Week 1: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

I am hosting the December book club at The Wild Hunt and this post originally appeared there. If you’d like to join in for the discussion, view the original post.

WELCOME AND THANKS FOR JOINING THE FIRST BOOK CLUB HOSTED BY THE WILD HUNT!

I hope you are enjoying Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as much as I am. Before we get started, a smidge of housekeeping:

• Since we are dividing discussion into 3 parts per the volumes of the book, no spoilers here. Please keep discussion as spoiler-free as possible when it comes to revealing anything later in the novel.

  • This week will be Volume I (chapters 1-19). Followed by Volume II (chapters 20-37) and Volume III (chapters 38-53).

  • Just because talking points are released on Tuesdays, discussion can and is encouraged at any time.

• Discussion can take place in the comment sections beneath the post and/or on our Twitter account.

  • I know everyone is already thoughtful and kind, but please remember to be considerate. No nastiness, please.

The novel begins with a man named Gilbert Markham writing to his brother-in-law, Jack Halford. He promises to tell Jack a story of the mysterious widow Helen Graham. I have to admit, at the very beginning of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I had a hard time entering the novel. I suffered from what often happens to me when reading classic novels (this also happened when I read my dearly loved Wuthering Heights): far too many characters for me to digest and I was unsure exactly what was happening. In my shame, I thought at first Fergus was a young boy and not Gilbert Markham’s teenaged brother.

But after a chapter or two everything starts flying and the characters cleared themselves up. I was hooked.

THE OUTSIDER

Soon we are introduced to Helen Graham and her young son, Arthur. She is the mysterious widow who has moved into Wildfell Hall, a run down and dank home that doesn’t seem suitable for habitation. Fergus notes: ‘I’d hoped she was a witch.’ A very clear tip off, if I do say so, of how the rest of the neighbours in the village will see and treat Helen. At first they are intrigued by her, often inviting themselves over unannounced to her house or dragging the poor woman to the seaside with them when she clearly stated she wanted to go alone. They even ask explicit questions of her provenance, which she keeps tight-lipped about, and pointedly refuses to divulge beyond saying she is an Englishwoman.

GOSSIPMONGERS

The villagers do not like that Helen is different. She keeps to herself, eschews their company and paints not as an idle hobby but one for her livelihood. At first, Markham tells himself that he is disinterested in the widow and is half-heartedly courting the young Eliza Millward. When his interest in the latter wanes and he turns to Helen, Eliza and the rest start to spread a vicious rumour about her son’s parentage. This upsets Helen and also upsets Markham on a number of levels.

LET’S TALK ABOUT MARKHAM

Markham, Markham, Markham. What can we say about Gilbert Markham? Gentleman Farmer? Debonair man about the village? Selfish, egotistical, bonehead? I think so. Dear readers, did you too want to shake Markham a few good times through Volume 1 at his horrible treatment of Helen Graham. Let’s start when she wanted to be left alone to her painting. She was dragged along on the group picnic and when she went off to paint by the cliff, this man would not leave her alone (see all of chapter 7).

Having put her comfortably in, bid her take care of the evening air, and wished her a kind good-night, I felt considerably relieved, and hastened to offer my services to Mrs. Graham to carry her apparatus up the fields, but she had already hung her camp-stool on her arm and taken her sketch-book in her hand, and insisted upon bidding me adieu then and there, with the rest of the company. But this time she declined my proffered aid in so kind and friendly a manner that I almost forgave her.

During chapter 10, Helen relents and tells Markham they can be friends (and friends alone), which he agrees to—and we all know, deep down, he is wrangling for something more—but whenever he sees Helen speak to Mr Lawrence, her landlord and the object of the nasty village gossip, he loses his mind. Helen does not belong to you, Markham! She also doesn’t really want you around.

Dear Gilbert Markham, Helen is allowed to speak, entertain and paint whenever she wants and with whomever she wants. Even if that is without you or completely alone.

He gets so huffy that he sees Mr Lawrence out riding his pony on the road and whips him until he is severely beaten. He also sees Helen out walking with her son, Arthur, who is ignorant to Markham’s lunacy and when the boy runs to him to say hello, the gentleman farmer turns his back to him and walks away like a scorned mean girl.

HELEN

The volume closes with Helen Graham handing over her diaries to Markham (no, girl!) so as to explain herself and her isolation. I do suppose we need to hear from her to get the backstory. I won’t go into too much detail here because now we will begin to find out what and who she is hiding from. I’m looking forward to reading more of Helen’s backstory. I can already see that she is being wooed by a devilish figure but how did we get to Wildfell Hall?

SO, DEAR READERS, WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS?

• Did anyone else want to slap/shake/kick Markham?

• Gosh, the double-standards are very abhorrent in the village, aren’t they?

• I can kind of see why this novel was a bigger success at the time than Wuthering Heights.