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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
Completes the Bronte trifecta. Helen is a spiritual icon and the writing is beautiful.
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m not a huge fan of classics but this has me from start to finish- an early feminist text that sends an inspiring message alongside a captivating story- Anne Brontë wins the best Brontë award hands down.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
Faintly boring and utterly readable. I don't think the Brontes have a patch on Jane Austen, really, but the portrait of a doomed and crumbling marriage in the middle of the novel is remarkably psychologically effective even if its surrounding beginning and end are a bit more stock-Victorian.
“There is such a thing as looking through a person's eyes into the heart, and learning more of the height, and breadth, and depth of another's soul in one hour than it might take you a lifetime to discover, if he or she were not disposed to reveal it, or if you had not the sense to understand it.”
This is the second book I've read that is written in an epistolary structure, and I admit it's quite hard and confusing to read. But it still stands out to me, [a:Anne Brontë|8249|Anne Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1219762839p2/8249.jpg] daringly criticizes the social mores that rushed women into unsuitable suitors not based on mutual love and respect. Throughout the book, wives are expected to be the perfect example of virtue and understanding and to suppress their needs entirely in the service of their husbands. Men, on the other hand, are permitted to behave badly, abuse their wives, neglect their children, and drink their problems away.
Then you must fall each into your proper place. You’ll do your business, and she, if she’s worthy of you, will do hers; but it's your business to please yourself, and hers to please you.
The heart of this book tells the truth about sexism, and double standards; the truth about love and marriage. This book tells a story of a woman surviving and flourishing after abuse, and in that, [b:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall|17555924|The Tenant of Wildfell Hall|Anne Brontë|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405286754l/17555924._SX50_.jpg|1389477] feels so modern. No wonder this book caused such scandal when it was released, this book challenged the prevailing morals of the Victorian era, critics called Tenant “disgusting,” “revolting,” and “brutal;” too coarse to be truly great art in the way that Jane Eyre was.
All in all, although this book was released a century and a half ago, it was fantastic how far ahead of her time [a:Anne Brontë|8249|Anne Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1219762839p2/8249.jpg] was in terms of her views on women's equality.
“Keep a guard over your eyes and ears as the inlets of your heart, and over your lips as the outlet, lest they betray you in a moment of unwariness. Receive, coldly and dispassionately, every attention, till you have ascertained and duly considered the worth of the aspirant; and let your affections be consequent upon approbation alone. First study; then approve; then love. Let your eyes be blind to all external attractions, your ears deaf to all the fascinations of flattery and light discourse. - These are nothing - and worse than nothing - snares and wiles of the tempter, to lure the thoughtless to their own destruction. Principle is the first thing, after all; and next to that, good sense, respectability, and moderate wealth. If you should marry the handsomest, and most accomplished and superficially agreeable man in the world, you little know the misery that would overwhelm you if, after all, you should find him to be a worthless reprobate, or even an impracticable fool.”
I was in the middle of Middlemarch when the power went out and my phone died—and I faced the most boring day I’d had all year, lockdown included. Since I was in the 19th century in my mind I wanted to read something similar, by another woman, and chose Anne Bronte though I almost did not because I knew the melancholy drama would be a far cry from Middlemarch. And then after gently drifting through the latter for some weeks, I read this book in one day.
Even though it IS fairly dramatic, it is also heart wrenching, and both books deal with the simple reality of dastardly men and their human (as opposed to angelic) wives.
All in all, I enjoyed this quite a bit though ‘enjoyed’ isn’t the word I should use (I especially felt for poor Millicent). I should read through my sister’s whole Bronte collection now, for though I’ve read Wuthering Heights and it got under my skin (and not in the best way) I haven’t read an unabridged Jane Eyre yet!
Even though it IS fairly dramatic, it is also heart wrenching, and both books deal with the simple reality of dastardly men and their human (as opposed to angelic) wives.
All in all, I enjoyed this quite a bit though ‘enjoyed’ isn’t the word I should use (I especially felt for poor Millicent). I should read through my sister’s whole Bronte collection now, for though I’ve read Wuthering Heights and it got under my skin (and not in the best way) I haven’t read an unabridged Jane Eyre yet!
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't read classics, but this one was great. Crazy to see that women still put up with the same bs 200 years later. The ending was very weak.