The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or poet, but only as the sister of Charlotte and Emily." In 1959, two biographies were published: "Anne Brontë, her life and work" by Ada Harrison and Derek Stanford and "Anne Brontë" by Winifred Gérin. Noting that "The Tenant" was published some ten years before George Eliot's novels, Harrison and Stanford named Anne the "first realist woman writer" in Great Britain. Unlike some early critics, who considered the scenes of debauchery improbable, Harrison and Stanford believed them to be "described in a fashion which Zola might have admired." Winifred Gérin believed Helen Graham to be "one of the first married
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and "eloquence in proclaiming the equality of men and women." She believed that "The Tenant" "might be said to be the first manifesto for 'Women's Lib'". Inga-Stina Ewbank considered Anne the least talented of the sisters and claimed that the framing structure, where "Helen can reveal her innermost being to the diary" while Gilbert is "bound to be as objective as possible," "throws novel out of balance." However, she believed that "through the very nature of its central concern, "The Tenant" is feminist in the deepest sense of the word." Daphne du Maurier discussed "The Tenant" in the context Anne's