[issybird]

I found myself bemused by the way Brontë undercut her story by revealing all her plot points in advance, combined with Gilbert's being incredibly obtuse on the uptake. As mentioned upthread, Gilbert's correspondent being his brother-in-law Halford pulled a whole bunch of punches. Even from the start, when Gilbert described Eliza to him, we knew that he couldn't have ended up with her. So much possible tension and surprise was lost by casting the narrative as correspondence. I wonder if it's that the Brontës as a whole didn't feel comfortable writing in the third person? Jane Eyre's first person narration was fine (and Charlotte didn't feel the need to pretend it was a letter). Emily's unreliable narrator within an unreliable narrator was truly masterful and added a lot of dimension to Wuthering Heights. But the espistolary style was a distinct drawback in this book.

Add to that Gilbert's slowness on the uptake. Who didn't know from the start that Helen wasn't really a widow? That the concealed portrait was of her husband? That Frederick Lawrence was her brother? And there was the awkward business of Arthur's addressing Helen by her first name, when "Miss Lawrence" would have given the show away. Except that we knew, anyway, and the awkward device just emphasized this. The whole book I was just waiting for the reveal on various people and events that I knew were going to happen.