Reviews

Miss Agnes Grey decides to become a governess when her family is in a dire financial situation. The first family she works for is quite terrible, and she is happy to be relieved of her position. Agnes works for the second family much longer...where she meets Mr. Weston, the curate at the church. Whereas each of her pupils has some moral failing, Agnes has many good qualities and is well-liked.

A well-paced story that shows readers what a governess in the 1800s might experience.

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thenovelbook's review against another edition

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3.0

Agnes Grey had its highs and lows for me, but it definitely stood in contrast to the works of Anne Bronte's more fiery sisters. This is no Gothic or angst-y epic; in fact, at the end, it reads surprisingly more like a Jane Austen novel than a stereotypical Bronte.

Agnes Grey comes from a modest ecclesiastical family, but when money becomes a problem for them, she suggests that she should go out as a governess. What could be more delightful than "teaching the young idea how to shoot"?

A lot of things, as it turns out.

The people for whom she ends up working (and there are two sets of them in succession) are pretty awful in their different ways. Her students are intractable and their parents unreasonable. There is literally no one within the household who treats her with even a modicum of respect. It can be pretty hard to read. Especially the birds scene. Which I basically skipped.

The first experience she has reads more like a memoir--her general impressions are skimmed over, but there's not a lot of plot, other than "It was miserable."

Her second experience feels more like a novel, because she begins to relate everyday occurrences with more detail, and because it's at this juncture that her heart is touched, and you begin to feel more closely connected to her.

She meets and falls in love with the curate Mr. Weston. Her hopes and fears about her chances with him loom large for the remainder of the story, but all is nicely wrapped up in some sweet, domestic scenes that, like I said, would not be out of place in Austen.

This novel is evidently pretty autobiographical in some ways, as the Brontes had experience in the trials of governessing. I had the idea for the first part of the book that I may as well have been reading Anne's own journal, so strong a sense of personal experience did I get. This was probably heightened for me by the little bit of reading I've done recently about the Bronte sisters, and by watching "To Walk Invisible," a film about their literary careers.