I know, I know. It’s Charlotte’s bicentennial so I should be talking about her. More to the point, wasn’t Jane Eyre the best Bronte novel? Or, if not, then it has to be Wuthering Heights, right? Respectfully, I disagree.
I must admit, it took me many years to read Anne’s two novels. Like most undergrads, I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but Anne was footnoted. It was only when I downloaded a heap of classics onto my Kindle a few years ago that I encountered The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and I was astounded by it. For those unfamiliar with it, Tenant is Anne’s second and final novel, not to mention a groundbreaking work of feminism that still resonates today. Its study of alcoholism, domestic violence and Helen’s resolution to walk away from her husband is as relevant as it ever was. When you remember that this novel was first published in 1848, you start to realise that maybe Anne was the groundbreaking one and not her older sisters.
One of the problems with Anne’s reputation seems to lie in Charlotte’s reluctance to let Tenant be republished following Anne’s death from TB in 1849. Charlotte thought the subject matter had been a mistake and the novel wasn’t worth preserving. Whatever Charlotte’s motives, she seemed to do her sister an injustice which it took a century for her to recover from. It’s definitely coloured how I think about Charlotte, to be honest, especially I find Tenant a superior novel in all ways to Jane Eyre.
For me, Anne Bronte’s quiet yet razor-sharp analysis of her subject is something I aspire to match. Of course, the novel is undoubtedly Victorian and many modern readers will simply ignore it because of that. People like Wuthering Heights because of its perceived uniqueness among nineteenth century novels, but Tenant obeys more contemporary literary conventions of form and style, only to implode societal conventions of marriage, domesticity and the role of women. That’s what makes it revolutionary for me.
I suppose all writers like to think of ourselves as observers. If a novel manages to be as insightful as Tenant without preaching, you’ve got me hooked. I only wish she’d lived to observe and write more.
