BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD READ ; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

[@ayushamahajan8375]

I’m absolutely loving the “books everyone should read” series!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks Ayusha that means a lot. I hope that they continue to satisfy.

[@amandalavelle2638]

Anne Brontë is my favourite of the 3 sisters. I think the themes she puts into her writing are so powerful but they’re not done as dramatically as her sisters. It’s a calmer experience to read Anne, but I think it sinks in deeper that way. Great to hear your enthusiasm for this wonderful book xx

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks Amanda. I am on your side regarding the sisters. Anne is my favourite too. Calmer is definitely the right word. She has a very thoughtful approach to her writing.

[@charmainesaliba5546]

Great review Tristan. I love The Tenant of Wildfall hall and Anne Bronte in particular in fact she is my favourite of the three sisters. In my humble opinion Anne was a contemporary author of her time and her two novels are still relevant nowadays. Consider Agnes Gray in that novel she pointed the struggles of the Governess. Even though Governess aren't common nowadays it could be related to teacher and how badly sometimes are treated. In my humble opinion The Tenant of Wildfall hall is still relatable not only because of the domestic violence which unfortunately still happening nowadays but as you said well is about how to raise boys and girls. Still nowadays there are differences on how we treat our children. When it comes to girls we tent to be more gentle, like girls are fragile. On the other hand boys are treated more roughly. I consider this a bad attitude. Unfortunately not much changed from the Victorian era in those aspects. Sorry once again for my long message and thanks for your hard work, surely you made me want to reread this gem of a book.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks Charmaine. Love your comments. You are completely right, Wildfell Hall is still very relevant today on scores of different levels. My main issue with the educating of boys and girls is the lack of morality being taught. Education is only seen from an intellectual level which has very little to do with happiness if it is not based upon a standard of goodness.

[@PoiemaLee]

Great review, Tristan. It has been a couple of years since I read this, but I remember feeling a bit unsettled about Gilbert. His treatment of Helen's brother could not be excused and should have been a big red flag. I wondered if she had gone from one abusive relationship into another.

[@sylvanaire]

I haven’t read the book, I’ve only seen the movie. This is my main reservation about the story. Yes she gets away from her husband, but it sounds like she could potentially be ending up with someone just as violent. I’m conflicted.

[@shellysolomonart]

I feel like she got someone WORSE tbh I don't like the ending at all. The man held no religious convictions, barely any self-control, and was a violent liar. Ew I guess she had to get with someone but good lord.

[@AndrewLeigh-v1l]

Love your Wordswoth classics collection,,,, pictures on the binding 😂

[@terririley186]

Tristan, I am so glad to have discovered your channel. I think you are brilliant and I love to listen to you talk about books! You have definitely made me want to read this book ASAP. Thank you for your insightful commentary. I think you would have made a wonderful teacher!!!

[@kcsunshine4008]

Great discussion Tristan. Finally, some well-needed attention for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall!!!!!! This book spoke to me…. I found it so incredibly relevant to today’s world regarding bringing up children, how experience can change /form us and having the strength to speak your mind even when against societal norms. I loved the way Anne revealed all of Helen’s experiences through her diaries once her ideas and feelings are already presented early in the narrative. Wonderful piece of work, which is somewhat underestimated in the canon of well-known classics. Visited AB’s tombstone in Scarborough this summer to pay my respects….. Ages Grey is on my “must-read” list for 2023.

[@deborahlynn9294]

Excellent. I tabbed ch 3 as probably important while reading it and your review has taught me exactly why it is. Many thanks.

[@DramaPixie-wt8hm]

Great analysis Tristan, thank you. I read this one about 40 years ago, but you've tempted me to read it again now.

[@karenlowes7802]

This book is on my holds list at the library. I'm looking forward to it, so thank you!

[@PaulAirey-m2h]

Loved your review. Very enlightening. I haven’t read the book yet. Having listened to your review it’s moved right up my to read list. I very much agree with the need to raise children to understand the difference between right and wrong and for them to be empowered to live a moral life. However, the age old question of who defines right and wrong and what it m means to live a moral life arises.

[@kathrynreinitz6619]

Was very pleased when I read it! Hadn't heard much about it but love it!

[@serinam1]

Thank you for this detailed review

[@susprime7018]

I did read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but it was long ago. Thanks for the review. She saw her brother Branwell's drunken dissapation, but everyone reaches the end of the rope in dealing with a drunk, even when they realize it is an illness, which the Victorians did not believe (they saw it as a moral failing and weakness) and I think the Bronte sisters reached their saturation point with brother Branwell. There was a fine biography of the Brontes that came out in the late nineteen-eighties that covered Branwell's struggles.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thanks SuS. You make a good point about how the Victorians only saw it from a moral perspective. While perhaps and early moral training might assist with this problem it surely goes beyond this once the spiral begins. Branwell being a case in point. Today, alcoholism is sadly a pandemic. And thank you for adding (yet another) tempting book to my shopping basket.😂👍

[@patriziacaruzzo3741]

A marvelous book and an amazing video!Thanks so much!!

[@leeah8419]

I loved this analysis! Well done, now I want to pick it up. 😊

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Hope you enjoy it Amalia! It is a great book. I'd love to hear you do a review of it.😀

[@lindawalker2451]

Thanks again for a very informative video. This is my year to read and reread all of the works of the three Bronte sisters. I confess I have not read any of Anne's works but I have the books and am very much looking forward to them.

[@LucyTurnsPagesYT]

I've been wanting to try this one, it's great to see a video on it!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Hey Lucy, you really should have a look at this book. It is quite something. Would love to hear your views on it.😀

[@mandyc1280]

Good day Captain! Great review. The discussion on raising children is one of my favorite parts. "..You'll spoil his spirit, and make a mere Miss Nancy of him...". I love Helen's steadfastness in this chapter. You definitely get the feeling that Anne saw some interesting behaviors as a governess. Loving the videos my friend. Many blessings to you and yours.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Steadfastness - what a good word to describe Helen. The governess lifestyle really had an influence on all three of the Brontes. It comes spilling out of their words very often.

[@beckerabstracts]

I never want to feel like I am being lectured to by the author. This is a problem I have with Priestly. He presents a situation the reader can understand but then proceeds to explain it. I love his stories but my enjoyment is sometimes dimmed. I understand he wrote in many different fields and genres so perhaps that had an effect on his fiction. So kudos to Miss Bronte for letting her characters do the work.

[@ayseal]

I just discovered this channel, it is great!

[@shelleyjennings2427]

I can’t believe I had never heard of this book until last year. I just finished it last night and i loved it so much, and had never heard of it, I thought it must have been considered a mediocre book, as a lot of books I like 😬. How has this book been so overshadowed by the other Brontë sisters’ books?? I will read it again someday when I can take more time with it, rather than being so eager to see how things turn out for Helen. All the way to the final page, I was rooting for her freedom and happiness. So good.

[@jeffreydupree8670]

Read the book about 8 years ago and again a month ago and loved it more the 2nd time and picked up some of the themes you speak of.

[@kasiakwiatkowska5816]

So absolutely satisfying and thought provoking! Thank to You Tristan I started to read classic this month and started to look at each story with more in-depth questions and dialog with the author. I am devouring Madame Bovary at the moment and loving the experience! Thank You so much for making classics so approachable, I feel like You helps me overcome fear of reaching for this kind of literature!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

That's amazing Kasia! 👏 So pleased that you are enjoying the Classics. Madame Bovary is a very thought provoking book. It's a key book in the development of the realist genre of fiction.

[@Beesmakelifegoo]

I will read it. You are so awesome. Thank you.

[@Thecatladybooknook_PennyD]

I really liked this book. I just read it last month. I remember this discussion in the book and it spoke to me because 1. I have two 20 something young men and 2. I used to hear arguments similar to this when I was homeschooling them (and deciding what to and not to expose them to when). I loved Helen!!

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

I couldn't agree with you more, Penny. I homeschooling too.

[@louisebaxter1026]

Silly really but i was so daunted by the book for my book club that I watched the DVD instead!!!BUT now I have heard you enthuse and present what AB wanted to say, I WILL read it and actually cannot wait!!

[@adamhussainart]

Thank you Tristan, for this eye-opening lecture. I am half-way through reading, stumbled across this, and then decided to re-read chapter 3. I can see more clearly the connections between Chp 3 and the rest of the novel. :)

[@missjenny1953]

Wonderful review Tristan

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Thank you miss jenny. I'm pleased you enjoyed it 😀

[@missjenny1953]

@@tristanandtheclassics6538 I have just downloaded from my library a book by Nick Holland. In Search of Anne Bronte, so readable with so much background on the family I never knew

[@Marymooau]

I loved this book. Fantastic read ❤

[@patriciatolliver4057]

Patty-I love your perspective of this book. I've heard so much about how this book is a feminist book that I was becoming tired of hearing it. You give a fresh perspective. I truly love her other book, Agnes Grey. It doesn't get as much attention, but I feel it is a great novel. Thank you for a wonderful look into this book.

[@Shannon-b5c]

I just read chapter three. Wow! If I could write so brilliant. Absolutely mind blowing.

[@susancheung2041]

Indeed I will get the book to read.

[@ChandnaBear]

Brill video, I will definitely read this book soon thank you 💌

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Please do Chandna! I'd love to know what you think about it. Please let me know your thoughts when you've finished.😀

[@sandraelder1101]

I think it’s fundamentally a very Christian book as well. She’s faithful to her vows even when he is not, shows Christian charity toward him later when he doesn’t deserve it, and acts according to her convictions throughout. When she decides to do a certain thing later in the book, she does so on her own terms with prudence and from a position of strength. A great heroine and a great story. Not flawless. I didn’t think the diary/epistolary form always worked. I mean, G tells her he’ll keep her confidence, then proceeds to tell his friend all about it in a letter. And really, like he could read through it that fast & copy it all out. But hey, I forgive her that because it’s otherwise such a great book.

[@nettietrees7238]

I’ve read this book recently, and am a big fan of Anne, but I disagree with it being a ‘feminist’ book. Helen makes the decisions she does for the safety of her child, she is constantly saying she would put up with it if it were just her. She even goes back to Huntingdon in the end. Those who claim that it is feminist suggest it is so because she leaves her husband and seeks employment as a painter - 🤦‍♀️ women were doing this already, women of lower classes had been employed in work for themselves as young as they were able. They seem to not notice that Rachel is gainfully employed by Helen, earning her own wages. Richer women could leave their husbands and live separate from them, though it was not easy, and often they did not want to lose status, etc. I could agree with the feminist thing if they were saying it was about divorce, as divorce was difficult to procure for women, though not impossible (and was being discussed in parliament at the time of her novel) but with Helen’s status and her beliefs I am led to believe that she would not of filed for divorce anyway, as she did not try to seek it under these circumstances when she had full justified reason to do so, mainly because of her beliefs which only grew stronger as the novel progressed. We also need to take into account that Anne wrote this from experience of living in large houses as a governess (oh look, a young woman working!) and her experience was of the ‘Lady’ of the house ruining her brother, leading him on into a relationship, which when she finished led him to be a drug addict and alcoholic which in turn killed him, with Anne nursing him on his death bed - so she was not intentionally thinking of how the men in her society ruin women when writing this book - she was thinking (as is seen in her characters) that both men and women can ruin others lives - so again, I use this in defence of Anne not writing a ‘feminist’ novel.

[@jillwhitney-birk5876]

Yes! I read TTOWH earlier this year. I agree very much with your comments here. The only thing that I disliked was how many chances Helen gave her husband and how “devoted” she was to him even though he was a complete pig. I think she pushes her “biblically correct wife” ideal too far. She was sometimes a little too preachy and too much of a martyr for me as well. Is that Anne’s devout Christianity coming through? What do you think about that? I agree 100% with your opinions on the education of boys Vs. girls as depicted in the novel. It is a great question to grapple with - even today. Love your videos! Keep up the great work.

[@apollonia6656]

I agree. That part really a noted me. Her religious believed made her look stupud....abused but still take the risk of going without sleep to nurse that pig.....she should have been thinking about her son. She could have fallen I'll and leave Arthur with her dearest friend ? But still stupid. Tell the truth: I waited to see what happened to Rover 🤔 Anyway, I preferred this book by Anne to Emily"a Wuthering Heights. Not sure why I find the Brontes odd!

[@apollonia6656]

PS: So sorry....UTube is really irritating me with its typos 🙄

[@shelleyjennings2427]

As post-modern women (and Christians if that applies, as it does for me) we have to take into consideration the social norms and expectations of the day, along with Helen’s individual character and convictions. Leaving a husband was so incredibly problematic for a woman at that time. That along with her strong conviction that she had chosen to marry this man, against the better judgement of her aunt (who had her own shortcomings), and now she felt a strong sense of responsibility to the marriage, if not to the husband. Eventually she did do the right thing by leaving. And I have to say - SPOILER ALERT- the way she went back to nurse him as he lay dying, hoping against hope that her service to him might lead him to some kind of repentance or reformation, was so respectable and noble in my estimation. To my modern senses, it’s out of the question that I would do the same - he was a deplorable beast who just grew more and more deplorable - but Helen held out hope for him to the end. She was the better for it afterward.

[@amyodell7157]

I have not read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It is on my TBR. I will read it as I go through my classic collection. However, I already have a spiritual worldview so I know that decisions of what’s right and wrong originate with the Bible. (see Proverbs 22:6). “the way he should go” as a Christian. Someone who was raised to believe in Jesus so they too can “go ye into all the world.” If the little boy was written as a girl the same would still apply: who has redness of eyes, who has wound’s without cause, those who linger long at the wine. Proverbs 23:29-30 The exclusive roles of men and women are seen throughout the Bible but 1 Peter 3:7defines husbands and wives. Great video! 👏🏻

[@xy-rc7bs]

Love how you focused on the real points of the book, not just "oh it's soo feminist" blah blah. This is the real message. Thank you for sharing this! I hope more people would learn how to think better and not just project their own ideas to anything and everything, saying this with all respect.

[@johnford6967]

Have the book but not read it.Will read it now. Thanks!

[@silvanasil7938]

Gostei muito do livro, comprei pra tentar aperfeiçoar meu inglês, ouvindo e lendo 😊

[@purplesprigs]

"I really liked the book, I bought it to try to improve my English, listening and reading."

[@beckerabstracts]

How do you rate Somerset Maugham? So many of his works were made into films even now. I am primarily a short story fanatic and once an author grabs me with a short story I then have to read their novels.

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

I think Maugham is fantastic. Such a thoughtful and vivid writer. Even when speaking about the mundane, there is a depth of current in it.

[@sandraelder1101]

In light of what happened to poor Branwell, Anne knew what she was talking about. In this book, she shows the wickedness and tragedy of vice, specifically alcohol abuse, and it’s effect on family, friends, and the one caught in its grip. I found the later part of the story quite moving. You know what part I mean.

[@lowman621]

Just curious Tristan in this 100 books everyone should read series, is there any order? If so would The Tenant of Wildfell Hall be #100 in your opinion?

[@tristanandtheclassics6538]

Hi Jason. The 100 books are not in any particular order. Perhaps I'll try that once the list is complete. ... Which will be a while yet.😀

[@donovanmedieval]

What I understand about this book is that it's what would have happened if Catherine, or any woman, had actually married Heathcliff.

[@bad-girlbex3791]

"Give me the boy as a child, and I will give you the man." A quote originally attributed to Aristotle, this was also a saying of the Jesuits (a RC order of the priesthood) and was attributed to Fr Xavier, who was a missionary to Japan. Their premise being that if you take a child from birth and educate, indoctrinate, socialise him until he reaches the age of seven then that defines his character when he reaches maturity. I suppose there is truth in the argument for this and some would say that its not necessarily true, case for and against. But I feel that there is a lot of truth inherent in this old maxim...and also what makes the chosen and for young Arthur, even more interesting. I wonder if it was at all present in the mind of Anne Brontë when she penned this book?

[@bad-girlbex3791]

I think the original quite said "Give me the child at 7, and I will give you the man."

[@samdryden7944]

There are no books that everyone "should" read - you are foisting your opinions and tastes on others and acting like the arbitrator speaking for all. (That is particularly problematic when most of your selections are by white European or American authors). People should be free to read what they want, or to read nothing at all.