The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The story opens with letters from Gilbert Markham to a friend, looking back on events years earlier. In a quiet rural parish, a widow calling herself Mrs. Graham moves into Wildfell Hall, a gloomy old mansion, with her little son, Arthur. She paints for a living, keeps to herself and holds firm opinions about raising her boy, and the neighbors, including the flirtatious Eliza Millward, whom Gilbert half-courts, soon whisper about her. Gilbert's feelings grow anyway, until a misunderstanding makes him believe the worst.

In answer, Helen hands him her journal, which forms the central part of the novel. Years before, as a lively, idealistic young woman, she married the charming Arthur Huntingdon, believing her love could reform him. Instead he grew more reckless and cruel, surrounding himself with idle friends, drinking heavily and humiliating her, and she watched him begin to shape their son in his own image. At a time when a married woman had almost no legal rights, Helen made a daring decision to leave. The final section returns to Gilbert and the consequences of what he has learned.

Long and intense, but deeply moving. About 576 pages in Penguin Classics, edited by Stevie Davies.