The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Holiday Read Along

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In the on-going Austen-Bronte fandom war, I’ve made no secret of my allegiance to the Brontes. (I have hidden my dislike of Austen, since that’s a touchier subject. But hey—I don’t like Austen.)

But here’s something you might not know—while I love Jane Eyre (and I recognize that Wuthering Heights is quite… interesting) my favorite Bronte sister is Anne. This comic from Hark a Vagrant expresses it better than I could.

Anne only wrote two novels: Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Compared to Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey is much quieter. Less celebrated. But to my mind, Agnes Grey shares more with modern historical romances than Anne’s sisters’ works. There’s no mad wife in the attic (or necrophilia)—only a destitute governess trying her best under life’s insults, a noble but poor curate who might share her deeper feelings, a big misunderstanding, and of course, a dog. You could take all the elements of Agnes Grey and make a very familiar historical romance out of it, although I suppose Mr. Weston would have to become a duke.

But The Tenant of Wildfell Hall… Well, that book takes the “bad boy saved by the love of a good woman” trope and smashes it right on its head. If you found this piece funny on The Toast, you will likely enjoy Tenant. (There’s also this on The Toast about Wildfell Hall.)

After years of talking up the book to her (and to everyone, really) I’ve finally managed to convince Emma that we should do a read along of Tenant and invite everyone! (You can find her thoughts here.) We’ll be hosting Twitter discussions of the book throughout the holidays—we’ll discuss Vol. 1 on December 21 at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST using the hashtag #TOWH. Then onto Vol. 2 on December 28 and Vol. 3 on January 4, all at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST and with the hashtag.

Still not convinced? There’s a BBC adaptation with Toby Stephens and Tara FitzGerald.

Still not convinced? (Really? Not even by Toby Stephens?) The book itself is free, thanks to the magic of copyright.

Emma and I hope to see you at the Twitter chats! Full disclosure: I can’t promise that the book will fill you with Christmas cheer, but you were probably getting a little tired of all the cheer anyway. 😉