#anne bronte

[epifaniacintilante]

(...) he dislikes me to have any pleasure but in himself, any shadow of homage or kindness but such as he chooses to vouchsafe: he knows he is my sun, but when he chooses to withhold his light, he would have my sky to be all darkness; he cannot bear that I should have a moon to mitigate the deprivation

Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Though they had the ability to do so, the Brontë Sisters never in their lifetimes combined to form MegaBrontë.

[ladyhawke]

Toby Stephens as Gilbert Markham in THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL Part I.

[peacefulandcozy]

Instagram credit: secondsforeternity

[burningvelvet]

its kind of hilarious how there are like 2 cinematic adaptations of one of anne brontë's novels while the other is ignored, a million adaptations of charlotte's jane eyre (several of them good) while her others are mostly ignored, and then you have emily who wrote probably the most famous one in contemporary media that has been adapted countless times but whose adaptations continuously suck... charlotte truly stays winning without even trying... but poor anne and emily!!

[afirewiel]

When you get down to it, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall basically have the same premise. They both feature a protagonist (Jane Eyre/Gilbert Markham) who falls in love with someone (Edward Rochester/Helen Huntingdon) who turns out to be already married. The books are even written by sisters. (Charlotte and Anne Bronte, respectively).

While Rochester and Helen are both unhappy in their marriages (Rochester's wife is insane and Helen's husband is unfaithful and abusive), the way they handle their situations could not be more different though. Rochester keeps his wife locked in the attic and keeps her existence a secret from all but a select few, letting the rest of the world think he is a bachelor. He deceives Jane as well and even tries to marry her, almost committing bigamy in the process. It's only the timely arrival of Rochester's brother-in-law Richard Mason at the wedding that the truth comes out.

Helen, on the other hand, runs away from her husband, taking her young son with her. She pretends to be a widow. But when she realizes Gilbert has fallen in love with her and wants to marry her, she comes clean to him about her marriage and says she cannot marry him because she is married.

Helen acts more nobly than Rochester and yet, of the two novels, it's the latter that was considered controversial at the time it was released with even Charlotte criticizing it for featuring a woman leaving her husband. Helen never tried to commit bigamy but somehow a woman leaving her abusive husband was considered worse at the time. It really is mind blowing.

[rayatii]

A few years ago, I had the idea of making one of those movies about a girl who falls in love with some asshole “bad boy” with the idea that she can “fix him” with her good influence, but it’s portrayed in a realistic way, and instead of improving, he becomes more and more abusive, until she has to escape.

A couple of days ago, I started reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and finished it yesterday… and I realized that Anne Brontë already beat me to it 177 years ago.

[elinordash]

UNDERDOG: THE OTHER OTHER BRONTË ↦ Gemma Whelan, Rhiannon Clements & Adele James

BONUS:

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

[erinm]

an oil painting of the brontë sisters. painted by their brother, branwell, in 1834.

(from left to right: anne, emily and charlotte).

[fictionadventurer]

I need to get way too excited about this extremely basic edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

It's just an old Barnes and Noble edition. But it's also the best possible cover this book could have in this format. That purple is the perfect color for this book! That picture! Covers of this book usually feature the hall, but this one features Helen! She's an artist! She's looking straight at you! She's demanding to be the focus of the story! It's like it was made for this book!

And then the inside!

That beautiful clear font! The kerning! The white space! It's so beautiful I could cry! That is how you format classic literature so people can actually read it!

I just love how all these little details come together to make this nothing-fancy edition into the ideal copy of this book for me.

[amicus-noctis]

“Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive.”

― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

[littlestfallenangel]

"You have to forgive the sexism in this book because it was a product of its time" Anne Bronte did not write The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848 just for me to put up with sexist bullshit written a hundred years later.

[buddyhollyscurls]

Thinking of Tenant and I'm like those villagers really judged Helen for...

loving her 5 yo old son huh

[petaltexturedskies]

Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

[ohmycavalier]

Buy and print of this illustration right here

[elephantlovemedleys]

charlotte, emily, & anne wrote and roleplayed many stories about the duke of wellington and his two sons which basically means the brontë’s lived the rpf is fine mantra