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    Agnes Grey
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    Agnes Grey
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    Agnes Grey
    Ebook250 pages2 hours

    Agnes Grey

    By Anne Brontë

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Agnes Grey is an autobiographical novel which recounts the experience of a young governess born of a financially-ruined clergyman. During England's Victorian period, there wasn't much else for a respectable and intelligent young woman to do: you were either wealthy and had governesses to care for your children, or you were, well, a governess yourself. Such was Anne's life, and the life of her protagonist. 


    Agnes goes to work for two families, the Bloomfields and the Murrays, who are not so much the virtuous Victorian bourgeois, but are the corrupt and callous, but aren't If one were to read the novel for its realistic depiction of life as a governess, it's an incredibly accurate account: the spoiled kids, the sneering servants, the aloof parents with their yapping dogs. If one were to look at Agnes Grey with contemporary eyes, one could see her as a nanny working for a rich couple today in London or New York of today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSheba Blake Publishing
    Release dateMay 18, 2015
    ISBN9781304053602
    Author

    Anne Brontë

    Anne Brontë was born in Yorkshire in 1820. She was the youngest of six children and the sister of fellow novelists Charlotte and Emily, the authors of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights respectively. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was raised by her aunt and her father, The Reverend Patrick Brontë. Anne worked as a governess before returning to Haworth where she and her sisters published poems under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. She published her first novel, Agnes Grey in 1847 and this was followed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hallin 1848. She died from tuberculosis in 1849

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    Reviews for Agnes Grey

    3.5/5

    1,150 ratings76 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Anne is very under appreciated.I like her more realistic style.The book is told in the first person by Agnes. As a governess Agnes is given no real authority to punish her charges. So of course they feel free to disrespect her.
    • 5/5
      I am resolved to work my way through all the novels by the Brontë sisters – Ann, Emily, and Charlotte. Agnes Grey is Anne’s first of her two novels. Anne was born January 17, 1820. She was a novelist and a poet. She spent most of her life with her family at the parish church of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. She was a governess from 1839 to 1845. Agnes Grey was published in 1847. Anne died May 28, 1849.She drew on her experiences at Haworth and as a governess in writing the novel. The first paragraph sets forth her ideas on writing a novel. She wrote, “All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge; I sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others, but the world my judge for itself: shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years, and a few fictitious names, I do not fear to venture, and will candidly lay before the public what I would not disclose to the most intimate friend” (1). Every time I delve into one of the Brontës, I can not help to hear their voices—soft, gentle, erudite—as I imagine them to be.As was frequently the case in those days, a writer was at the mercy of the typesetters. In a letter to her publisher, she wrote, “There are numerous literal errors, and the text of Agnes Grey is marred by various peculiarities of punctuation, especially in the use of commas (some of these, however, may be authorial)” (xi). She began revising the text, and a copy of the third volume has “some 121 revisions made in pencil in her hand, many of them involving quite significant substantive alterations” (xi). James Joyce faced the same problem with Ulysses with typesetters who could not read English. I corrected the text for many years—nearly up to his death.Anne’s novel is considered quite an achievement. As the novel proceeds, she becomes more confident. Here is a conversation between Anne and Rosalie: “‘If you mean Mr. Weston to be one of your victims,’ said I, with affected indifference, ‘you will have to make such overtures yourself, that you will find it difficult to draw back when he asks you to fulfil the expectations you have raised’ // [Anne’s reply] ‘I don’t suppose he will ask me to marry him—nor should I desire it … that would be rather too much presumption! But I intend him to feel my power—he has felt it already, indeed—but he shall acknowledge it too; and what visionary hopes he may have, he must keep to himself, and only amuse me with the result of them—for a time’” (xii).As the Introduction to my paperback copy points out, “Agnes Grey is undoubtedly in many ways a deeply personal novel’ (xii). “Charlotte Brontë described the work as ‘the mirror of the mind of the writer” (xii-xiii). One of the things that Anne emphasized in her novels, comes right out of her experiences as a governess. The treatment of these young women was nothing less than atrocious. Agnes Grey speaks with the authority of experience. In addition, her moral and religious sensibilities are evident throughout the novel.I hope this taste of a fantastically talented young writer will inspire you to snuggle up with Anne Brontë and delve into Agnes Grey. All you need is a cup of tea, some patience, and the reward is a thoroughly satisfying picture of young women in England of the 1840s. 5 stars!--Jim, 12/6/17
    • 3/5
      This was a Librovox recording that was ok. I thought that the voice of Agnes was a bit whiny. This matched the first half of the book which was Agnes's narrative about the awful students in her care. I sympathized with her a bit and thought that not only the students but parents were absolutely awful and disrespectful. It is interesting how little preparation a governess had for taking care of the young people she spent all day teaching and guiding. Going into a family with predefined behavior and disfunction had to be incredibly difficult. I am sure that very little was ever discussed prior to starting a placement in terms of managing difficult situations a governess was most likely going to experience.

      A governess was both a necessity and an evil. She was needed but not included as a member of the family. The ultimate decision-making was also in the hands of the parents, something that I am sure many youth took advantage of on a day to day basis.

      The second half of the book was more bright as some of the characters received their just desserts and Agnes found her path and voice. I was happy with the ending and must confess that I do enjoy things being wrapped up neatly.

      Looking forward to more of the Bronte sisters.
    • 5/5
      a realistic & plain love story. The main character is normal and there isn't anything extravagant about the whole thing. Which makes this book a very nice read, it's a nice change to all the drama filled romance novels you find today.
      It was charming & wonderful.
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time with Ann Brontes writing style. An enjoyable story was mired down in too many words!
    • 3/5
      Plain and rather predictable, but nice.
    • 3/5
      Anne Bronte is one of the Bronte sisters, all of whom wrote novels. This book is based on Anne's own experiences as a governess. If the details are true to life then she had some horrible brats as students and I do feel sorry for her. However, feeling sorry doesn't mean that I thought the book was good. I don't think Anne had the skill that her older sister, Charlotte, did for writing about characters that made one care what happened to them. Even the eponymous character didn't engage me. I wanted her to, at least once, stand up for herself but she consistently backed down. In one of the most horrible scenes she prevented a cruel boy from torturing a little bird by killing the bird herself. Surely there was some other way to resolve this problem. I could tell almost from the minute the young curate, Edward Weston, was introduced that Agnes would fall in love with him and, somehow, they would marry. Even when both Grey and Weston each leave the place where they met and Agnes was not able to learn where he had gone I knew that somehow they would reconnect. If that's a spoiler I apologize but, as I said, it seemed pretty obvious from the outset.Not my favourite classic by any stretch of the imagination. Give me George Eliot or Elizabeth Gaskell any day.
    • 4/5
      The least-studied Bronte throws her experiences as a governess into the ring and the result is a scathing tale of the upper classes and how they treat their middle class servants.The heroine Agnes Grey is a virtuous clergyman's daughter who, when her family finds themselves struggling, offers up her services as a governess. Her experiences are terrible: The children are unruly and unwilling to submit to authority, and the parents expect the kids to be tamed without discipline or harsh words. Agnes soon finds that governesses have an awkward place in their charges' families. They are treated like servants, yet expected to hold themselves in a manner better than such. Servants, in fact, seem to hold a resentment for a governess's place in their master's home. The governess then lives a lonely life, without confidantes, far from home. They are supposed to have no feelings, and to think only of their charges. When Agnes suffers a loss, her mistress is sulky that Agnes should take a short leave. She is ordered about with no concern of her own health or welfare, stuffed into uncomfortable carriage seats and forced to endure walks in uncomfortable weather and often finds herself sick.Agnes survives it all due to her sense of moral duty, which oftentimes borders on pride. She is afraid to admit failure to her family, who discouraged her from the work at first. Thus, she puts up with the cruelest of children in her first job as a governess, which she was woefully underprepared for. The second family she worked for was almost as bad. There, her primary charges were two young women: one a determined flirt, the other a foul-mouthed tomboy, neither of which felt obliged to be peacefully taught anything by a governess. The flirt, eldest daughter Rosalie, establishes a semblance of a friendship with Agnes, which consisted of Rosalie confiding in all the naughty things she did, and Agnes admonishing her. When Rosalie marries unhappily and is shut away in the country by her jealous husband, she calls on her old governess for conpanionship, but as usual does not listen to any of her advice. Thus, Rosalie becomes a self-sabotaging character: she is determined to always have things her way, even if her way makes things worse for her. In contrast, Agnes finds a most agreeable companion in the curate Mr. Weston. Both find comfort in religion and helping the less fortunate. Agnes falls in love almost immediately, but does not dare hope that marriage is in the cards for a woman of her class and position. As stoic and sensible as she tries to be, her mind belies an schoolgirl giddiness when she thinks of Mr. Weston. It is interesting that she and Rosalie take almost similar actions to cross his path: Rosalie wants to ensnare Mr. Weston's affections before her marriage to stroke her ego, so she visits the cottagers more in hopes to find him administering to parishoners there. Similarily, Agnes hopes to run into and hear about Mr. Weston as she visits the cottagers. The difference lies in their motives: Rosalie's intents are perverted because she disdains mens' feelings and only wants to be adored and have the satisfaction of turning down another proposal. Agnes's love is pure and based on admiration for Mr. Weston's moral character.The novel ends with happiness for those who deserve it -- very satisfactory for the reader. It is interesting to compare the novel to the "governess stories" of another Bronte, Charlotte, like "Jane Eyre" and "Villete", the latter being a closer comparison. In "Villette," Lucy Snowe is an isolated teacher who finds herself in a patronizing pseudo-friendship with one of her flirtatious and insulting charges. Like Agnes, Lucy makes a romantic connection with a likeminded sober and upstanding character. "Agnes Grey," however is a more damning account of the treatment of governesses. Few respectable jobs were open to educated women with no fortune to tempt men into marriage. Their minds and moral character set them apart, making them outsiders and resigned to a lonely life. They worked to survive, not to hope for any wordly pleasure, for the only pleasure that mattered was that of the family for whom they worked. The fact that Agnes can find happiness at the novel's conclusion is heartening, but it does not diminish the harsh treatment she received by her employers. I can only hope that the novel's publication made an impression on Victorian readers, and sought them to treat their governesses much more fairly.
    • 3/5
      This book was an almost unanimous selection for my book club. When we were voting, we were in the throes of some very weighty books, Little Dorrit, The Three Musketeers, Of Human Bondage, and the like. I think almost everyone in the group was ready for something a little lighter and definitely shorter. Agnes Grey definitely fits that bill. If you read it looking for similarities in writing to her sisters, however, you will be disappointed. Anne is the vanilla to Jane and Charlotte's more exotic chocolate. Agnes Grey contains no Gothic elements. It is slightly preachy and somewhat predictable. I would term it an overall pleasant book to read, albeit one that is not going to change the world.Agnes is just plain nice. She could have been very annoying with her goodness, but I think Anne avoids that very deftly. While on the outside she may appear like a goody-two-shoes who does nothing but preach to her charges, she throws in enough criticism for the reader's eyes that makes her story quite interesting and fun to read. In general, the entire story is a good, old-fashioned love story. I may not be particularly happy that Anne finds true happiness through marriage (because I get tired of that lesson), I do understand that for women in the 1800s, there truly were very few options.Speaking of options, I do believe Agnes Grey does a tremendous job of showcasing the struggles of governesses and the limited options for women who needed to work to support their families. As Agnes (and Anne) can attest, often they were considered lower than the servants. They had no respect or authority but were expected to mold spoiled children into model citizens. Without the authority to do anything, their jobs were often doomed from the beginning. And for all their efforts, they received pitiful wages that barely helped. However, if one were truly to do a comparison, are teaching positions all that different now than they were in Anne's time? Teachers remain grossly underpaid, often have no authority for discipline and yet expected to mold students and help them reach their full potential. Parents either thwart their efforts at home or throw fits over certain punishments that a teacher's hands are tied. It appears that governesses and today's teachers still have much in common.Overall, I found Agnes Grey an enjoyable read. I know that Agnes bothered some of my fellow book club members, but I liked her. She had spunk and backbone and never once deviated from her beliefs. We should all be so strong in our convictions.
    • 5/5
      I really loved this book. I think Anne among the Bronte sisters is too underrated. Okay, her book is not groundbreaking as Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, but it's still a good book, sweet and nice, and that leaves you with a good feeling in your heart. So, for me, it's five stars.
    • 4/5
      A very simple and heart- warming story based on the author's own experience as a governess. Anne Bronte does very well to engage the reader into a personal account of Agnes and the two positions she held to assist her own family's income. The challenges she faces dealing with over-indulged and disrespectful children would make any woman grateful that there are more choices for employment in the modern world. I adore the Bronte sisters and enjoyed this quick read.
    • 3/5
      Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte; (2 1/2*)A clergyman's family falls into difficult financial times and one of the daughters must go into service as a governess. How many times and how many ways have we read this one? To give Bronte her due, she was young at the time she wrote this and she did have some experience of that which she wrote. I have to admit part of the reason I read this is that I was quite curious as to how this sister held up against her sisters and the outcome was 'rather poorly'. But then who can stand up against Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? I found Agnes Grey rather predictable and somewhat of a snooze. Anne Bronte does bring some nice bits of writing to the table throughout her novel but I doubt I would have completed the read had it not been that I was taking part in a tutored & group read. I did love the very last part of the novel so the author did score some marks.
    • 3/5
      A largely biographical novel, telling the trials and tribulations of a daughter of a clergyman who resorts to being a governess in order to reduce her burden on the family finances. Unfortunately, Agnes is allowed too little authority over her spoilt charges and has too little experience, character and authority in herself to be able to exert what little authority she does have over the brats. And they are uniformly brats who are neglected and over indulged by their parents. It is also a cycle that is difficult to break, with Rosalie Murray looking set to treat her child in the same manner as she was, thus perpetuating the cycle of bad behaviour. Agnes herself is not someone I'd want to spend a great deal of time with. Too innocent to know much of the ways of the world, she is entirely out of her depth for most of the novel. She is also too insipid to do much about it. She always takes the back seat and does little to develop her own character. I accept she's in a difficult situation, the governess sitting uncomfortably between the servants and the family, being a part of neither circle. It leads to a isolating position, despite Agnes' claim (about which she then does nothing) that she is the equal of the ladies and their friends that she has been employed to educate. The other topic this book covers is courtship & marriage. There are two very different end results, and, one suspects, one is supposed to take the message that a good marriage is deserved by the more godly (preachy and pious) person. I, however, take from it that I'm amazed any marriage was ever good, in that they seem to be based on a mere handful of meetings and those barely seem to scratch the surface of the kind of exploratory conversations you'd have on a modern date. Rosalie discovers her husband is not at all what she imagined he would be, and has no skills to manage him. I occasionally complain my husband is not at all romantic, but I did know that before I married him. Not the longest book, and not a difficult read. But it has that 19th century preaching tone about it - you're supposed to take a lesson from it. And so it's unlikely to be one I'll come back to.
    • 3/5
      When the Grey family begins to have financial problems, Agnes, a sheltered minister's daughter, begins life as a governess. She is shocked and appalled by how she is treated and what miracles she is expected to achieve. This book is a social commentary on the treatment of governesses and unruly children. It also touches on the charms of marrying for love instead of money. It was a quick read, but rather unexceptional.
    • 3/5
      I read this while treking around the UK. It was entertaining, though lacked a certain quality with which Anne's sisters somehow infused their books. Definitely worth reading.
    • 4/5
      As a novel that follows the plight of a young woman forced into the position of a governess to make ends meet, Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey has of course often been compared with her sister's more famous novel Jane Eyre. And as a love story, it has also been compared with the novels of Jane Austen. It even reminded me a little of the cautionary morality tales that had been popular up to that time, such as Defoe's Moll Flanders.Personally, I enjoyed it more than Pride and Prejudice, but not as much as Jane Eyre. It just doesn't have the same scope and depth. That said, it is a nice little novel, and interesting, and sometimes very funny. Well worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Anne is my favourite Brontë sister, and 'Agnes Grey' is my favourite work of hers. It's not groundbreaking, or particularly exciting, but it is a lovely glimpse into the world of the governess - and has a happy ending to boot.
    • 4/5
      Not as good as "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", but still worth reading.A classic Cinderella's, the gentle and patient governess turned into the princess by the love of a Parson.
    • 3/5
      The Nanny Diaries of the 19th Century.
    • 4/5
      It can be discussed how great a classic this is. Certainly not anything like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Maybe even just a classic because, well, she's the third sister….and yet, here I've read it again - and enjoyed it even more this second time. Based on Anne's own experiences as an underpaid and unappreciated governess - we follow the naive and timid Agnes Grey as she's starting a new life as a governess. Her gentle and meek nature are certainly worthy of praise, but not the best weapons to tame two wild unruling children - she is simply run over by the double trouble. Then she moves on to another post - to take care of two conceited teenage girls.Not is all gloom. There's people to meet in the local church - the new priest, Mr. Weston is one of them - and he seems to have perception enough to see Agnes' good character and noble heart.Agnes is one of those girls who go through life unnoticed (maybe like Anne Brontë herself?) - she's willing to suffer and be ignored and bullied - above and beyond duty - long after we mere mortals have run away. She's "downstairs" and "upstairs" keep reminding her of that fact.I believe Anne must have enjoyed getting this story out of her system so to speak. Like a therapeutic thing - giving expression to all the unfair treatment she herself suffered.
    • 4/5
      Like her sisters, Anne Bronte is a truly talented writer. While one sister leans more toward romanticism, the other toward morbidity, Anne is in the middle with realism. Her characters portray the nature of humanity in all their flaws and strengths.A heart-warming tale of Agnes who, wanting to help her family's financial situation, becomes a governess. The first family is a nightmare, children are ill-mannered and the parents put all the blame on her for their lack of discipline.Luckily, her second situation was easier, though far from perfect. Through it all she manages to make it through, despite making no head way in morality with her pupils, and even finds Mr. Weston, the man who captures her heart.
    • 5/5
      Okay, don't throw things at me... Anne is my favorite Bronte. There is something more human about her compared to the the masochistic Charlotte and the transcendent Emily. I loved this book, but it has been awhile since I read it.
    • 3/5
      Fodder for all romance novelists who followed the Brontes, how many ways can you tell the story of a mousy, governess beset on all sides by poverty, the winds of fate and wicked souls who try, if not her virtue, at least her patience? Yet she victoriously outlasts them all through her basic goodness to win the heart and hand of the right man in the end. Anne Bronte's heroine may be a bit boring, but her wonderfully descriptive passages lift Agnes Grey above the ordinary. Her intense attention to detail and personality are extremely well done, particularly regarding some of the nasty little psychopathic charges Miss Grey had to take in hand and their equally repulsive parents.
    • 2/5
      Somewhere in the middle of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Agnes Grey lacks character development and plot.
    • 4/5
      This story, based on Anne's life to some extent, was unexpectedly easy to read. Yes, she does use broad, sweeping, stereotypical generalizations of the classes (rich = ignorant, cruel, gossipy, dumb; poor = kind, loving, forgiving, morally superior), and no, it's certainly not the most inventive of plots, but it's still an enjoyable read. We follow Anne on her first two (and only) governess jobs, both with children so terrible they were infuriating, and then she meets a nice man, suffers a family loss - oh how will the story end? It doesn't matter that things aren't clever and fast-paced - what's a pleasure here is just going along for a ride on Miss Grey's shoulders.
    • 3/5
      There are half a dozen recordings of 'Agnes Grey' and I sampled all prior to purchase; the American reader just wasn't going to sound right - but neither did any of others particularly, ranging from old maid, albeit Agnes does come across as such, to just too conventionally middle class, even though she is. So I plumbed for the most popular. A reading is necessarily a performance and thoroughly inhibits, I suspect, any possible further reading of the text, if like me you've not read the book initially. Thus inevitably Agnes comes across in this performance as priggish and judgmental, the younger daughter of a clergyman, who becomes a governesses as she feels that this would enhance her experience of life and that she'd greatly enjoy putting her skills to a practical end. Alas the world that she enters - the gentry, are dissolute, often idle, rude and snobbish and treat Agnes little better than a servant - which is what she is.She holds to her principles largely based on Christian values and her own class prejudices and ultimately her virtue and long suffering is rewarded. 'Tis but a short tale of love and toil and illness, unhappiness and great meanness of spirit, though I did enjoy some of the arch sentence construction, and a genuinely informative novel of country life in mid 19th Century England. By the end of the book I'd accommodated to Virginia Leishman's reading style, but wondered how a younger less knowing narrator might have tipped the story at different and more sympathetic angle.
    • 4/5
      The book reads much like her sister's books although the subject manner may be less universal. It deals with the British class system and how it leaves many, particularly governesses in an isolated condition.
    • 4/5
      First lines:~ All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut ~ Agnes Grey follows the life of a young woman who sets out to work to financially help her Victorian minister father who is unable to support his family due to ill health.I enjoyed the book which chronicles Agnes' two jobs as governess to other people's children. She describes very competently, the challenges that are faced when raising children in the parents absence, unable to properly discipline them, and forced to tolerate abuse or risk losing the job. This had me thinking that we have not progressed very far since 1847 when this book was published. I am currently reading 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett and she details similar issues in her book written in 2011 but set in the early to mid 1960's, 120 years after Anne Bronte wrote 'Agnes Grey'.I loved Bronte's sense of humour throughout the book. She had me really chuckling. If there is one criticism it is that everything wraps up so nicely at the end. Our heroine is married and has her own children and everything is picture perfect. But, I guess that this happy ending is the Victorian Style; well written and very enjoyable
    • 4/5
      # 13 of 100 Classics Challenge

      Agnes Grey🍒🍒🍒🍒
      By Anne Bronte
      1847

      Partially influenced by her personal experience as a governess, Anne Bronte takes us into her world of the humble, mistreated and overworked governesses, with horribly undisciplined mean children of the rich.She falls for an impossible man, but eventually finds true love. And happiness.A great classic. My first Anne Bronte and not my last.
    • 3/5
      Slow, sometimes overly pious and reflective. Bronte does have plenty to say about wealthy people of the time.