CMP Review 2026-08-06

August 6, 2026

I finished it.

This novel, by “Anne, sensitive and talented, a Brontë without genius,” or so says Margaret Lane.

I don’t know what I was expecting. But it certainly wasn’t what I found.

I could go on and on about the technical merits of the book. The captivating writing. The uncanny weaving of its two third-person limited perspectives. The immersive experience. The breath-taking passages.

But all of that would detract from the real merit of the book, which is its heart-gripping message. If you haven’t read it, read it. Read the original. Don’t read about it. Eschew the spoilers. The less you know about it the better.

A Brontë without genius?

Charlotte Mason cites M. Maeterlinck as saying of the more famous sister, “in Emily Bronté we have an example of the immeasurable range of the soul… that a delicate girl, brought up almost in isolation in a remote parsonage, should be able to sound the depths of human passion, conceive of human tragedy, and gather the fruits of human wisdom.”

But that is exactly what I found in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Proof of the immeasurable range of the soul. Take your genius. I’ll read Anne Brontë.

@artmiddlekauff