nature', and Charles Kingsley described it as 'tortured by a defective chord, in which one false note perpetually recurs' (Frazer's Magazine April 1849). The work certainly had its critics, The Spectator of July 1848 accused it of 'a morbid love for the coarse, not to say the brutal' but also praised it for its 'power, effect and. Possibly as a product of the success of Wuthering Heights, Anne's writing now combined the pensive perception of Agnes Grey with a new found, almost brutal, realism, which shocked nineteenth century readers. However, sales of the book were brisk and Newby gladly agreed to publish Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, a year later. Agnes Grey, although critically well received, was very much overshadowed by the more dramatic Wuthering Heights. The three results, Charlotte's Professor, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were offered to various publishers and, after a number of rejections, the minor London publisher, Thomas Cautley Newby, offered to publish Anne and Emily's novels as two parts of the same work, rejecting The Professor entirely. Having collaborated with her sisters in their unsuccessful initial literary venture, Poems of 1846, the three sisters each turned their hand to writing a novel. Anne Bronte's last and only separate novel, which 'reverberated throughout Victorian England' (May Sinclair, Bronte biographer) with its realistic and disturbing portrayal of alcoholism and debauchery.īorn 1820, Anne Bronte was the youngest of the Bronte sisters.

The Normanton-Bradley Martin copy in original boards. II badly opened with small marginal chip, otherwise exceptionally clean. Bookplates of the Earl of Normanton to each pastedown.Ī little chipping and wear to the title labels and trivial wear to the fore edges of the boards, but a fine, entirely unrepaired set. Half title to volume one as called for, with reviews of Jane Eyre ('Mr Bell's first novel') on reverse and terminal. Uncut in original publisher's drab boards over green linen spines with title labels to spines.

The tenant of wildfell hall novelist