The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

This is a re-read for me and while I don't recall the details of my previous read, I'm happy to say that my rating of this book has improved from 3 to 4 stars. With that out of the way, the topmost thought upon finishing this book is: Who hurt you, Anne Bronte? This book's sub-title is “The first feminist novel” which might very well be true for its time, but I think “Gaslighting fbois” is probably a more appropriate one today.The premise of the novel is fairly simple enough. The whole novel is really a very, very, very long letter from our sort-of protagonist Gilbert Markham to his friend Haldon. In it, he details a story from his youth, when his neighbourhood sees the appearance of a mysterious Mrs Graham, the titular tenant of Wildfell Hall, and her son Arthur. From there, we watch the story unfold.Gilbert is by no means an endearing protagonist. He is pretty gaslight-y in his turn and sometimes seems a bit self-absorbed when it comes to pursuing women. However, all of that is entirely eclipsed by the ridiculously aggravating man-children fboi gang that we meet after the 25% mark of the novel. I don't even want to compare them to children because I think it isn't fair to the latter who haven't had the time to grow and mature. Clearly maturity, empathy, and sparing a single moment of thought and consideration for anything beyond their noses is a foreign concept to most of the men in this novel.

What really saves this novel from Wuthering Heights level of dreariness is Helen or Mrs Graham, the real protagonist of this novel. She is a little aggravatingly gullible at first, it's true, as we read her perspective from her 18 year old self, but she soon proves her worth under adversity. Unlike so many simpering, swooning heroines of other contemporary books, Helen toughens up and actually retains the use of her logic and intelligence even under the most trying of circumstances. While our modern attitudes may be screaming at some of her decisions, if we look at her situation from an early 19th century perspective, what options were feasibly open to her at the time, and the societal repercussions of each, she really behaved very well and made very sound, rational decisions instead of giving way to impulsive recklessness. Having at least just one character I could root for in the whole damn novel made all the difference to me, and is what elevates this novel above Wuthering Heights imo.

I don't know if I want to delve too much into the men of this novel, except to say that they were all infuriating to read and all the more annoying because they are pretty grounded in reality instead of being caricatures a la Wuthering Heights. I could very well conceive that such men existed back then, and a lot of them and their attitudes still exist today, sadly enough. Anne Bronte did such a great job in dragging out their shittiness into the spotlight while maintaining every ounce of realism. I appreciate that, even though it didn't make for a very pleasant read sometimes. There were whole chapters I desperately wanted to skip because I knew it was just going to be so much aggravation, but I'm glad I persisted. At some point I wanted to slap all of them and exile them onto an island where they can learn humility and independence for once instead of being grown-up babies.

Overall, this was a much more entertaining read than I remember, and all the more because I felt so much feelings by it, even if they were not all pleasant.