ABSTRACT
It is fair to say that A. Craig Bell’s prophecy of 1966 is in the process of being fulfilled, though things got off to a slow start. In 1982, Arlene M. Jackson introduced a discussion of The Tenant o f Wildfell Hall by maintaining that Anne Bronte seemed ‘ready for rediscovery’ (Jackson 198),2 and the 1980s bore her out: Juliet McMaster’s superb close reading of the Tenant was published a mere six months after Jackson’s article, to be followed by other worthwhile critical contributions, among them two books on Anne Bronte with separate chapters on the novel.3 Before the 1980s, discussions of Tenant tended to be contained in studies of the Bronte fiction as a whole.4 The authors of these studies would usually draw attention to Bronte’s narrowness of vision, emphasizing her didactic purpose and downplaying her skills.5 More recently, by contrast, commentators on Tenant have detected both complexity and conscious artistry of a high order in Bronte’s fiction. Some have examined Tenant in conjunction with, and as a response to, Wuthering Heights.6 The interest of feminist critics in the novel is amply warranted; for one thing, it features the situation of a married woman powerless to detach herself by legal means from even the most depraved husband.7 Narratological analyses and studies of structural images have uncovered previously unnoticed levels of sophistication in Tenant. All this critical activity has contributed to bringing about that revaluation of Anne Bronte, not least of all of her second novel, that Bell foresaw.
