The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2021
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's second novel, published in 1848, which is now celebrated alongside those of her sisters but which Charlotte Bronte tried to suppress as a 'mistake'. It examines the life of Helen, who has escaped her abusive husband Arthur Huntingdon with their son to live at Wildfell Hall as a widow under the alias 'Mrs Graham', and it exposes the men in her husband's circle who gave her no choice but to flee. Early critics attacked the novel as coarse, as misrepresenting male behaviour, and as something no woman or girl should ever read; soon after Anne's death, Charlotte suggested the publisher should lose it for good. In recent decades, though, its reputation has climbed and it now sits with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as one of the great novels by the Bronte sisters.
The image above shows Tara Fitzgerald as Helen Graham in a 1996 BBC adaptation.
With
Alexandra Lewis Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle (Australia)
Marianne Thormählen Professor Emerita in English Studies, Lund University
And
John Bowen Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.9 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:07.5 | There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs |
| 0:11.4 | if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time. |
| 0:14.8 | I hope you enjoyed the programs. |
| 0:16.5 | Hello, when the Tenent of Wild Fell Hall was published in 1848, critics condemned its |
| 0:21.7 | portrayal of male violence and alcoholic abuse recommending that no woman should read it. |
| 0:27.5 | And Bronte was the author and she saw a review after review attacking her novel as to course, |
| 0:33.4 | crushing it further her sister Charlotte wrote, |
| 0:35.9 | At this I Can't Wunder, the choice of subject was an entire mistake. |
| 0:41.2 | And yet in recent decades this work by the youngest Bronte has taken its place alongside |
| 0:46.6 | those of her sisters as one of the great novels in English and perhaps the first feminist |
| 0:51.3 | novel. |
| 0:52.3 | As we did discuss the Tenent of Wild Fell Hall, Alexandra Lewis, lecturer in English and |
| 0:57.2 | creative writing at the University of Newcastle in Australia, Mary Anne Tholmallon, Professor |
| 1:02.9 | Emeritor in English Studies, London University in Sweden and John Bowen, Professor of 19th |
| 1:08.2 | Century Literature at the University of York John Bowen. |
| 1:12.1 | What do we need to know about Anne Bronte's early life? |
| 1:15.4 | Well Anne Bronte was born in 1820 so she's the sixth child so she's got four sisters |
| 1:22.2 | and a brother of the Reverend Patrick Bronte and his wife Maria. |
| 1:27.5 | Patrick Bronte was born in Ireland in poverty and had fought his way up in the Anglican |
| 1:32.0 | Church. |
... |
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