In Berkshire, I sat out in the peaceful garden of our rental house and read the second half of "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë . Can you see the garden furniture where I sat, turning the pages well into the summer dusk? Once I even fell asleep out there for perhaps half an hour and woke up in semi-darkness. The temperature was as balmy as it is meant to be on summer evenings and I felt relaxed - my mind emptied of the usual mental interference and wholly focused on Anne Brontë 's writing.
The novel was published in 1848. The "tenant" in the title is a young widow who has sought sanctuary in a place where she is not known. An air of mystery surrounds her and local people gossip about her, putting two and two together and making five. An eligible local young man called Gilbert Markham is greatly attracted to her but she spurns all of his advances.
It turns out that she had married a wrong 'un - a caddish upper class drunkard who was hell bent on pleasure and treated his wife as a doormat. He even spoke insultingly of the young son they had conceived together.
I haven't given too much of the story away in case you ever choose to read this novel too.
Here's a little sample:-
“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.”
Yes - I know - not every reader's cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and of course, like Dave in southern Ireland, I have always been a sucker for the Brontës. By the way, Anne Brontë died just a year after "The Tenant of Wilodfell Hall" was published. She was twenty nine years old. She also left poetry and another novel - "Agnes Gray" which I have never read but which is now most definitely on my list.
I enjoyed this novel and also have Agnes Grey on my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike Kelly!
DeleteI've never read any of the Brontes. Actually, I haven't read a lot of Victorian literature except for some Dickens and the occasional poet like Tennyson.
ReplyDeleteThis novel has much to say about the place of women in early Victorian times. In its day, it was considered to be controversial which today's readers might consider to be very surprising.
DeleteYou choose an excellent spot to read and yes I better read one of the Bronte's books.
ReplyDeleteI think the easiest is "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.
DeleteI too like the early Victorian language more refined and original.
ReplyDeleteAnd often long-winded but I don't mind that.
Delete"Moderate wealth" - Oh, I would certainly like to find someone with moderate wealth. LOL.
ReplyDeleteIf you have "moderate wealth", I guess you have a small country estate, a few horses and a couple of tenant farmers.
DeleteThe garden view is lovely and I may well have dozed off too just as you did. The "sample" tells me that book is not for me. Victorian era language is too fancy, too many words where just a few would do.
ReplyDeleteOh my dearest Elsie, you have spoken honestly but truly too in seeking to express your feelings towards Miss Bronte's elaborate language which is of its time and place in literary history.
DeleteYou weren‘t beleaguered by wasps and mozzies, then, while sitting out there in the garden?
ReplyDeleteI have read more about the Brontës than by them, but like you, I enjoy this kind of language and style. Many of the free kindle books I have been reading over the past 10+ years were first published in the mid to late 1800s.
No insects to speak of apart from a ladybird that loitered on page 371 before flying off over the garden wall.
DeleteI remember my mum taking us to visit Anne's grave at Scarborough. I love the Bronte's. Their lives were like sagas full of tragedy and yet they achieved so much in their writing. I even named our Golden Retriever Bronte.
ReplyDeleteI might rename you Hareton Earnshaw.
DeleteI don't think I could cope with too much of that writing!
ReplyDeleteYou get accustomed to it and as a reader you are a bit more patient.
DeleteI haven't read it but I think I would enjoy it. I shall look for a copy in our local library.
ReplyDeleteI am delighted that my account did not put you off.
DeleteVictorian novels are not my cup of tea…poetry yes but not novels. I find the style of writing makes me conscious I am reading.
ReplyDeleteMany other modern readers will feel the same way Traveller. Life is short.
DeleteNot really my cup of tea, but I love the idea of a "balmy" summer night and reading in the yard.
ReplyDeleteFunny how gun-toting, gum-chewing Yanks use "yard" instead of "garden".
DeleteTo summarize the paragraph, be careful what you see and hear for the effect how you feel, and be careful what you say and do. Why use ten words when you can use 100?
ReplyDeleteVictorians had to occupy their leisure hours somehow.
DeleteTravel sums it up well. I recently read my first, and last, Trollope as it was a book club pick. Give me Claire Keegan any day. Am currently working my way through the Booker long list
DeleteI read this many years ago. Women's lives were not desirable. Even the 'genteel' had little agency over their lives and, if they were fortunate enough to marry, became part of their husband's goods and chattels.
ReplyDeleteRather like you with your master - Barry.
DeleteI suppose we've all read some of Emily's novels, but her sister, Anne, is far less well known. Maybe if she'd lived longer she'd have become as famous as her sister.
ReplyDeleteEmily Brontë only published one novel Crozier but it was a masterpiece. Chatlotte Brontë outlived all of her siblings but she was also young when she died - just 38.
DeleteI'm afraid that when I read things like that paragraph, I am so focused on trying to figure out what the hell each sentence means that I lose the thread of the story. I'm sure that with more practice I could learn to enjoy it more.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Coping with language like this does require practice.
DeleteI had to look up why she died so young as I didn't realize the Bronte women had tuberculosis and died young because of that.
ReplyDeleteThat paragraph about did me in, but I know what you mean about Victorian writing getting easier as we get to be older, more experienced readers. I've felt that way about Dickens. When I was young I found him a struggle but now I can breeze along. I also loved "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights." But based on the excerpt you gave us, this particular Brontë might be more of a challenge!
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