I just love Victorian literature and the Brontes. This book had a little bit of everything, even for the modern day reader. It made me laugh because the main antagonist of the book, Mr. Huntingdon, is basically every bro in existence today. Partier to the extreme, YOLO, playa type. I felt bad that Helen had to suffer under the hand of such a bro, but when you compare him to some of today's swine... he looks like prince charming.

Then we have Mr. Hargrave, the "nice guy" who won't take no for an answer and tries to guilt Helen into sleeping with him (seeing him get shut down was oh so sweet). I'm glad to see that men were behaving like this hundreds of years ago as well. I think "nice guys" are worse than straight up playas; at least the playas are honest about their dishonesty. I think if I ever see a "nice guy" complaining about how "nice" they are again and how all women hate their "niceness", I would direct them to study this character with a self-reflective bias.

Anyway, it's always refreshing reading a novel where people actually have principles and stick to them. Even if it seemed like Helen was weak and just letting herself be trampled on, I actually thought her commitment to her standards was quite brave.

Obviously, there were some parts that really dragged on, and it wasn't a perfect narrative by far. But there's just something about being transported into a world so different from the place we live in today.