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malice 's review for:
Agnes Grey
by Anne Brontë
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
I found this book to be honest and raw and written from the heart. I admit it is a tame plot that lacks some skill in moving itself forward. I often felt that Agnes didn't act much (much like Jane) and meekishly took in everything around her without a word. That may be just from her anxiety in keeping her occupation but I was hoping for a developement of her character and hoped in vain.
I read Jane Eyre just 6 months earlier so it was still fresh in my mind to compare.
I was heartbroken to find out that Charlotte seems to have copied some major aspects of Anne's book. Firstly that the plot centers around a governess and secondly the style of a subjective first person perspective (something that Jane Eyre is strongly praised for and deemed to be one of the first novels to do so in a such a personal way).
While I truly and honestly couldn't stop reading either of the novels, in the end Jane Eyre is the one I will be rereading in the future. There's something in the movement in that novel that Agnes Grey lacks to a high degree. Anne recounts everything a bit matter if factly and makes it almost sound like a christian fable. Agnes' seemingly "perfect" behavior leaves one asking at end who she really was. The love interest was also quite rushed and underdeveloped which I can understand from it being only an addition that didn't reflect Anne's experience.
But I must praise Anne for not only writing a more political and socially relevant novel that often feels unbelievably modern, but also for writing a decent and honest love interest for her heroine. Anne shows the horrors and the isolation in her job that her sister couldn't confront. While Jane Eyre sucks you into a feverish dream world where the house is clouded in mystery and governessing is no difficult matter. Anne makes you sit with the reality of a middle class womans prospects. She doesn't shy away from the cruelty of her employers nor from the social outcast nature of the job. Being just a hireling for the family and being too high class for the servants. And beyond that having no time to make connections outside of the house.
I also managed to read this while I started my first job. A job that I also took solely for money, and hated more with every passing day.
Also interesting that the first family Anne worked for, that were the basis for the Bloomfields, were in reality named Ingham. Same name as some of the unpleasant upper class people from Jane Eyre, one of which Mr. Rochester even had an engament with.
(If you want to read a little more on how Agnes Grey was a semi auto-biographical novel please read the introduction by Samantha Ellis included in this edition)
I read Jane Eyre just 6 months earlier so it was still fresh in my mind to compare.
I was heartbroken to find out that Charlotte seems to have copied some major aspects of Anne's book. Firstly that the plot centers around a governess and secondly the style of a subjective first person perspective (something that Jane Eyre is strongly praised for and deemed to be one of the first novels to do so in a such a personal way).
While I truly and honestly couldn't stop reading either of the novels, in the end Jane Eyre is the one I will be rereading in the future. There's something in the movement in that novel that Agnes Grey lacks to a high degree. Anne recounts everything a bit matter if factly and makes it almost sound like a christian fable. Agnes' seemingly "perfect" behavior leaves one asking at end who she really was. The love interest was also quite rushed and underdeveloped which I can understand from it being only an addition that didn't reflect Anne's experience.
But I must praise Anne for not only writing a more political and socially relevant novel that often feels unbelievably modern, but also for writing a decent and honest love interest for her heroine. Anne shows the horrors and the isolation in her job that her sister couldn't confront. While Jane Eyre sucks you into a feverish dream world where the house is clouded in mystery and governessing is no difficult matter. Anne makes you sit with the reality of a middle class womans prospects. She doesn't shy away from the cruelty of her employers nor from the social outcast nature of the job. Being just a hireling for the family and being too high class for the servants. And beyond that having no time to make connections outside of the house.
I also managed to read this while I started my first job. A job that I also took solely for money, and hated more with every passing day.
(If you want to read a little more on how Agnes Grey was a semi auto-biographical novel please read the introduction by Samantha Ellis included in this edition)