The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Owc) *

- A new edition of Anne Bront‰'s compelling novel about the destructive consequences of alcoholism on a marriage, featuring a wide-ranging new introduction, and up-to-date editorial material.
- New, wide-ranging introduction by Josephine McDonagh examines the intellectual and cultural context of the novel, its complex narrative structure and the contemporary moral and medical debates about alcohol and the body with which the novel engages.
- Reprints the authoritative Clarendon text in improved typesetting.
- Improved chronology
- Up-to-date bibliography
- Additional notes draw attention to the novel's use of contemporary medical publications on the effects of alcohol, on the study of physiognomy and phrenology and on the author's wide range of reading.

New to this edition

- New, wide-ranging introduction by Josephine McDonagh examines the intellectual and cultural context of the novel, its complex narrative structure and the contemporary moral and medical debates about alcohol and the body with which the novel engages.
- New, up-to-date bibliography
- Improved chronology
-Additional notes draw attention to the novel's use of contemporary medical publications on the effects of
alcohol, on the study of physiognomy and phrenology and on the author's wide range of reading.

'he looked up wistfully in my face, and gravely asked - Mamma, why are you so wicked?'

The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall has a dark secret. But as the captivated Gilbert Markham will discover, it is not the story circulating among local gossips. Living under an assumed name, 'Helen Graham' is the estranged wife of a dissolute
rake, desperate to protect her son from his destructive influence. Her diary entries reveal the shocking world of debauchery and cruelty from which she has fled. Combining a sensational story of a man's physical and moral decline through alcohol, a study
of marital breakdown, a disquisition on the care and upbringing of children, and a hard-hitting critique of the position of women in Victorian society, this passionate tale of betrayal is set within a stern moral framework tempered by Anne Bront‰'s
optimistic belief in universal redemption. Drawing on her first-hand experiences with her brother Branwell, Bront‰'s novel scandalized contemporary readers. It still retains its power to shock.