The Brontë Sisters and Popularity

I very recently read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë and I absolutely loved it. It got me thinking about hype within the classic genre. I’ve had heaps of experience with hype in YA, but I never really thought about it for classics until now.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Brontë sisters, whether you read classics or not. I’m sure you’ve also heard of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. They’re popular classics, right? So my question is, why isn’t The Tenant of Wildfell Hall just as popular?

If you read my review the other day, you’ll know that I basically thought this book was brilliant. It’s a very raw story as it was based on Anne Brontë’s own experiences with her brother, Branwell. I absolutely love Jane Eyre — it’s one of my all-time favourite books, and I’m not particularly fond of Wuthering Heights (at least what I’ve read of it) but I feel that this deserves the same amount of recognition.

I’ve seen a few book bloggers and booktubers talk about this in the past, but not nearly as many as it deserves. I’ve seen people say they prefer this over Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but still — not enough people have read this.

And not only in the book blogging/tubing community. When it comes to classics, I really like watching adaptations after I’ve read the book just to see how the words get translated onto the screen. There are some really great ones out there, mainly the BBC miniseries of North and South, but then there are some not so great ones. When it comes to the Brontë sisters… well, it gets interesting.

There are about eighteen different adaptations of Jane Eyre, and those are only the ones in English. Out of all of those, I’ve seen two neither of which I particularly liked. There are 13 adaptations of Wuthering Heights, again these are just the English ones. How many adaptations are there of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall you might ask? Two. There are two.

Both of them are miniseries. One made in 1968 that doesn’t even have a promotional cover on IMDB (so you can imagine how well that must have turned on) and another made in 1996, which stars Toby Stephens (from Jane Eyre), Tara Fitzgerald and Rupert Graves (this is just for you Inge).

Some of you might know that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights got remakes a few years ago, but no — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has still got nothing. I just don’t understand why it isn’t as popular as the other two. In my personal opinion, it would make a really great movie — firstly, the setting of the novel is seriously beautiful. Secondly, can you imagine the soundtrack? It would be beautiful piano pieces and other sombre stuff, it would be amazing. Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, it tackles the issue of domestic abuse, which is incredibly relevant in our society. I should mention when I say ‘abuse’, its not violence but more emotional abuse and manipulation. That’s something people deal with now, every day, and not just women either so why shouldn’t we see it from the eyes of Anne Brontë who experienced it, even if it was ages ago. It just proves how much of a serious issue this is.

I’m sorry if this made no sense at all. I just really needed to get these thoughts of my chest and I’m hoping some of you might agree with me. If you hadn’t read this yet, then maybe this will convince you to?

Thank you for listening (reading) to me rant about the Brontë’s…again. I’d say that I’ve gotten over my obsession for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but I really haven’t. #sorrynotsorry

REVIEW: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

Title: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Author: Anne Brontë

Genre: Classics, Romance.

Publication Date: June 28th 2012 (first published 1848)

Publisher: Penguin Books

Format: Paperback

Pages: 524

Rating: 5/5

'She looked so like herself that I knew not how to bear it'

In this sensational, hard-hitting and passionate tale of marital cruelty, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall sees a mysterious tenant, Helen Graham, unmasked not as a 'wicked woman' as the local gossips would have it, but as the estranged wife of a brutal alcoholic bully, desperate to protect her son.

Using her own experiences with her brother Branwell to depict the cruelty and debauchery from which Helen flees, Anne Bronte wrote her masterpiece to reflect the fragile position of women in society and her belief in universal redemption, but scandalized readers of the time. 

After reading and absolutely adoring Jane Eyre last year, I made it my mission to read through absolutely everything the Brontë sisters ever wrote.

It took me a while, but I finally managed to tick another one off my list. I tried reading Wuthering Heights a few months ago and I didn’t love it (I still haven’t finished it) so when it came to this one, it really could have gone either way. Luckily, this turned out to be more like Jane Eyre for me.

Firstly, I feel like this one is seriously underrated. When people talk about the Brontë sisters, usually it’s all about Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. This one definitely deserves some more love, and not just from book bloggers or booktubers but I’ve already planned another post to talk about that in length.

I think what gets me the most about this one is that Anne Brontë based Helen Graham’s (our female lead, if you will) story on her own experiences with her brother Branwell. For those of who don’t know, and without spoiling too much, Branwell wasn’t exactly going for Man of the Year. As horrible as it is, it’s probably because of Branwell’s behaviour that this book is so beautiful. You can really feel the rawness in Anne’s writing and Helen’s hatred of her husband.  I don’t know how to put this other than ‘it gave me the feels’.

Let’s talk about another aspect of the writing for a moment. As a Literature student, this book felt like a dream. I absolutely love layered perspectives, stories within stories… however you want to put it. Again, I’ve got a post coming up about this. Anyway, within this we get to hear from both Helen and Gilbert Markham — Gilbert is telling a story (in letter form) to his friend Halford about Helen, and then within that Gilbert also reads a diary that Helen has written. It sounds confusing, but wow, it is well done. Originally, I had sort of wanted the whole novel to be from Helen’s point of view, because that’s just what I’m used to, but as the story went on I realised how terrible the story would have been, if it had been told like that. It would have been boring, there would have been no mysterious element to Helen at all — it would have been terrible, just take my word on this.

Just quickly, I want to talk about a couple of the characters. Warning: this is where I get a little sassy. So there’s a character named Millicent, and I honestly just imagined her as Millicent Nankivell the entire time — I’m not entirely sure this is a compliment, Sorry Millie! Also, there’s Annabella who is honestly the worst kind of person ever. Oh god, I lost count how many times I wanted to slap her. Helen, on the other hand, Head Bitch in Charge…seriously. I absolutely adore her, she’s such a strong character — her life honestly sucks and yeah, sometimes she’s a little naïve but wow. Can we be best friends? #Helly (I had to). I’m not 100% sure about this yet, but I think I might even like Helen more than I liked Jane.

So yes, this may have taken me eleven days to finish but it was totally worth it. If you haven’t already picked this up, especially if you’re a Bronte fan, you should definitely pick this up.