Anne Brontë: Story of the Forgotten Genius

The Brontë Sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, are known to be the most influential writers of their time.

Their work has survived the ravages of time and has set a course for modern-day gothic literature. Saying that, whenever the name Brontë comes up, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë are the two books that are usually remembered. I personally believe that Anne Brontë’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ is one of the best books ever written. Not only does it have the poetic flow of writing characteristic of the Brontë sisters, but the plotline of the story revolves around issues much more relevant, not just in the nineteenth century but even today.

Anne Brontë was born on January 17th, 1820 and was the youngest among the three Brontë sisters. Along with Emily and Charlotte, she had two more sisters and a brother, Maria, Elizabeth and Patrick. Anne worked as a governess for many families, and she also wrote two novels in her lifetime, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Agnes Grey was the story of a young governess based on Anne’s own work experiences and was published alongside Emily’s only book Wuthering Heights, which outshone Anne’s work with its dark, dramatic plotline and intense romance.

“This rose is not so fragrant as a summer flower, but it has stood through hardships none of them could bear: the cold rain of winter has sufficed to nourish it, and its faint sun to warm it: the bleak winds have not blanched it, or broken its stem, and the keen frost has not blighted it…it is still fresh and blooming as a flower can be, with the cold snow even now on its petals — will you have it?”
— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The book that I wish to talk about today is ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, Anne Brontë second and last novel.

Both Charlotte and Emily were known for the gothic horror elements and suspenseful plotlines in their novels, be it the mad wife in the attic or the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw. But Anne’s work was more stemmed in reality and focussed on issues closer to home. ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ is the story of a young mother, Helen Graham, who escapes her abusive husband Arthur Huntington and moves into the Wildfell Hall (her ancestral house) with the help of her brother. While the story is a romance as well, with Gilbert Markham being the main love interest, the story revolves around Helen’s struggle in a society that would overlook all misdemeanours of a man, but cannot accept a single mother separated from her husband for the well-being of her son.

By leaving her husband Arthur, Helen had violated not just social conventions but also the English Law.

The book was published in 1848, long before the Married Women’s Property Act (1870) was passed, and therefore Helen was not legally allowed to own property, file for divorce or get custody of her son. The money she earned by selling her paintings would be considered stealing her husband’s property since her income legally belonged to him. This left her with no other option but to go into hiding. She took her mother’s maiden name (instead of her own maiden name Lawrence) and led a solitary life away from any and all social interactions. Helen handled all her businesses with extreme discretion, selling her paintings with the help of her brother Frederick Lawrence, until the very end when Arthur succumbed to his addictions and fell severely ill. Helen moved back in with him and tended to his health until his last days.

As we all can imagine, the book received harsh criticism for this very reason.

But even then, it was a huge success in the market and its first copy prints sold much faster than any of her sister’s previous novels. Unfortunately, soon after the publication of the book, Anne died aged 29 on May 28, 1849, due to Influenza. This is when the novel got lost in the market. After the initial success of the novel, Charlotte prevented the re-publication of the novel stating the following reasons,

“The choice of subject was an entire mistake… She [Anne] had in the course of her life, been called on to contemplate, near at hand and for a long time, the terrible effects of talents misused and faculties abused; hers was naturally a sensitive, reserved and dejected nature; what she saw sank very deeply into her mind; it did her harm. She brooded over it till she believed it to be a duty to reproduce every detail as a warning to others.”
— Charlotte Brontë

There could be many reasons why Charlotte refused to re-publish her sister’s works.

Some believe it was jealousy, though it doesn’t fit into the context. Many believe that she blamed the tragic story of the book for Anne’s death. From what I believe, it may simply have been too painful for Charlotte, and there can be many reasons for that.

First, the harsh criticism that the book received and the immediate death of her sister, were events far too traumatic for her. The fact that Emily Brontë and Patrick Brontë had died mere months before Anne, would have just added to her grief. Re-publication of the book would have brought more criticism on Anne, who was now dead, and this was just something Charlotte couldn’t bear. Of course, there is the fact that she didn’t stop the re-publication of Emily’s Wuthering Heights, which too had received extreme criticism. The second reason, and the more credible one, could be that Anne’s book reflected on something much closer to the Brontë family. As I have said before, Anne Brontë wrote about issues much closer to home, building the foundation of her stories on her own experiences.

The Brontë family suffered through many tragedies.

This included the death of their mother Maria Brontë née Branwell in 1821, followed by the two eldest daughters’ Maria and Elizabeth’s death in 1825. This left the four siblings Charlotte, Patrick, Emily and Anne. In their formative years, Charlotte and Patrick had been very close, and Emily and Anne were inseparable from each other. The four siblings were extremely talented, with the three sisters being proficient poets and writers and Patrick having the gift of art.

But over the years Patrick developed an extreme addiction to Alcohol and Opium, thus destroying his relationship with Charlotte to such an extent that she completely turned her back against him (an excellent move, in my opinion). In Anne’s novel, the main antagonist Arthur Huntington appears to be based on Patrick’s character, both succumbing to the evils of Gluttony. Another reference that she made on her family was the return of Helen back to her husband during his last days to tend to his declining health.

This was Anne’s way of criticising Charlotte’s decision to not help Patrick in his last days.

Of course, this did not bode well with Charlotte for obvious reasons. While the family drama of the Brontë family was intense and complicated, and therefore all actions taken by both Anne and Charlotte were equally justifiable, it is a tragedy that a masterpiece like ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ did not receive the recognition it truly deserved. The book is believed to be the first true feminist novel of its time which ultimately led to better laws and protection for married women in the future. In 1913, May Sinclair stated that the slamming of Helen’s bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England, thus highlighting the importance of the novel for women rights.

Now, after 172 years from the first release of the novel, even though we have come far in protecting women rights, these are the issues we still face. This makes the context of the story much more relevant today, and therefore it is unfortunate that Anne Brontë and her writings are known to only the select few. It is high time that this changes.

If you liked this article, please share, comment and check out my previous blogs! And while you’re at it, give ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ a read.

Originally published at https://allreadersaboard.com on March 1, 2021.