A powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom, from the youngest of the Brontë sisters Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. It is only when she allows Gilbert to read her diary that the truth is revealed and the shocking details of the disastrous marriage she has left behind emerge. Told with great immediacy, combined with wit and irony, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom. This Penguin Classics edition of Anne Brontë's  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , her groundbreaking study of a woman's valiant struggle for independence from an abusive husband, is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis. In her introduction Davies discusses The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as feminist testament, inspired by Anne Brontë's experiences as a governess and by the death of her brother Branwell Brontë, and examines the novel's language, biblical references and narrative styles. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Select Guide Rating The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall is a strong-minded woman who keeps her own counsel. Helen 'Graham' - exiled with her child to the desolate moorland mansion, adopting an assumed name and earning her living as a painter - has returned to Wildfell Hall in flight from a disastrous marriage. Narrated by her neighbour Gilbert Markham, and in the pages of her own diary, the novel portrays Helen's eloquent struggle for independence at a time when the law and society defined a married woman as her husband's property. Anne Brontë (1820-1849), youngest of the Bronte sisters, was born at Thornton, West Yorkshire. Her father was a curate, and her mother died when she was a baby, leaving five daughters and one son. After the death of her sisters Maria and Elizabeth from tuberculosis in 1825, the Brontë children were homeschooled, and together they created fantasy worlds and kingdoms which they explored in writing. Anne worked as a governess between 1840 and 1845, after which she published Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) under the pen-name Acton Bell. Anne Brontë died in 1849. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall By Anne Bronte Penguin Books Copyright © 1996 Anne Bronte All right reserved. ISBN: 0140434747 Chapter One You must go back with me to the autumn of 1827. My father, as you know, was a sort of gentleman farmer in ?shire; andI, by his express desire, succeeded him in the same quiet occupation,not very willingly, for ambition urged me to higher aims, andself-conceit assured me that, in disregarding its voice, I was buryingmy talent in the earth, and hiding my light under a bushel. My motherhad done her utmost to persuade me that I was capable of greatachievements; but my father, who thought ambition was the surest road toruin, and change but another word for destruction, would listen to noscheme for bettering either my own condition or that of my fellowmortals. He assured me it was all rubbish, and exhorted me, with hisdying breath, to continue in the good old way, to follow his steps, andthose of his father before him, and let my highest ambition be, to walkhonestly through the world, looking neither to the right hand nor to theleft, and to transmit the paternal acres to my children in, at least, asflourishing a condition as he left them to me. "Well! ? an honest and industrious farmer is one of the most usefulmembers of society; and if I devote my talents to the cultivation of myfarm, and the improvement of agriculture in general, I shall therebybenefit, not only my own immediate connections and dependants, but, insome degree, mankind at large: hence I shall not have lived in vain." With such reflections as these, I was endeavouring to console myself, asI plodded home from the fields, one cold, damp, cloudy evening towardsthe close of October. But the gleam of a bright red fire through theparlour window had more effect in cheering my spirits, and rebuking mythankless repinings, than all the sage reflections and good resolutionsI had forced my mind to frame; for I was young then, remember? onlyfour-and-twenty ? and had not acquired half the rule over my own spiritthat I n