The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
by Anne Bronte
Anne Bronte’s second and final novel centres around the mysterious figure of Helen Huntingdon, a woman who has fled an unhappy marriage where she has been the victim of abuse at the hands of an alcoholic husband. The opening section is told in form, by way of letters written by a man who has fallen in love with Helen; she later gives him her journal, an account of her traumatic experiences, as an explanation for why she refuses his advances. The book was controversial on first publication, and is considered an early feminist classic.