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'How delightful it would be to be a governess!' When the young Agnes Grey takes up her first post as governess she is full of hope; she believes she only has to remember 'myself at their age' to win her pupils' love and trust. Instead she finds the young children she has to deal with completely unmanageable. They are, as she observes to her mother, 'unimpressible, incomprehensible creatures'. In writing her first novel, Anne Brontë drew on her own experiences, and one can trace in the work many of the trials of the Victorian governess, often stranded far from home, and treated with little respect by her employers, yet expected to control and educate her young charges. Agnes Grey looks at childhood from nursery to adolescence, and it also charts the frustrations of romantic love, as Agnes starts to nurse warmer feelings towards the local curate, Mr Weston. The novel combines astute dissection of middle-class social behaviour and class attitudes with a wonderful study of Victorian responses to young children which has parallels with debates about education that continue to this day.
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2 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Underrated Anne
3 May 2011
Format:Paperback
Anne Bronte is probably the least popular Bronte sister for some reason. She actually wrote two books (and Charlotte wrote four) but the only Bronte books anyone ever seems to know are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Those are by far the most popular and have been adapted many, many times. Unfortunately given Anne's relative obscurity, there are very few adaptations of her works. There are a couple TV versions of her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but only one of those is available on DVD and there are none at all of her first book, Agnes Grey. I think this is a real shame because I love both of Anne's books and because of this, I would say she's my favorite of the three sisters.
Agnes Grey tells of the titular character's life as a governess. Her family loses their fortune in an accident and so Agnes decides to work as a governess rather than be a burden on her parents- even though they are against this idea. She first teaches extremely bratty young children (the son is a sociopath who tortures his younger sisters and small animals) and then older, more worldly children. All of her pupils are spoiled to the core, but she gets along well enough with her second family of employment.
Like Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey is about a governess, but the two books are very different from each other. Agnes Grey is much more realistic, lacking all the gothic and mysterious elements. Anne based the story and characters on her own experiences as a governess, and thus all the bratty kids are very well realized. Agnes does fall in love but it's a more understated romance with a good man, but nothing like the tumultuous passion between Jane and Rochester. Anne Bronte's books are definitely the most realistic out of all of the Brontes and this one most of all. The style is the closest to Jane Austen that any of them will get, so Jane Austen fans who are not fond of Charlotte and Emily's work will probably respond more favorably to this one. It does have a moral and religious message to it but I didn't find it heavy-handed.
Agnes Grey tells of the titular character's life as a governess. Her family loses their fortune in an accident and so Agnes decides to work as a governess rather than be a burden on her parents- even though they are against this idea. She first teaches extremely bratty young children (the son is a sociopath who tortures his younger sisters and small animals) and then older, more worldly children. All of her pupils are spoiled to the core, but she gets along well enough with her second family of employment.
Like Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey is about a governess, but the two books are very different from each other. Agnes Grey is much more realistic, lacking all the gothic and mysterious elements. Anne based the story and characters on her own experiences as a governess, and thus all the bratty kids are very well realized. Agnes does fall in love but it's a more understated romance with a good man, but nothing like the tumultuous passion between Jane and Rochester. Anne Bronte's books are definitely the most realistic out of all of the Brontes and this one most of all. The style is the closest to Jane Austen that any of them will get, so Jane Austen fans who are not fond of Charlotte and Emily's work will probably respond more favorably to this one. It does have a moral and religious message to it but I didn't find it heavy-handed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Before Jane, there was Agnes
1 May 2011
Format:Paperback
Anne Brontė wrote Agnes Grey before her sister Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre. But Jane Eyre acquired a sharper publisher. It appeared first, and to great acclaim. Anne's novel, poorly produced in a small print run, was scarcely noticed.
Don't get me wrong. I love Jane Eyre. But Anne's first novel is fascinating in its own right and truly original. It should never be considered a Jane Eyre wannabe.
Agnes Grey is a gentile but penniless clergyman's daughter. At eighteen she decides to become a governess to relieve her beloved family of her support and contribute to theirs. Her employment experiences in two families reflect Anne Brontė's own sufferings as a governess.
Unlike Jane Eyre, whose charge, a frivolous little French girl, is no trouble, poor Agnes Grey encounters children who are heartless, often violent and totally unmanageable. Happily for the reader, romance enters into the life of the beleaguered governess, but Agnes and her admirer relate much more quietly than Jane and Rochester.
Agnes is a somewhat stiff-backed heroine. She'd discipline her pupils with a birch rod if she could, but the parents forbid it. She's secretly proud, though her job requires outward humility. And she's no good at making witty comebacks. But she's real. I admire her principles, although she sometimes overdoes them, and I love her honesty.
Anne Brontė was dealing with controversial contemporary issues. The plight of governesses was a hot topic in the mid-nineteenth century, as was the education of children. Victorian England saw the first stirrings of what would become child psychology. All this is discussed in the excellent introduction to the Oxford edition.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Anne Brontė's masterpiece, but Agnes Grey reveals the author's heart quite poignantly. I found both these novels a great pleasure.
Don't get me wrong. I love Jane Eyre. But Anne's first novel is fascinating in its own right and truly original. It should never be considered a Jane Eyre wannabe.
Agnes Grey is a gentile but penniless clergyman's daughter. At eighteen she decides to become a governess to relieve her beloved family of her support and contribute to theirs. Her employment experiences in two families reflect Anne Brontė's own sufferings as a governess.
Unlike Jane Eyre, whose charge, a frivolous little French girl, is no trouble, poor Agnes Grey encounters children who are heartless, often violent and totally unmanageable. Happily for the reader, romance enters into the life of the beleaguered governess, but Agnes and her admirer relate much more quietly than Jane and Rochester.
Agnes is a somewhat stiff-backed heroine. She'd discipline her pupils with a birch rod if she could, but the parents forbid it. She's secretly proud, though her job requires outward humility. And she's no good at making witty comebacks. But she's real. I admire her principles, although she sometimes overdoes them, and I love her honesty.
Anne Brontė was dealing with controversial contemporary issues. The plight of governesses was a hot topic in the mid-nineteenth century, as was the education of children. Victorian England saw the first stirrings of what would become child psychology. All this is discussed in the excellent introduction to the Oxford edition.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Anne Brontė's masterpiece, but Agnes Grey reveals the author's heart quite poignantly. I found both these novels a great pleasure.
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