The Tenant of Wildfell Hall depicts a woman who is intelligent, talented and strong. She marries twice and in each case the courtship is very different. Courtship was as much a matter of property and economics as of affection. When a man and woman became husband and wife, they became legally one person and, in the words of jurist William Blackstone, “the husband is that person”. He even owns the children and can remove them from her care if he so wishes.

This is a strongly feminist novel. Even the heroine’s choice of profession was a little shocking. To take one’s child and run away from a husband was extremely unusual – to write about it, even more so.

This was a novel that shocked the Victorian reading public – “coarse”, “brutal” and “morbid, revelling in scenes of debauchery”, were just some of the insults thrown at it. Critics felt Anne Brontë had focused on morbid and disagreeable subjects, and that her book should not be read by young females. However, the novel also excited readers and within a month of publication, a second edition was being prepared.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is an honest and moving account of a troubled marriage, it is a plea for the education of women and their rights, and it is a moving and tender love story. In my view, it is a true classic of English literature that is remarkably modern and still highly relevant today.