The Tenant of Windfell Hall by Anne Bronte (1848)

I am in the midst of reading Victorian British literature. I even watched the BBC drama, 'Victoria and Albert'. I am steeping myself in the nineteenth century (when I am not snagging a Man Booker long list book, that is). That said, when I read that this book was a feminist novel, perhaps the first of that genre, I balked. No it is not.

 The women do not come off particularly well here. So maybe it is a feminist novel with an asterisk after it--considering the time.  Here the story goes.  Helen falls in love with Arthur, a man who turns out to be a womanizing lush.  Bad luck, because he controls her money, her child, and therefore her.  The options are to endure it or leave on her own, abandoning her child.  Helen thinks leaving without her boy is particularly bad idea because her husband is feeding alcohol to the youngster, and she can see no way that he will escape both his genes and his environment.  As a side note, Anne Bronte didn't have to leave home to find a model for Arthur--her brother, Branwell Bronte was said to be all of this and more.

So Helen devises a plan--she will support herself selling her art, and she will disguise herself as a widow--with the help of her brother, she sneaks off and starts a new life for herself--which goes pretty well until she catchers the eye of young Gilbert Markham.  She grows quite fond of Markham, and does nothing inappropriate, though he would like her to--but it turns out someone else had her eye on Markham and does not take kindly to his straying attention.  So it is a cat fight, and Helen has to move on.  That doesn't portray the female of the sex in any sort of good light. 

Not to worry, Helen and Gilbert will end up together--but not because Helen takes the reins.  Feminism has definitely evolved from this point--I prefer Middlemarch, which has some similar issues, but Mrs. Casaubon can take Helen any day of the week.