Signature Classics: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by Anne Brontë. It was first published in 1848. It is probably the most shocking of the Brontës' novels and it had an instant and phenomenal success. However, after Anne's death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication. Most critics now consider The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to be one of the first feminist novels. May Sinclair, a popular English writer of the time, said that the slamming of Helen's bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England. In leaving her husband, Helen violates not only social conventions, but also the early 19th century English law.