The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one-half his days and mad the other.’When Helen flees from her alcoholic husband in order to protect her son she defies societal convention. Earning a living as an artist, she becomes the mysterious tenant of Wildfell Hall as she hides herself away and uses her art to support her child. However, the beautiful and reclusive young woman soon begins to stir up malicious gossip and speculation. Captivated and drawn to Helen, Gilbert Markham becomes suspicious when he begins to hear these stories, however it is only when he reads Helen’s diary that he learns the full cruelty that her husband subjected her to in her previous life.Rejecting the societal norms surrounding marriage in Victorian Society, Anne Brontë’s novel, said to be based on the experiences of her own brother Branwell, shocked her readers at the time and still remains a scandalous read today.
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THE TENANT
OF WILDFELL HALL
Anne Brontë
To J. Halford, Esq.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Authorâs Preface to the Second Edition
Volume I
CHAPTER 1: A Discovery
CHAPTER 2: An Interview
CHAPTER 3: A Controversy
CHAPTER 4: The Party
CHAPTER 5: The Studio
CHAPTER 6: Progression
CHAPTER 7: The Excursion
CHAPTER 8: The Present
CHAPTER 9: A Snake in the Grass
CHAPTER 10: A Contract and a Quarrel
CHAPTER 11: The Vicar Again
CHAPTER 12: A Tête-à -Tête and a Discovery
CHAPTER 13: A Return to Duty
CHAPTER 14: An Assault
CHAPTER 15: An Encounter and its Consequences
CHAPTER 16: The Warnings of Experience
CHAPTER 17: Further Warnings
CHAPTER 18: The Miniature
CHAPTER 19: An Incident
Volume II
CHAPTER 20: Persistence
CHAPTER 21: Opinions
CHAPTER 22: Traits of Friendship
CHAPTER 23: First Weeks of Matrimony
CHAPTER 24: First Quarrel
CHAPTER 25: First Absence
CHAPTER 26: The Guests
CHAPTER 27: A Misdemeanour
CHAPTER 28: Parental Feelings
CHAPTER 29: The Neighbour
CHAPTER 30: Domestic Scenes
CHAPTER 31: Social Virtues
CHAPTER 32: Comparisons: Information Rejected
CHAPTER 33: Two Evenings
CHAPTER 34: Concealment
CHAPTER 35: Provocations
CHAPTER 36: Dual Solitude
CHAPTER 37: The Neighbour Again
Volume III
CHAPTER 38: The Injured Man
CHAPTER 39: A Scheme of Escape
CHAPTER 40: A Misadventure
CHAPTER 41: âHope Springs Eternal in the Human Breastâ
CHAPTER 42: A Reformation
CHAPTER 43: The Boundary Passed
CHAPTER 44: The Retreat
CHAPTER 45: Reconciliation
CHAPTER 46: Friendly Counsels
CHAPTER 47: Startling Intelligence
CHAPTER 48: Further Intelligence
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50: Doubts and Disappointments
CHAPTER 51: An Unexpected Occurrence
CHAPTER 52: Fluctuations
CHAPTER 53: Conclusion
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases Adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
About the Author
History of Collins
Copyright
About the Publisher
While I acknowledge the success of the present work to have been greater than I anticipated, and the praises it has elicited from a few kind critics to have been greater than it deserved, I must also admit that from some other quarters it has been censured with an asperity which I was as little prepared to expect, and which my judgment, as well as my feelings, assures me is more bitter than just. It is scarcely the province of an author to refute the arguments of his censors and vindicate his own productions; but I may be allowed to make here a few observations with which I would have prefaced the first edition, had I foreseen the necessity of such precautions against the misapprehensions of those who would read it with a prejudiced mind or be content to judge it by a hasty glance.
My object in writing the following pages was not simply to amuse the Reader; neither was it to gratify my own taste, nor yet to ingratiate myself with the Press and the Public: I wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it. But as the priceless treasure too frequently hides at the bottom of a well, it needs some courage to dive for it, especially as he that does so will be likely to incur more scorn and obloquy for the mud and water into which he has ventured to plunge, than thanks for the jewel he procures; as, in like manner, she who undertakes the cleansing of a careless bachelorâs apartment will be liable to more abuse for the dust she raises than commendation for the clearance she effects. Let it not be imagined, however, that I consider myself competent to reform the errors and abuses of society, but only that I would fain contribute my humble quota towards so good an aim; and if I can gain the public ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much soft nonsense.
As the story of âAgnes Greyâ was accused of extravagant over-colouring in those very parts that were carefully copied from the life, with a most scrupulous avoidance of all exaggeration, so, in the present work, I find myself censured for depicting con amore, with âa morbid love of the coarse, if not of the brutal,â those scenes which, I will venture to say, have not been more painful for the most fastidious of my critics to read than they were for me to describe. I may have gone too far; in which case I shall be careful not to trouble myself or my readers in the same way again; but when we have to do with vice and vicious characters, I maintain it is better to depict them as they really are than as they would wish to appear. To represent a bad thing in its least offensive light is, doubtless, the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue; but is it the most honest, or the safest? Is it better to reveal the snares and pitfalls of life to the young and thoughtless traveller, or to cover them with branches and flowers? Oh, reader! if there were less of this delicate concealment of facts â this whispering, âPeace, peace,â when there is no peace, there would be less of sin and misery to the young of both sexes who are left to wring their bitter knowledge from experience.
