The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

novel by Brontë

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

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....