The Tennant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

Recommended for ages 15-adult.

This book has been on my 'must-read' list for ages now, and I finally got around to reading it at then end of last month. It's one of the Bronte classics, and is the last novel written by Anne who died when she was quite young.

The plot is told through the eyes of a young English gentleman who finds himself falling in love with his new neighbour - the supposedly widowed Mrs Helen Graham. The neighbours all gossip and speculate about the mysterious origins of her and her young son, and much of the book concerns itself with slowly revealing Mrs Graham's troubled past. Her diary, handed over to the narrator and thus to the reader at a critical point in the book, reveals the terrible truth of her position and her past.

Although it was considered a challenging and dangerous book for its time, the modern reader might wonder why Helen did not do more to help herself and her son. One Victorian critic went so far as to deem the novel "utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls", but now we can read it as an early feminist novel. Its funny how attitudes to literature change over time!

This book is recommended for 15years-adults because of the heavy way it deals with the issues of alcoholism, infidelity and violence within a relationship.

PS. If you don't want to buy a copy, you can read this and many other classic books online at http://gutenberg.net.au/ (Project Gutenberg).