From the back of the book:

"Helen Graham marries Arthur Huntingdon, only to see him degenerate rapidly into a drunken rakehell. Her attempts to help him to a better way of life prove futile, and her affection seems doomed to waste itself. But the advent of Gilbert Markham on the desolate scene of her life's blasted hopes signals the dawn of a genuinely loving and adult relationship.

"Anne Bronte, youngest of the three Bronte sisters, shows here her unique mastery of the novelist's art, at least equal to that of the more widely known Charlotte and Emily."

I have read little of the English classics and I need to school myself on them.