So, I picked up a copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as a starting place, as opposed to Anne’s other novel Agnes Grey. I had struggled with her sisters’ work, and this comic suggested that Anne’s books might be interestingly at odds with Charlotte and Emily’s. ‘Dude Watchin’ With The Brontës’ by Kate Beaton from her series Hark! A Vagrant | Image sourceĪs ridiculous as it might sound, this comic was what made me feel that Anne might be the Brontë sister for me. I remembered reading a short comic called ‘Dude Watchin’ With The Brontës’ by Kate Beaton for her series Hark! A Vagrant, which playfully jabs at Charlotte and Emily’s Byronic heroes as Anne undercuts her swooning sisters’ observations of passing men with hard truths about alcoholism and, to put it bluntly, being an ‘asshole’. I’m not proud of it, but for years Anne Brontë was just the additional sister, the ‘ oh yeah there was a third one wasn’t there?‘ of my conversations. Then, a thought struck me: what about the other one? Kate Bush in a promotional image for her debut single Wuthering Heights (1978) | Image sourceįor years both Charlotte and Emily’s work were lauded before me as classics of literature that I just couldn’t quite break into. I’ll be honest, this is a nebulous thing to me that I’ve tried and failed to read, and I only really understand and digest it through Kate Bush’s song Wuthering Heights (it is a great song though). Then there’s Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. It’s quite hard to sit through the romanticisation of a man that locks his supposedly mad wife in the attic as it is, but it’s much harder to tolerate after reading a whole book about said wife’s early life and exploring the forceful assimilation of a creole woman into a white man’s Britain (read Wide Sargasso Sea if you haven’t, you won’t regret it). Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was ruined for me when I read Jean Rhys’ exceptional anti-colonial response book Wide Sargasso Sea during the first year of my BA in English and Creative Writing. I’ve never really settled into reading the Brontë sisters’ books before. But Anne Brontë’s often overlooked novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall completely captured my heart.įrom left to right: Anne Brontë, sketched by her sister Charlotte circa 1834 | Image source Charlotte Brontë, depicted in chalk on paper by George Richmond in 1850 | Image source and Emily Brontë, depicted in an oil painting by her brother Patrick Branwell Brontë, circa 1833 | Image source I’ll be honest: I’ve never really got on with the work of the Brontë sisters.

Review the tenant of wildfell hall