Just as I was about to dig in to another suspense thriller, I was overcome with a hankering for an English classic. My fingers immediately pried the Penguin edition of Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall from an overstuffed shelf in my treasured bedroom floor-to-ceiling bookcase. I climbed into bed and dug in on a late coolish summer evening, with owls calling all around me. Perfect atmosphere. I was hooked by page 8.
The print is so small, though. The book is 485 pages, so I guess they needed to do that. My eyes are straining, but I can make it. Already, at page 37, I'm bemoaning that soon I will have read both of Anne Bronte's books. Such a spell it casts.
Are you or have you been involved in a classic read this summer. Do tell!
The House of Second Chances by Lauren Westwood
9 hours ago
I read Tenant a year or two ago and loved it. Cannot figure out why Anne is somehow the 'lesser Bronte'.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying time in Trollope's Barsetshire this year. Finished Framley Parsonage a few days ago and will begin The Small House at Allington in another month or so.
JoAnn,
DeleteI'm in complete agreement with you--so much so. I thought Agnes Grey was quite a read and a social and political statement. (Read it last summer.) And The Tenant in Wildfell Hall is above and beyond Agnes Grey. You know, I find that Ann Bronte has such a refreshing, and sometimes laugh-out-loud sense of humor concerning social interactions. I must post about this. But although I think that nothing will ever surpass Jane Eyre for me personally, I believe that Anne is Charlotte's intellectual equal. For sure.
Judith
One, love this comparison and two that you read it in Bed which is what my site is about. Now I have to dig my copy out. What a great concept for a blog--intellectual equals...
ReplyDelete