as the "younger man". I think in terms of years, he is probably older than Helen, it's just in terms of emotional maturity and life lessons, she is much older than him. He has had a reasonably easy and unchallenging life whilst she has had so much to confront.