Abstract

An American academic engaged in Bronte research arrived in Penzance, with the aim of finding out more about its famous son, Sir Humphrey Davy. Why had Anne Bronte mentioned him in her scandalous novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall? Help with his researches came from a modern day tenant of the Branwell family home in Chapel Street, where the Brontes' mother, Maria Branwell, grew up. From this meeting of minds emerged this monograph, a challenge to the literary critics who may know little about Davy's more artistic writings.