Anne Bronte, the younger sister of Charlotte and Emily,
has long faded into literary obscurity, if indeed she ever emerged. She died of consumption at the age of 29,
having published two novels under the pseudonym of "Acton Bell" (her
sisters were first known as Currer and Ellis Bell), not knowing of course that
Charlotte and Emily would later become two of the most famous British novelists
of all time. Emily too died young; only
Charlotte, the eldest of the surviving sisters, lived to enjoy fame and some
fortune.
Of Anne's two
novels, "Tenant" is the lesser known, and probably the inferior work
to "Agnes Grey," which I haven't read. But it's still a good read, if the modern
reader can tolerate what today would be considered excessively
"flowery" 19th century prose. There's
nothing in the story itself that's out of sync with modern times--it's about a
woman caught in the trap of an abusive marriage to an alcoholic and her attempt
to escape that marriage and make a life for herself and her child. The obstacles to female independence set
forth in her age (the early 19th century in England) were virtually
insurmountable, and the deck of cards was stacked against women, even women of
means, whose fortunes at that time were usually controlled by their husbands.
Helen Huntington, the mysterious "tenant" of
the title, is such a woman, trapped by circumstance until a smitten neighbor
tries to become her protector, without understanding fully the nature of her
marital dilemma. The novel makes
extensive use of letters and journals to tell its back story; indeed much of
the novel is told in retrospect, rather than moving consistently forward. Gilbert Markham, Helen's would-be suitor is
no Rochester, much less Heathcliffe, nor is Helen herself a heroine in the
class of Jane Eyre or Catherine Earnshaw.
But the book is absorbing, nonetheless, and I would recommend it with
some reservations.
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