The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

novel by Brontë

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, novel by Anne Brontë (writing under the pseudonym Acton Bell), first published in three volumes in 1848. This epistolary novel presents a portrait of debauchery that is remarkable in light of the author’s sheltered life. It is the story of young Helen Graham’s disastrous marriage to the dashing drunkard Arthur Huntingdon—said to be modeled on the author’s wayward brother Branwell—and her flight from him to the seclusion of Wildfell Hall. Pursued by Gilbert Markham, who is in love with her, Graham refuses him and, by way of explanation, gives him her journal. There he reads of her wretched married life. Eventually, after Huntingdon’s death, they marry.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.