The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Author/Guide: Anne Bronte

Why a Booktrail?

1800s: Where do you hide when your past is trying to find you?

ISBN: 978-1853264887
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

Helen Huntingdon is the mysterious tenant of Wildfell Hall. She comes to the grand hall on her own, in a time where women were always with their husbands and were expected to stay married for life. Helen keeps herself to herself and is nervous about immersing herself in the local community.

But the community has noticed her and there are whispers that a strange lone woman in the village can not mean anything good. What they are yet to discover is that she is hiding out from her alcoholic husband and that both she and her young son are in fear of being discovered. But life improves as she finds work as an artist.

Whilst in hiding, she fears that this is her life now, but then someone called Gilbert Markham comes calling..

Locations

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England - Bronte Country
A: Yorkshire - "Wildfell Hall"
B: Yorkshire - Mirfield
C: Yorkshire - Haworth - (Bronte Parsonage)

Travel Guide

The setting is Bronte Country – also known as Haworth and much of both the landscape and Wildfell Hall itself evokes Anne’s experience and pride in her hometown.

Setting

It’s possible that Wildfell Hall was inspired by Ponden Hall, a farmhouse near Stanbury. This is also the inspiration for Wuthering Heights.

Grassdale Manor, is thought to be based on Blake Hall, Mirfield as Anne worked here as a governess. She also worked at Thorpe Green although neither of these houses fully ressemble the Manor in the books

Linden-Car is the village that Wildfell Hall is close to and this is of course in Yorkshire. Haworth is as always the starting point for any Bronte inspired booktrail.

Characters

The character Arthur Huntington is thought to be based on her brother Branwell Bronte who was also a heavy drinker. Inspiration is also said to have come from a woman who asked Anne’s father, Patrick Brontë for help on how to deal with her alcoholic husband.

For information on the Bronte sisters and the landscape, and to really experience the landscape captured in the novels, Haworth, where the family lived is a major starting point for any Bronte Booktrail.