About this story
What drove her there fills her diary: a marriage made young, against every warning, to the most charming man in the county. Anne Brontë's second novel was too blunt about drink and a wife's legal cage for 1848; her sister kept it out of print after she died. You live the diary as Helen, from the first waltz to the locked door.
Who you’ll meet
single figure
How it opens
In June 1847 Gilbert Markham prepared for Halford a history begun twenty years before.
Gilbert MarkhamHalford knows its close; I shall give him the causes in their proper order.
He began in October 1827, when you first entered the parish at Wildfell.
RachelThe lamp is set, and I have tested the swollen outer door.
RachelThe west latch holds, madam, though the wind disputes it.
Keep the canvas chest beside the studio wall.