Penguin Classics presents Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series, read by the actress Juliet Stevenson.
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 Brontë wrote her masterpiece to reflect the fragile position of women in society and her belief in universal redemption, but scandalised readers of the time. Part of a series of vintage recordings taken from the Penguin Archives. Affordable, collectable, quality productions - perfect for on-the-go listening.
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"At first I had a hard time getting into the language/run-on sentences/English sayings of the 1800s...but once I did, I didn't want to put this one down. Just ask my husband. I was pleasantly surprised at how fiercely Anne Bronte defends the morals she believed in. I was equally appalled at Mr. Huntingdon's (her husband) lack of morals. He should be very lucky that I was not his wife! I highly recommend this little gem of a book."
—
Kaelee (5 out of 5 stars)