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    Agnes Grey
    Agnes Grey
    Agnes Grey
    Ebook300 pages4 hours

    Agnes Grey

    By Anne Brontë

    3.5/5

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    In her daring first novel, the youngest Brontë sister drew upon her own experiences to tell the unvarnished truth about life as a governess. Like Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë was a young middle-class Victorian lady whose family fortunes had faltered. Like so many other unmarried women of the nineteenth century, Brontë accepted the only "respectable" employment available — and entered a world of hardship, humiliation, and loneliness.
    Written with a realism that shocked critics, this biting social commentary offers a sympathetic portrait of Agnes and a moving indictment of her brutish and haughty employers. Separated from her family and friends by many miles, paid little more than subsistence wages, Agnes stands alone — both in society at large and in a household where she is neither family member nor servant. Agnes Grey remains a landmark in the literature of social history. In addition to its challenge to the era's chauvinism and materialism, it features a first-person narrative that offers a rare opportunity to hear the voice of a Victorian working woman.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 5, 2012
    ISBN9780486113951
    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

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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.
    • 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.
    • 2/5
      I had a hard time with Ann Brontes writing style. An enjoyable story was mired down in too many words!
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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 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.
    • 4/5
      Many similarities to her sister Charlotte's Villette, though not so powerful. Agnes is more reliable a narrator -- occasionally coy, but transparently so -- though somehow (or perhaps 'therefore') I didn't find her quite as engaging. She's steadfast and determined, but mostly in a very quiet manner, so without the Villette-style revelations that "Oh by the way, I lied about X" there's little real spark. But she is likeable and admirable, and the story a sweet one of what makes a good education and a happy marriage.
    • 1/5
      Agnes is an idiot. And I only made it through about 60% of this very boring book.
    • 3/5
      1001 list book #158.Sweet, short, sappy, romantic, yet somehow satisfying. This would actually be a great read for middle/high schoolers--especially for those kids who are young but read at an advanced level. The 18th century language is not simple to read (not hard either, just different), social history is important, and this book is clean and gentle.Read on Serial Reader.
    • 3/5
      The story of Agnes Grey is essentially thinly veiled autobiography which parallels key elements of Anne Bronte’s own life. Related in the first person, it is the story of a clergyman’s daughter in the north of England who seeks financial independence in light of the family’s straightened circumstances and eventually chooses, much to the astonishment of her parents and sisters, to become a governess. The ensuing narrative provides ample opportunity to present some powerful depictions of over indulgent and thoughtless parents, their obstreperous and selfish children as well as the vacuity of the schoolroom. We see two families, the Bloomfields and the Murrays, each of which proves unkind, unfeeling and insensitive after their own fashion. We also see the attendant village societies with their divisions, jealousies and aspirations – although the overall presentation of these is more akin to Jane Austen’s two inches of ivory rather than to Dickens’ or Eliot’s wider panorama of the social order.This novel fits the pattern of so many great classic realist works of the Victorian era from Dickens to Hardy, which explore the principle division of matter and spirit. The material conditions of nineteenth century society are always kept in mind; we are given details of the wealth and earnings of Agnes, her economic strains and anxieties; and we are shown how they contrast with the ease and comfort of her employers as well as the pecuniary motivations for the marriages they arrange. But, while worldly enough to incorporate such gross matters, the moral and spiritual dimension of the characters is always the principle focus of interest. For Agnes, the most important concern is to maintain integrity in the face of experience; to focus on the simple and honest virtues of love rather than social probity or advancement. Agnes’ mother sums this up most clearly towards the end when she affirms the choice she made to marry for love rather than money many years earlier by turning down her own father’s offer to restore her place in his will if she will renounce her marriage. She stoutly asserts that “he is mistaken in supposing that I can regret the birth of my daughters...; had our misfortunes been three times as great as they were ... I should still the more rejoice to have shared them with your father...” (p.124). What keeps Agnes going in the dark times as she feels increasingly alienated from the world and its values, is this family feeling and the thought of doing her best for them. When the admirable curate Mr Weston asks her what her favourite flowers are, she replies with “primroses, blue-bells and heath-blossoms” because they remind her of home; and here she pledges herself to Victorian hearth and home: “It is so much that I think I could not live without it” she says (p.84).The great temptation for the characters of the novel is the pride that comes from their wealth and the ability it gives them to exploit others. On one side are the wealthy who have generally succumbed to this egotism. Rosalie Murray, one of Agnes’s charges, fits this mould. Agnes admits to caring for her and seeing her virtues of vivacity and charm; but her indulgent parents and their philistine world view have allowed Rosalie’s weaknesses to outgrow her strengths. As Agnes notes “Her temper being naturally good, she was never violent or morose, but from constant indulgence and habitual scorn of reason, she was often testy and capricious; her mind had never been cultivated; her intellect at best was somewhat shallow; she possessed considerable vivacity, some quickness of perception, and some talent for music and the acquisition of languages, but till fifteen she had troubled herself to acquire nothing; - then the love of display had roused her faculties, and induced her to apply herself, but only to the more showy accomplishments” (51). Even worse are the cruelties of Tom Bloomfield, the eldest child of Agnes’ first placement. He is constantly defiant to Agnes and vicious to animals (he is the boy Lear refers to who kills things for his sport). This culture culminates in mercenary attitudes to love and marriage as seen in Rosalie’s poor choice of a husband, something connived in by her parents. All this is counterpointed with Agnes’s steadfast and level headed moral judgement. Her connections reflect this same modest and simple attitude: her constant and loyal family, Nancy Brown (a local cottage dweller looked down on by the well-to-do because of her meagre living) and the curate Mr Weston. Modesty, endurance and a clear sighted simple honesty and faith are the touchstone virtues here. And, as we would expect they are rewarded in their way.The drama played out between these sets of characters is to a great degree predictable but the resolution is skilfully held back until extremely late in the story; the heart of the novel is Agnes herself, her modesty and moral integrity. She can judge harshly: Tom Bloomfield and the uncle who incites him to outrageous acts of so-called “manly” torture are clearly taken to task in the narrative. But she can also forgive Rosalie for her thoughtless marriage when she sees its sorrowful consequences in a poignant scene. So, along with a moral toughness there is a capacity for flexibility and kindness.Agnes can seem a little pious at times to modern taste but the voracious, vindictive and spiritually vapid world of her antagonists serves to provide a counterweight to this. There is no shortage of cruelty and heartlessness to be seen in this novel, but these lack the energetic vigour with which Emily presents such emotions in "Wuthering Heights". But, the purpose of this book is to embody the values of Christian virtue not to extol or explore the passions of pantheistic or pagan character as her sister does. Whereas Emily’s novel leads us to the shimmering energies of “unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth”, Anne affirms a more conventional Victorian pietism by concluding that “we endeavour to live to the glory of Him who has scattered so many blessings in our path”. Unquiet slumbers? Quiet glory has its value, too.
    • 5/5
      I am a big fan of the Brontes. While Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights are deservedly all time classics, Anne's two novels are less well known and comparatively neglected; and Agnes Grey is probably less known than Anne's other novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Agnes Grey is comparatively short and is a semi-autobiographical novel where Anne recounts the eponymous young lady's experiences as a governess to the children of wealthy families. When her father's business ventures fall apart after the sinking of a ship of his merchant business partner, young Agnes goes to work as a governess to earn the family some money, despite discouragement from her family. Her experiences are actually quite hilarious, dealing with spoiled and delinquent children and their oblivious parents who refuse to see any wrong in their offspring, particularly in the case of the Bloomfields. Later she looks after the older daughters of the Murrays, who are also a trial, being self-centred and needy, but with whom she is able eventually to establish a modus vivendi. She also falls in love with a vicar in the Murrays' local village, Mr Weston. This is a lovely and very satisfying novel, in some ways ahead of its time in dealing with "feral" children, as is Wildfell Hall in dealing with domestic abuse. A great read.
    • 4/5
      Agnes Grey has all the features of the first book of a gifted writer. The topic is not particularly ambitious, but every description is just a little unnecessarily colourful. The book is narrated by the heroine of the title, who, in order to help her family in financially difficult times, seeks out positions as a governess despite a sheltered upbringing. The children of both families with whom she resides are unrelentingly cruel, wilful and generally shocking.The writing seems a little stilted, amateurish – whether this is deliberate in an attempt to lend authenticity to young Agnes’ voice, or inadvertent, it makes the book difficult to get into (not unlike Northanger Abbey). There is a strong tinge of social commentary throughout, which I rather enjoyed – it is more skilfully crafted in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but it is still convincing and thought-provoking here, and still applicable today, with mentions of what an author is willing to put in the public domain (Facebook? Blogging? Thought so) and familial tensions. Not having read much 19th century literature, I don’t know whether the relative poverty conveyed is a rare topic, but given her ground-breaking choices in TToWH, it wouldn’t surprise me. The behaviour of the children reminded me very much of the behaviour of a young Helen Keller in a favourite book of mine, Helen Keller’s Teacher. The criticism of the writing is by no means all-encompassing; Brontë has a magnificent turn of phrase when she cares to use it. Words like “proxility” and “colloquy” and the simple emotions conveyed with “she would rather live in a cottage with Richard Grey than in a palace with any other man in the world” show the class and style I had expected from Agnes after TToWH.Crucially, the novel has a spectacular ending: “And now I think I have said sufficient.” And so have I.
    • 4/5
      Based upon her own experiences as a governess to two wealthy families, Anne Bronte's "Agnes Grey" is an interesting look at a world with very big class divides. I enjoyed the book, which was a super quick read, but found it's greatest interest lay not in its literary strength, but on the true life experiences it drew upon.Agnes, the daughter of a clergyman, becomes a governess to help with her family's financial troubles. She attends to two different families during her career -- one with a set of spoiled, troublesome tots and another with older, carefree teens who care little for learning, instead yearning for more frivolous activities. Agnes attempts through patience, kindness and gentle instruction to make a different in the lives of these folks with little success.The book does come across as moralizing and preachy sometimes-- more so than Anne's second (and vastly superior book) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," which also has a similar sensibility. However, I found there was also a sweetness to it that kept the narrator from crossing the line into annoying-ville. Overall, I found it a decent summer read, but not quite up to par with her other book, or the more well-known books of her sisters.
    • 3/5
      Agnes wants to prove herself and help her family by working as a governess. Her family try to dissuade her, thinking she is too young and not competent. Her first job is to teach two little uncooperative imps from the nether regions. The parents don't allow her to discipline the two, yet criticize her for not being able to control them. The only way she can get the little boy to pay attention to his lesson is to back him into a corner and not let him go until she gets a response. Meanwhile, he incites the little sister to throw Agnes' work bag in the fire, or toss her letters out the window. When the governess goes to rescue her possessions, the boy escapes his lessons after all. These are the first in a series of horrid children we meet in the novel. Agnes never loses her patience and feels quiet consistency and kindness will eventually win over her charges. Poor Anne was obviously writing from experience. I got a little irritated with the novel's heroine at times. She's a little too much of a victim, and constantly emphasizing the contrast between her employers' lack of character and her own moral superiority. Worthwhile reading.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      Anne Bronte's writings bring like in the 1800s to life on the page. Her short descriptive chapters set a fast pace to her vivid writing. This is a small treasure of a novel with semi-biographical experiences is often ignored alongside her sisters more famous novels, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but it is not forgotten.
    • 3/5
      Anne Bronte was the only one of the Bronte sisters I had not read so far. I loved Jane Eyre and enjoyed Wuthering Heights so I thought I should try Anne out (plus I could not resist the green Penguin Classic cover and the price of $4.50 Singapore dollars).The plot of Agnes Grey is quite simple – Agnes lives at home and is somewhat forced to go out into the world to earn a living to support her family. She becomes a governess and is placed with an awful family. She returns home and then works again with another family (slightly less awful). There she meets a man who she loses, then finds again when she sets up a small school with her mother. The ending? I’m sure you can guess!It is quite easy to read despite that it was written in 1847. The main themes are spoilt children (nothing different nowadays) and the support of family (Agnes’ mother is a constant source of support). Agnes herself is a very moral character, somewhat serious and lacking in humour to me. She always believes she is making the right choice and the other party is wrong (as this story is told in the first person, it’s hard to tell who really is right).This wasn’t my favourite Bronte book (Jane Eyre wins hands down). Is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall any better?
    • 4/5
      Although I didn't think this book was as good as Anne Bronte's other novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and it didn't have the feel of a must-read classic like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, there was still a lot to like about Agnes Grey.The plot is simple, plain and linear. It's the story of a young woman in 19th century England who goes out to work as a governess when her family fall on hard times. Unfortunately Tom, Mary Ann and Fanny Bloomfield are three of the most badly-behaved children imaginable. When her short, unhappy time with the Bloomfields comes to an end, Agnes finds another situation with two older pupils, Rosalie and Matilda Murray. This second position is not much better than the first - the Murray girls are selfish and thoughtless and the only thing that makes Agnes's life bearable is her friendship with Mr Weston, the village curate.Agnes Grey has an autobiographical feel because Anne Bronte herself had worked as a governess and was able to draw on her own personal experiences to show how servants were often treated with cruelty and contempt by their employers. I could sympathise with Agnes as I would soon have lost my patience with the spoilt Bloomfield children and the self-centred, inconsiderate Murrays. I also thought it was unfair that the parents expected Agnes to control their children without actually giving her any real authority over them. It was such a difficult position to be in. However, I found it slightly disappointing that Agnes seemed prepared to just accept things the way they were and not do anything to change the situation. The book was more about tolerance and perseverance than about taking action to try to make things better.Another of the book's themes is the importance of morality, virtuousness and goodness, qualities in which the Bloomfield and Murray families seem to be sadly lacking, leading Agnes to feel isolated and miserable. However, I think many readers will find Agnes too self-righteous and superior, so if you prefer your heroines to be flawed and imperfect this probably isn't the book for you! Reading about the day to day life of a governess is not particularly exciting or dramatic, but I still found the book enjoyable and interesting - and at under 200 pages a very quick read compared to many of the other Bronte books.
    • 2/5
      Compared to some other protagonists of the Brontë sisters, Agnes miss Grey feels insipid, tepid, weak-willed, spineless even. Pretty straightforward "through difficulties to romance" story.
    • 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.
    • 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
      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.

    Book preview

    Agnes Grey - Anne Brontë

    e9780486113951_cover.jpge9780486113951_i0001.jpg

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    GENERAL EDITOR: MARY CAROLYN WALDREP

    EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JOSLYN T. PINE

    Bibliographical Note

    This Dover edition, first published in 2006, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby, London. At this time, Anne Brontë was writing under the pseudonym, Acton Bell. The Introductory Note, Charlotte Brontë’s biographical portrait of her sisters, was originally published in 1850 to serve as a preface to a revised edition of Wuthering Heights; the memoir was later reprinted in 1858, again as a preface to a new combined edition of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey.

    9780486113951

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

    Introductory Note

    ¹

    BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ELLIS AND ACTON BELL

    by Charlotte Brontë

    IT HAS been thought that all the works published under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell were, in reality, the production of one person. This mistake I endeavoured to rectify by a few words of disclaimer prefixed to the third edition of Jane Eyre. These, too, it appears, failed to gain a general credence, and now, on the occasion of a reprint of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, I am advised distinctly to state how the case really stands.

    Indeed, I feel myself that it is time the obscurity attending those two names—Ellis and Acton—was done away. The little mystery, which formerly yielded some harmless pleasure, has lost its interest; circumstances are changed. It becomes then, my duty to explain briefly the origin and authorship of the books written by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

    About five years ago, my two sisters and myself, after a somewhat prolonged period of separation, found ourselves reunited, and at home. Resident in a remote district, where education had made little progress, and where, consequently, there was no inducement to seek social intercourse beyond our own domestic circle, we were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition; formerly we used to show each other what we wrote, but of late years, this habit of communication and consultation had been discontinued; hence, it ensued, that we were mutually ignorant of the progress we might respectively have made.

    One day, in the autumn of 1845, I accidentally lighted on a MS. volume of verse in my sister Emily’s handwriting. Of course, I was not surprised, knowing that she could and did write verse: I looked it over, and something more than surprise seized me—a deep conviction that these were not common effusions, nor at all like poetry women generally write. I thought them condensed and terse, vigorous and genuine. To my ear, they had also a peculiar music—melancholy, and elevating.

    My sister Emily was not a person of demonstrative character, nor one on the recesses of whose mind and feelings, even those nearest and dearest to her could, with impunity, intrude unlicensed; it took hours to reconcile her to the discovery I had made, and days to persuade her that such poems merited publication. I knew, however, that a mind like hers could not be without some latent spark of honourable ambition, and refused to be discouraged in my attempts to fan that spark to flame.

    Meantime, my younger sister quietly produced some of her own compositions, intimating that since Emily’s had given me pleasure, I might like to look at hers. I could not but be a partial judge, yet I thought that those verses, too, had a sweet sincere pathos of their own.

    We had very early established the dream of one day becoming authors. This dream never relinquished even when distance divided and absorbing tasks occupied us, now suddenly acquired strength and consistency: it took the character of a resolve. We agreed to arrange a small selection of our poems, and, if possible, get them printed. Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called feminine—we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.

    The bringing out of our little book was hard work. As was to be expected, neither we nor our poems were at all wanted; but for this we had been prepared at the outset; though inexperienced ourselves, we had read the experience of others. The great puzzle lay in the difficulty of getting answers of any kind from the publishers to whom we applied. Being greatly harassed by this obstacle I ventured to apply to the Messrs. Chambers², of Edinburgh, for a word of advice; they may have forgotten the circumstance, but I have not, for from them I received a brief and business-like, but civil and sensible reply, on which we acted, and at last made a way.

    The book³ was printed; it is scarcely known, and all of it that merits to be known are the poems of Ellis Bell. The fixed conviction I held, and hold of the worth of these poems has not indeed received the confirmation of much favourable criticism; but I must retain it notwithstanding.

    Ill-success failed to crush us: the mere effort to succeed had given a wonderful zest to existence; it must be pursued. We each set to work on a prose tale; Ellis Bell produced Wuthering Heights, Acton Bell Agnes Grey, and Currer Bell also wrote a narrative in one volume. These MSS. were perseveringly obtruded upon various publishers for the space of a year and a half; usually, their fate was an ignominious and abrupt dismissal.

    At last Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey were accepted on terms somewhat impoverishing to the two authors; Currer Bell’s book⁴ found acceptance nowhere, nor any acknowledgement of merit, so that something like the chill of despair began to invade his heart. As a forlorn hope, he tried one publishing house more—Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. Ere long, in a much shorter space than that on which experience had taught him to calculate—there came a letter, which he opened in the dreary expectation of finding two hard, hopeless lines, intimating that Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. were not disposed to publish the MS., and, instead, he took out of the envelope a letter of two pages. He read it trembling. It declined indeed, to publish that tale, for business reasons, but it discussed its merits and demerits so courteously, so considerately, in a spirit so rational, with a discrimination so enlightened, that this very refusal cheered the author better than a vulgarly-expressed acceptance would have done. It was added that a work in three volumes would meet with careful attention.

    I was then just completing Jane Eyre, at which I had been working while the one volume tale was plodding its weary round in London: in three weeks I sent it off: friendly and skilful hands took it in. This was in the commencement of September, 1847; it came out before the close of October following, while Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, my sisters’ works, which had already been in the press for months, still lingered under a different management.

    They appeared at last. Critics failed to do them justice. The immature but very real powers revealed in Wuthering Heights were scarcely recognized: its import and nature were misunderstood; the identity of its author was misrepresented; it was said that this was an earlier and ruder attempt of the same pen which produced Jane Eyre. Unjust and grievous error! We laughed at it at first, but I deeply lament it now. Hence, I fear, arose a prejudice against the book. That writer who could attempt to palm off an inferior and immature production under cover of one successful effort must indeed be unduly eager after the secondary and sordid result of authorship, and pitiably indifferent to its true and honourable meed. If reviewers and the public truly believed this, no wonder that they looked darkly on the cheat.

    Yet I must not be understood to make these things subject for reproach or complaint; I dare not do so; respect for my sister’s memory forbids me. By her any such querulous manifestation would have been regarded as an unworthy and offensive weakness.

    It is my duty as well as my pleasure, to acknowledge one exception to the general rule of criticism. One writer, endowed with the keen vision and fine sympathies of genius, has discerned the real nature of Wuthering Heights, and has, with equal accuracy noted its beauties and touched on its faults. Too often do reviewers remind us of the mob of Astrologers, Chaldeans, and Soothsayers gathered before the writing on the wall, and unable to read the characters or make known the interpretation. We have a right to rejoice when a true seer comes at last, some man in whom is an excellent spirit, to whom have been given light, wisdom and understanding; who can accurately read the Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin of an original mind (however unique, however inefficiently cultured and partially expanded that mind may be); and who can say with confidence, This is the interpretation thereof.

    Yet even the writer to whom I allude shares the mistake about the authorship, and does me the injustice to suppose that there was equivoque in my former rejection of this honour (as an honour I regard it). May I assure him that I would scorn in this and in every other case to deal in equivoque; I believe language to have been given us to make our meaning clear, and not to wrap it in dishonest doubt.

    The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Acton Bell, had likewise an unfavourable reception. At this I cannot wonder. The choice of subject was an entire mistake. Nothing less congruous with the writer’s nature could be conceived. The motives which dictated this choice were pure, but, I think, slightly morbid. She had, in the course of her life been called on to contemplate, near at hand, and for a long time, the terrible effects of talents misused and faculties abused; hers was naturally a sensitive, reserved, and dejected nature; what she saw sank very deeply into her mind; it did her harm. She brooded over it till she believed it to be a duty to reproduce every detail (of course with fictitious characters, incidents, and situations) as a warning to others. She hated her work, but would pursue it. When reasoned with on the subject, she regarded such reasonings as a temptation to self-indulgence. She must be honest; she must not varnish, soften, or conceal. This well-meant resolution brought on her misconstruction, and some abuse which she bore, as it was her custom, to bear whatever was unpleasant, with mild, steady patience. She was a very sincere and practical Christian, but the tinge of religious melancholy communicated a sad shade to her brief, blameless life.

    Neither Ellis nor Acton allowed herself for one moment to sink under want of encouragement; energy nerved the one, and endurance upheld the other. They were both prepared to try again; I would fain think that hope and the sense of power was yet strong within them. But a great change approached: affliction came in that shape which to anticipate is dread; to look back on, grief. In the very heat and burden of the day, the labourers failed over their work. My sister Emily first declined. The details of her illness are deep branded in my memory, but to dwell on them, either in thought or narrative, is not in my power. Never in all her life had she lingered over any task that lay before her, and she did not linger now. She sank rapidly. She made haste to leave us. Yet, while physically she perished, mentally she grew stronger than we had yet known her. Day by day, when I saw with what a front she met suffering, I looked on her with an anguish of wonder and love. I have seen nothing like it; but, indeed, I have never seen her parallel in anything. Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, her nature stood alone: The awful point was, that while full of ruth for others, on herself she had no pity; the spirit was inexorable to the flesh; from the trembling hand, the unnerved limbs, the faded eyes, the same service was exacted as they had rendered in health. To stand by and witness this, and not dare to remonstrate, was a pain no words can render.

    Two cruel months of hope and fear passed painfully by, and the day came at last when the terrors and pains of death were to be undergone by this treasure, which had grown dearer and dearer to our hearts as it wasted before our eyes. Towards the decline of that day, we had nothing of Emily but her mortal remains as consumption left them. She died December 19th, 1848.

    We thought this enough: but we were utterly and presumptuously wrong. She was not buried ere Anne fell ill. She had not been committed to the grave a fortnight, before we received distinct intimation that it was necessary to prepare our minds to see the younger sister go after the elder. Accordingly she followed in the same path with slower step, and with a patience that equalled the other’s fortitude. I have said that she was religious, and it was by leaning on these Christian doctrines which she firmly believed, that she found support through her most painful journey. I witnessed their efficacy in her latest hour and greatest trial, and must bear my testimony to the calm triumph with which they brought her through. She died May 28th, 1849.

    What more shall I say about them ? I cannot and need not say much more. In externals, they were two unobtrusive women; a perfectly secluded life gave them retiring manners and habits. In Emily’s nature the extremes of vigour and simplicity seemed to meet. Under an unsophisticated culture, inartificial tastes, and an unpretending outside, lay a secret power and fire that might have informed the brain and kindled the veins of a hero: but she had no worldly wisdom; her powers unadapted to the practical business of life; she would fail to defend her most manifest rights, to consult her most legitimate advantage. An interpreter ought always to have stood between her and the world. Her will was not very flexible, and it generally opposed her interest. Her temper was magnanimous, but warm and sudden; her spirit altogether unbending.

    Anne’s character was milder and more subdued; she wanted the power, the fire, the originality of her sister, but was well endowed with quiet virtues of her own. Long-suffering, self-denying, reflective, and intelligent, a constitutional reserve and taciturnity placed and kept her in the shade, and covered her mind, and especially her feelings, with a sort of nun-like veil, which was rarely lifted. Neither Emily nor Anne was learned; they had no thought of filling their pitchers at the wellspring of other minds; they always wrote from the impulse of nature, the dictates of intuition, and from such stores of observation as their limited experience had enabled them to amass. I may sum up all by saying, that for strangers they were nothing; but for those who had known them all their lives in the intimacy of close relationship, they were genuinely good and truly great.

    This notice has been written, because I felt it a sacred duty to wipe the dust off their gravestones, and leave their dear names free from soil.

    CURRER BELL

    September 19th, 1850.

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    Introductory Note - BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ELLIS AND ACTON BELL

    I. - THE PARSONAGE

    II. - FIRST LESSONS IN THE ART OF INSTRUCTION

    III. - A FEW MORE LESSONS

    IV. - THE GRANDMAMMA

    V. - THE UNCLE

    VI. - THE PARSONAGE AGAIN

    VII. - HORTON LODGE

    VIII. - THE COMING OUT

    IX. - THE BALL

    X. - THE CHURCH

    XI. - THE COTTAGERS

    XII. - THE SHOWER

    XIII. - THE PRIMROSES

    XIV. - THE RECTOR

    XV. - THE WALK

    XVI. - THE SUBSTITUTION

    XVII. - CONFESSIONS

    XVIII. - MIRTH AND MOURNING

    XIX. - THE LETTER

    XX. - THE FAREWELL

    XXI. - THE SCHOOL

    XXII. - THE VISIT

    XXIII. - THE PARK

    XXIV. - THE SANDS

    XXV. - CONCLUSION

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    I.

    THE PARSONAGE

    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. 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 may 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.

    My father was a clergyman of the north of England, who was deservedly respected by all who knew him, and, in his younger days, lived pretty comfortably on the joint income of a small incumbency, and a snug little property of his own. My mother, who married him against the wishes of her friends, was a squire’s daughter, and a woman of spirit. In vain it was represented to her that, if she became the poor parson’s wife, she must relinquish her carriage and her lady’s-maid, and all the luxuries and elegancies of affluence, which to her were little less than the necessaries of life. A carriage and a lady’s-maid were great conveniences; but, thank Heaven, she had feet to carry her, and hands to minister to her own necessities. An elegant house and spacious grounds were not to be despised, but she would rather live in a cottage with Richard Grey, than in a palace with any other man in the world.

    Finding arguments of no avail, her father, at length, told the lovers they might marry if they pleased, but, in so doing, his daughter would forfeit every fraction of her fortune. He expected this would cool the ardour of both; but he was mistaken. My father knew too well my mother’s superior worth, not to be sensible that she was a valuable fortune in herself; and if she would but consent to embellish his humble hearth, he should be happy to take her on any terms; while she, on her part, would rather labour with her own hands than be divided from the man she loved, whose happiness it would be her joy to make, and who was already one with her in heart and soul. So her fortune went to swell the purse of a wiser sister, who had married a rich nabob, and she, to the wonder and compassionate regret of all who knew her, went to bury herself in the homely village parsonage among the hills of——. And yet, in spite of all this, and in spite of my mother’s high spirit, and my father’s whims, I believe you might search all England through, and fail to find a happier couple.

    Of six children, my sister Mary and myself were the only two that survived the perils of infancy and early childhood. I, being the younger by five or six years, was always regarded as the child, and the pet of the family: father, mother, and sister, all combined to spoil me—not by foolish indulgence to render me fractious and ungovernable, but by ceaseless kindness to make me too helpless and dependent—too unfit for buffeting with the cares and turmoils of life.

    Mary and I were brought up in the strictest seclusion. My mother, being at once highly accomplished, well informed, and fond of employment, took the whole charge of our education on herself, with the exception of Latin—which my father undertook to teach us—so that we never even went to school; and, as there was no society in the neighbourhood, our only intercourse with the world consisted in a stately tea-party, now and then, with the principal farmers and trades people of the vicinity, just to avoid being stigmatized as too proud to consort with our neighbours, and an annual visit to our paternal grandfather’s, where himself, our kind grandmamma, a maiden aunt, and two or three elderly ladies and gentlemen were the only persons we ever saw. Sometimes our mother would amuse us with stories and anecdotes of her younger days, which, while they entertained us amazingly, frequently awoke—in me, at least—a vague and secret wish to see a little more of the world.

    I thought she must have been very happy; but she never seemed to regret past times. My father, however, whose temper was neither tranquil nor cheerful by nature, often unduly vexed himself with thinking of the sacrifices his dear wife had made for him, and troubled his head with revolving endless schemes for the augmentation of his little fortune, for her sake, and ours. In vain my mother assured him she was quite satisfied, and if he would but lay by a little for the children, we should all have plenty, both for time present, and to come: but saving was not my father’s forte: he would not run in debt (at least, my mother took good care he should not), but while he

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