A passionate tale of betrayal, this story of a man's alcoholic decline, marital breakdown and its effect on children, and the position of women in Victorian society is told with shocking vividness and power. This new edition combines an authoritative text with wide-ranging critical discussion.

The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall has a dark secret. Living under an assumed name, 'Helen Graham' is the estranged wife of a dissolute rake, desperate to protect her son from his destructive influence. Her diary entries reveal the shocking world of debauchery and cruelty from which she has fled. Combining a sensational story of a man's physical and moral decline through alcohol, a study of marital breakdown, a disquisition on the care and upbringing of children, and a hard-hitting critique of the position of women in Victorian society, this passionate tale of betrayal is set within a stern moral framework tempered by Anne Brontë's optimistic belief in universal redemption.