It was Anne Brontë who wrote this novel. It is considered the most controversial of all the novels that the Brontë sisters wrote, as it portrays an unconventional story about a woman who dared to leave her husband, go elsewhere to live, and assume a false identity. That was highly uncommon and scandalous behavior in Victorian England, and it was strictly forbidden (and punishable) by law. Marriage was regarded as a sacred union between husband and wife, which is never to be dissolved, unless it wasn't consummated, or in other extreme cases (which were hardly provable anyway).