The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte

As part of our continuing study of the Bronte sisters, I have been reading Anne Bronte's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" for the past few weeks, and it has not been an easy project. In fact, I was ready to abandon the book just last week, about half way through it. I complained to Delycia that it seemed monotonous and almost trivial at times, sort of like a cheap romance novel that wasn't especially well-written. Strangely, though, now, just a few days later, I am thoroughly enjoying the book and can't wait to get back to it each day. What happened? Well, Delycia kept quietly encouraging me to continue with it (she finished it a few weeks ago), hinting that there were some interesting chapters coming soon. Also, I went to a website called "goodreads.com", which is sort of a discussion site for devoted readers, and several readers championed the book as one of the best they've read. So . . . I started back into Chapter 32, and now the book has thoroughly grabbed my attention. For one thing, it's one of the bravest books I've read, written by a courageous 26-year-old Victorian woman about the debilitating treatment of a wife by her husband. Women in the 1840's were not supposed to write about such matters, but young Anne boldly stepped forward in this book. Historically, it's a very important novel, and I'm glad I'm staying with it.