The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

In a journal entry dated June 1, 1821, Helen writes from her Aunt and Uncle Maxwell’s country house, Staningley. Helen is distracted and in love. She describes a talk she had with her sensible aunt before they left on a visit to London. Helen is 18 years old, of good family, has money, and is beautiful, and thus her aunt warns Helen to be very careful around suitors. She instructs Helen how to behave: “First study; then approve; then love” (150). Helen promises that she could only be attracted to a man of sense and principle.

In London, Helen is bored by the attentions of the tedious Mr. Boarham and repulsed by Mr. Wilmot, who is rich but old. She meets a young man at a ball, the son of her uncle’s friend, who rescues her from Mr. Boarham’s attentions and then calls on her uncle in the following days. He is described as “wildish” (153), but Helen enjoys her time with this Mr. Huntingdon. Mr. Boarham, with Aunt Maxwell’s blessing, proposes marriage and Helen declines, growing firmer in her refusal when Boarham protests that she does not know her own mind.