(no subject)

I went into The Tenant of Wildfell Hall all ready to defiantly love it, in large part because the person writing the introduction to my c. 1900 Project Gutenberg edition (Mrs. Humphry Ward, turn-of-the-century British novelist and President of the Women's Anti-Suffrage League) kept harping on about how Anne was by far the least talented Bronte sister and had none of Charlotte's spark. This seems an obnoxious thing to say about someone in the introduction to their own book.

It is thus somewhat to my chagrin that it turns out I don't actually think Anne has Charlotte's spark. I liked Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but it doesn't have the transcendent weirdness that make Jane Eyre and Villette so compelling.

This is not to say that our heroine Helen is not extremely sympathetic. ( Poor Helen just wants to be left alone! )