Agnes Grey Essay - Grey, Agnes - eNotes.com Agnes Grey Essay - Grey, Agnes Agnes Grey Anne Brontë The following entry presents criticism of Brontë' s novel Agnes Grey (1847). For a discussion of Brontë's complete career, see NCLC, Volume 4. Brontë's first novel, Agnes Grey, was originally published under her pseudonym Acton Bell in 1847 and details the life of a governess in mid-Victorian England. Many critics take its main subject and title character to be a literary projection of Brontë herself, citing numerous parallels between Brontë's life and that of her fictional creation. Scholars are careful, however, to acknowledge that Agnes Grey is a work of imaginative fiction that addresses social concerns, including the at times degrading treatment of governesses, the consequences of the Victorian cult of domesticity, and Brontë's critique of burgeoning materialism and declining morality in mid-nineteenth-century Britain.

To a large degree overshadowed by her sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre—a similar work that was published before Anne's novel, but composed after it—Agnes Grey has been considered somewhat artistically inferior to, and has certainly enjoyed a great deal less popularity than, Charlotte's novel. Nevertheless, twentieth-century critics have deemed Agnes Grey an important work of Victorian realism that demonstrates Brontë's humor, perceptive eye for detail, talent for storytelling, and unmistakable taste for the unconventional. Plot and Major Characters The younger of two daughters of an Anglican clergyman, Agnes Grey spends her early years living modestly but comfortably in the north of mid-nineteenth-century England. When Agnes is still a young adult, however, her somewhat imprudent father, Richard Grey—seeking to strengthen the family finances through speculative investment—loses his capital following a maritime disaster that sinks his friend's merchants ships. Eager to assist the newly impoverished household in whatever way she can, Agnes determines to become a governess, despite the initial disapproval of her parents. Naively optimistic, she takes a position in the household of the upperclass Bloomfields. Hired by the discompassionate Mrs.

Bloomfield, Agnes is charged with the care and instruction of her four children, whom she soon discovers are ill-mannered, undisciplined, even cruel. Unable to control or educate the Bloomfield brood—on one occasion she finds it necessary to kill a nest of birds to prevent the youngest boy, Tom, from torturing them—Agnes is shortly given notice. She soon locates a new governess position, gaining employment with the Murray family of Horton Lodge. Treated with little respect by her aristocratic employers, Agnes discovers that her new pupils—Charles, John, Matilda, and Rosalie, who range in age from nine to sixteen—are only a slight improvement over their unprincipled predecessors. Confronted with these troubles, Agnes encounters Edward Weston, the new curate in Horton, and swiftly falls in love with the simple, sincere, and unassuming young cleric. Meanwhile, the Murray boys depart for school, leaving her in charge of only Matilda and Rosalie. Time passes and the materialistic and flirtatious Rosalie, now eighteen, leaves Agnes's care. Several months later, Rosalie marries Sir Thomas Ashby, a wealthy and influential man whom she does not love.

Meanwhile, Agnes's father dies and her mother decides to establish a school in the seaside town of A——. From this moment, Agnes spends only six more weeks in Horton, then bids farewell to Mr. Weston and joins her mother in A——. Approximately one year later, she receives a letter from her former student Rosalie inviting her to Ashby Park. When she arrives, Agnes greets a cynical Lady Ashby, now a mother and clearly struggling in a bad marriage. Several days after her return to A——, Agnes encounters Edward Weston walking along the beach. He has secured a position as vicar in a nearby parish. Soon after, the two marry and have children of their own. Major Themes One of several "governess novels" written and published in the mid-1800s, Agnes Grey falls into the tradition of the female bildungsroman, or novel of development, and thus dramatizes the theme of innocence and youthfulness passing into experience. Unlike many such works of the same era, however, Agnes Grey is thought by critics to treat certain subjects absent from, or only vaguely sketched, in the woman's bildungsroman.

Various scholars observe in the novel a critique of mid-Victorian social attitudes, especially as they relate to morality, childrearing, the treatment of women, the surging tide of materialism, and the hypocritical cult of domesticity. Agnes's numerous confrontations with the recalcitrant children she is hired to educate are said to condemn the domestic deficiencies of the British upper classes—personified in the idle, cold, materialistic, and largely disinterested parents of the Murray and Bloomfield children. Commentators have also seen in Agnes Grey a clever depiction of the feminine struggle to acquire independence and a voice in the affairs of a society that relegates women to domestic functions. Critical Reception Many scholars believe the novel that was to become Agnes Grey was originally entitled Passages in the Life of an Individual (a work in progress referred to by Brontë in her correspondence), and it has been assumed since the time of its publication to be autobiographical in character.

Although the novel was significantly drawn from material in Brontë's own life and is marred to a degree by moral didacticism, Agnes Grey has earned the respect of literary critics as an important work of fiction, but none have quite equaled George Moore's 1924 assessment of the novel as "the most perfect narrative in English literature." Later critics of Agnes Grey have done much to undo the influence of Brontë's elder sister, Charlotte, whose condescending and apologetic attitude toward Anne's literary talent set a precedent for much subsequent criticism. Thus, in the contemporary era, commentators have lauded Agnes Grey for the simple brilliance of its narrative technique as well as for its unadorned style, psychological clarity, and insightful observations on the nature of Victorian society. Start Free Trial Start your free trial with eNotes to access more than 30,000 study guides. Get help with any book. Anne Bronte | British author | Britannica.com British author Thomas Hardy Anne Brontë, pseudonym Acton Bell (born Jan.

17, 1820, Thornton, Yorkshire , Eng.—died May 28, 1849, Scarborough , Yorkshire), English poet and novelist, sister of Charlotte and Emily Brontë and author of Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). Anne Brontë, detail of a pencil drawing by her sister Charlotte Brontë, c. 1845. Hulton Archive/Getty Images The youngest of six children of Patrick and Marie Brontë, Anne was taught in the family’s Haworth home and at Roe Head School. With her sister Emily, she invented the imaginary kingdom of Gondal, about which they wrote verse and prose (the latter now lost) from the early 1830s until 1845. She took a position as governess briefly in 1839 and then again for four years, 1841–45, with the Robinsons, the family of a clergyman, at Thorpe Green, near York . There her irresponsible brother, Branwell , joined her in 1843, intending to serve as a tutor.

Anne returned home in 1845 and was followed shortly by her brother, who had been dismissed, charged with making love to his employer’s wife. In 1846 Anne contributed 21 poems to Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell , a joint work with her sisters Charlotte and Emily. Her first novel , Agnes Grey , was published together with Emily’s Wuthering Heights in three volumes (of which Agnes Grey was the third) in December 1847. The reception to these volumes, associated in the public mind with the immense popularity of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre (October 1847), led to quick publication of Anne’s second novel (again as Acton Bell), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , published in three volumes in June 1848; it sold well. She fell ill with tuberculosis toward the end of the year and died the following May. Her novel Agnes Grey, probably begun at Thorpe Green, records with limpidity and some humour the life of a governess.

George Moore called it “simple and beautiful as a muslin dress.” The Tenant of Wildfell Hall presents an unsoftened picture of the debauchery and degradation of the heroine’s first husband and sets against it the Arminian belief, opposed to Calvinist predestination, that no soul shall be ultimately lost. Her outspokenness raised some scandal, and Charlotte deplored the subject as morbid and out of keeping with her sister’s nature, but the vigorous writing indicates that Anne found in it not only a moral obligation but also an opportunity of artistic development. Learn More in these related articles: Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Bronte Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Bronte Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Bronte A Brief Summary and Review By Patrick Branwell Brontë (died 1848) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons By Adam Burgess Updated May 04, 2016. Agnes Grey (1847) is the first novel of the youngest Brontë sister, Anne . It is based in large part on Anne’s life and was created with the use of Anne’s personal diary and letters.

It was also the first of the sisters’ works to be completed, although all three sisters ( Charlotte , Emily and Anne) would publish their first works within the same one-year time period. The story is essentially a failed bildungsroman ; Brontë intends to send her heroine, Agnes, on a coming-of-age journey, which would be developed through her tenure as governess at various households. But because Agnes never truly develops (partly because she started her journey as a positive person in the first place, and partly because growth was stunted by the families she served), the story never reaches true bildungsroman potential. The purpose of the story, though, is to expose certain deficiencies in the class system and in human nature, which is ultimately achieved despite the main character’s lack of growth. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States There is some change in a secondary character, Rosalie, after she departs from home, where she is being instructed by Agnes, to become the wife of Sir Ashby. Rosalie, a serious flirt, had one goal in life: to marry a wealth man and become a Lady.

That accomplished, she soon realizes that her dreams had not come true after all, and she tries in some small way, to make amends with Agnes. Of course, this change is not truly growth, because it is ultimately self-serving; Lady Ashby has been essentially imprisoned at home, with no friends, so the minor changes in her manner towards Agnes are the result of desperation, rather than real emotional or moral development. Despite the characters lacking any major transformations, they fit well with the story and their simplicity aids in making the primary themes of the story more apparent. One might compare some themes to Clarissa (1748), but where Samuel Richardson is often repetitive and overbearing Brontë tends to make a point and then move on. In addition to effective prose and style, there is an employment of dialogue which is more than competent; it is natural and in many ways imperative to the story because many of the elements, such as characterization, are revealed through dialogue. Although certain elements of the narrative are underdeveloped (characterization, plot arc, and setting), it is clear that Brontë knows what she wants to say, and says it well.

She tackles multiple themes , at the forefront of which are the oppression of women and the mistreatment of governesses/maids. In both of the families that Agnes serves, she is treated not just as an inferior, but almost as a non-entity. The male children are clearly favored over the female and the maids are treated with no respect or consideration. It is clear that Brontë is driven to expose and refute the “natural” superiority of men over women, but also of one class over another. In addition to these primary themes are also those of isolation and tutelage. Anne, upon leaving home, finds herself entirely without friends or significant relationships of any kind. While there is some despair in this, Brontë also posits the idea that isolation can be an opportunity for self-reflection, study, and intellectual/spiritual growth. This theme carries on to one of tutelage, wherein Brontë, through her narrator’s isolation and experiences, can instruct the reader on certain ideals, particularly her beliefs of right and wrong, without breaking into narrative sermonizing. Another prominent theme is one of empathy, for mankind and animals.

Brontë is clearly disturbed by those who treat animals cruelly, as she is disturbed by people who treat others (particularly their servants or “inferiors”) with disdain. Brontë clearly views empathy as a virtue, but one which is difficult or perhaps impossible to instill in others. George Moore, an Irish novelist, praised Agnes Grey as being “the most perfect prose narrative in English letters.” He even compared Anne Brontë’s skill to that of her predecessor, Jane Austen . It is not difficult to understand why he thought so highly of her abilities, as the style and prose of this novel are its greatest achievements. The prose is similar to Austen’s in its subtlety and its ability to be witty and ironic without being necessarily overt. The style is simple but effective, it moves the story smoothly and naturally, without much fanfare, but never feels stunted or boring. Agnes Grey : Anne Brontë : 9781907727382 Try AbeBooks Description Agnes Grey was published in 1847 and was the first book by Anne Bronte, the youngest of the Bronte sisters. Anne wrote this book while her sisters were working on their books.

Emily Bronte is likely the best known for her book Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Bronte for the book The Professor. Agnes Grey centers on a governess who is also a rector's daughter. It follows the challenges in her life as she ends up in charge of taking care of unruly children. Agnes copes wit her challenges through her romantic relationship and appreciate for nature. Bronte spends a great deal of the book making subtle commentary on the attitudes of the upper class. show more Product details 124 x 198 x 16mm | 240.4g Publication date 9781907727382 Agnes Grey eBook by Anne Bronte - 1230000126928 | Kobo Show more Show less Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (1820 -1849) is a classic novel based on the life of working as a governess. It is set in the Victorian era and follows the story of Agnes, the daughter of a minister who finds employment by working as a governess due her family’s financial difficulties.

She is faced with challenging issues which young women at the time were faced with whilst working as a governess. The novel was first published in 1847 and republished in 1850. It was considered to be a reflection of the authors own life experiences whilst working for five years as a governess. About the Author: Anne Bronte (1820-1849) was an English author who wrote the famous classics Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. She was raised with her two sisters Charlotte (author of Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette and The Professor) and Emily (author of Wuthering Heights) Bronte and was mostly educated at home studying art and music. Although she was sent to school Anne and her sisters had a passion for reading and writing and their father had an extensive collection of English literature at home. Anne spent a short period of time in boarding school and later working as a governess but died at the early age of 29. Mermaids Classics, an imprint of Mermaids Publishing brings the very best of old book classics to a modern era of digital reading by producing high quality books in ebook format.

Buy the eBook Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte - Reading Guide - PenguinRandomHouse.com Questions and Topics for Discussion INTRODUCTION Published in 1877, Anne Brontë’s first novel exposes with remarkable realism the hardships and exploitation endured by governesses in Victorian England. In a narrative that drew heavily on her own experience, Brontë’s goal was not to amuse or to entertain but, as Agnes Grey says, to benefit those whom it might concern—governesses themselves, whose numbers were rapidly growing in the late nineteenth century, and the British aristocracy who employed them. Because of the great imbalance in the ratio of women to men in England, with so many men living and working abroad in the far reaches of the British Empire, thousands of women were unable to marry. This problem was compounded by the strong social stigma against women working and the extremely limited professions to which they were admitted. Increasingly, out of desperation, women became governesses, accepting terms that would leave them exhausted, impoverished, and socially outcast. Brontë sought to make their plight visible to the English public and to arouse the kind of compassion that might lead to reform. But Agnes Grey is hardly a didactic novel.

By rendering the daily life of her protagonist with such vivid detail, and in a tone that is coolly restrained, Brontë lets Agnes Grey’s experience speak for itself. Abused by the children she is enjoined to teach, treated with derisive arrogance by the men and women who employ her, Agnes lives in a world without friends, adrift between the servant and the genteel classes, at home in neither. But it is the cruelty, vanity, and moral emptiness of the upper classes that the novel exposes most unsparingly. In her first position, with the Bloomfield family, young master Tom is shown to be a budding sociopath who delights in torturing helpless animals and is spurred on in this activity by his elders, who either merely condone the behavior or actively applaud it. When Agnes intervenes to spare a nestful of baby birds from Tom’s sadism, Uncle Robson says: “Curse me, if I ever saw a nobler little scoundrel than that. He’s beyond petticoat government already;—by G—, he defies his mother, granny governess, and all! Ha, ha, ha.

Never mind, Tom, I’ll get you another brood tomorrow’” (p. 105). In her second place of employment, with the Murrays, Agnes tries and fails to reform young Rosalie, who derives a similar enjoyment from causing pain. The beautiful Miss Murray delights in playing the coquet with her suitors, manipulating their affections for the sole purpose of dashing their hopes and reveling in the suffering she causes them. When not actively cruel, Rosalie is often deeply unfeeling, a woman who regards her servants as “mere automatons” (p. 233). In such a world, a governess is considered only slightly more human than a servant and only slightly more deserving of sympathy than a nestful of baby birds. Against this moral vacuum, Brontë places the love story between Agnes and the curate Edmund Weston. Unlike the cold-hearted and self-serving characters that surround them, Agnes and Edmund exemplify the Christian virtues of compassion, charity, and brotherly love. In their visits to the elderly widow Nancy Brown, both Edmund and Agnes demonstrate the ability—and the willingness—to feel the suffering of others and to do what is in their power to alleviate it.

That they visit Nancy independently but also chance to experience their first meeting in Nancy’s humble dwelling is perfectly appropriate. Theirs will be a relationship based on a higher purpose, their love for each other rooted in a more selfless love for all their fellow beings, human and nonhuman alike. Indeed, how animals are treated in the novel offers a telling glimpse into Brontë’s moral critique of the English aristocracy. While his predecessor, Mr. Hatfield, kicks Nancy’s cat when it seeks his affection, Edmund caresses it and in fact rescues it from being shot by the gamekeeper. Similarly, Agnes takes care of the puppy, Snap, that Rosalie can’t be bothered to raise, and when it is given away to the rat-catcher, Edmund performs another rescue, saving the dog from a terrible fate. When Edmund is reunited with Agnes on the sands, it is Snap who leads the way to her. Agnes Grey may be read in many ways—as an exposé of the plight of the English governess, as a searing indictment of the materialism and lack of empathy at the heart of Victorian values, and as a love story in which kindness and compassion are rewarded and vanity and heartlessness are punished.

It is a testimony to Anne Brontë’s brilliance as a writer that she could seamlessly merge these themes into a narrative that is driven by a high purpose and simultaneously is such a pleasure to read. ABOUT THE BRONTË SISTERS Anne Brontë was born in 1820 and raised in the Yorkshire village of Haworth where her father was curate. She was educated at home and, as a child, she invented—with her sister Emily—the imaginary world of Gondal, for which she wrote copious chronicles and poems. After attending boarding school for two years, she left Haworth at the age of nineteen to work as governess, first with the Inghams at Blake Hall and, from 1840–45, with the Robinson family at Thorp Green. She drew heavily on her experience as a governess for her first novel, Agnes Grey, published under the pseudonym Acton Bell in 1847. The novel appeared in a single volume with her sister Emily’s Wuthering Heights.

While critical reaction to Wuthering Heights was fiercely negative, reviewers barely noticed Agnes Grey, and most simply compared it unfavorably to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, a more romantic novel which also deals with the life of a governess and which had created a literary sensation earlier in the year. Many aspects of Anne’s life find their way into Agnes Grey. Like her heroine, Brontë also wrote poetry. Brontë was the daughter of a curate and, like Agnes, seems to have fallen in love with another curate, William Weightman, who became an assistant priest in her father’s parish in 1839, and may have served as the model for Edmund Weston in Agnes Grey. Many other details of Anne’s character, home life, and education correspond to those of Agnes Grey. Brontë’s second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) offers a powerful feminist critique of marriage laws and the crushing limitations and double standards that governed sexual morality and the education of men and women in Victorian England. Anne Brontë’s creative life was cut short when she died at Scarborough in 1849 of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of twenty-nine.

Long overshadowed by her more widely read and highly esteemed sisters, Anne Brontë is at last receiving the critical attention she deserves. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Brontë begins her novel by writing that “All true histories contain instruction” (p. 61). What is Brontë’s purpose in writing the novel? In what ways is the book instructive? In what ways is it subversive? In her introduction to Agnes Grey, Angeline Goreau asserts that, “Through her ‘simple’ exposition of the case of the governess, Anne Brontë also gave her contemporaries an indictment of the ruthless materialism at the heart of Victorian life” (p. 45). Where is this “ruthless materialism” most keenly felt in the novel? How does it affect Agnes? What are the chief hardships Agnes faces as a governess? How does she feel about the injustices done to her? How does she respond to them? How are the upper and lower classes depicted in the novel? What are the major differences, for example, between Brontë’s portrayals of Nancy Brown and Rosalie Murray? Rosalie says that her husband Sir Thomas has never forgiven her for giving birth to a girl.

What picture emerges in Agnes Grey of gender roles in Victorian England? In what ways are boys and men treated differently, and valued differently, than girls and women in the novel? What roles were available to women in Victorian England? When Agnes objects to Tom’s desire to torture baby birds, Mrs. Bloomfield replies: “You seem to have forgotten that the creatures were all created for our convenience” (p. 105). What does this statement suggest about the worldview of the English aristocracy? What are the immediate and ultimate consequences of such a worldview? Where do such beliefs come from? In what ways does Edmund Weston differ from the rector, Mr. Hatfield? What do their vastly different responses to Nancy’s religious doubts reveal about how each views the essence of Christianity? Why are Edmund and Agnes so drawn to each other? In what ways are they an ideal, or perhaps idealized, match? How do their values, principles, and behavior set them apart from the most of the other major characters in the book? Why does Rosalie derive such enjoyment from misleading and tormenting her suitors? Does Brontë manage to make her a sympathetic character in spite of her vanity and lack of empathy? How are animals treated in the novel?

In what ways do animals illuminate the moral characters of the human beings who interact with them? How might Anne Brontë view the situation of women today? What contemporary issues might move her to write a novel similar to Agnes Grey? Anne Brontë | Poetry Foundation Poetry Foundation Poet Details 1820–1849 In Conversations in Ebury Street (1924), George Moore declared that "if Anne Brontë had lived ten years longer, she would have taken a place beside Jane Austen, perhaps even a higher place"; in addition, he described her first novel, Agnes Grey (1847), as "the most perfect prose narrative in English literature." If Moore's estimation of Brontë's work and potential was somewhat inflated, his claims for her served as an overdue and refreshing corrective to the trend—long established by biographers and critics—of either damning her with faint praise or making her the subject of frankly disparaging remarks.

Typical of the latter were May Sinclair's dismissal of her as "the weak and ineffectual Anne" and George Saintsbury's pronouncement that "the third sister Anne is but a pale reflection of her elders." The cumulative effect made Brontë appear a nebulous figure in the history of English letters; and led to the widely accepted concept of her as an artist and a woman of no importance. The source of this misleading image of Anne Brontë was her older sister Charlotte, who became, in effect, her first biographer and critic. Since Anne's life is not well documented (only a handful of her letters and papers are extant), there has been an inevitable tendency to rely too much on information about her from reported and written statements by Charlotte. Many of these—particularly her lukewarm assessments of Anne's literary abilities and her frequent references to Anne's pensiveness, docility, and religious morbidity—were accepted for decades as absolute; now they are being weighed more carefully as Charlotte's objectivity as a witness and impartiality as a judge are cross-examined.

Some of the undisputed facts about Anne Brontë are that she was the youngest daughter of the Reverend Patrick and Maria Branwell Brontë; that she was born in the northeastern county of Yorkshire, England; and that she spent her childhood and formative years in the Brontës' family home—the parsonage on the outskirts of the remote village of Haworth. She received her formal education between 1835 and 1837 at Miss Margaret Wooler's boarding school. During Anne's attendance there, the school was relocated from Roe Head to Dewsbury Moor, near Leeds. Straitened family finances compelled Anne to search for employment, and between April and the latter part of 1839 she worked as a governess in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Ingham of Blake Hall. She occupied her second post as a governess to the three daughters of the Reverend and Mrs. Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green Hall, near York, for five years, beginning her duties in May 1840. Her brother, Branwell, joined her there in January 1843, when he was hired as tutor to the Robinsons' only son, Edmund.

The significance of this period of Anne Brontë's life and the vital importance which it played in her education, her maturation, and her growing understanding of mankind should be neither overlooked nor underestimated. The Robinsons were wealthy and privileged and were related to people of importance (including a marquis and a member of Parliament); the social milieu in which they moved was wide and varied. It can be fairly assumed that Anne Brontë, as a part of the Robinson household, came into contact with many of her employers' relations and friends; she would have had ample opportunity to observe their behavior at close quarters, thus gaining insights into the ways of the world which would have eluded her had she remained in the relatively narrow confines of Haworth Parsonage. Unfortunately, Anne's main extant direct reference to Thorp Green Hall is extremely brief, tantalizingly pregnant with meaning, but frustratingly cryptic; it concludes with the enigmatic words: "...

during my stay I have had some very unpleasant and undreamt-of experience of human nature." After resigning in June 1845, she spent her few remaining years at Haworth with her father; her sisters, Charlotte and Emily; and her brother, Branwell; Emily and Branwell predeceased her in 1848. From an early age, and until at least 1845, Anne and Emily (who were described as being "like twins, inseparable companions in the very closest sympathy") collaborated in writing the saga of a fictitious island named Gondal. Although none of their Gondal prose has survived, a number of their Gondal poems do exist. A book of poems by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, who used the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell respectively, appeared in 1846. Anne's first novel, Agnes Grey, was published in one of three volumes—the other two contained Emily's Wuthering Heights—in December 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was published in June 1848.

Anne Brontë's books are primarily concerned with morality; she is preoccupied with the ethical principles which, for good or ill, govern human behavior. Her two novels present a closely observed, occasionally satirical, rarely humorous, and often melancholy view of what she regards as a profoundly imperfect world. Her prose frequently achieves elegance through its simplicity; her direct and didactic manner is tempered with a disarming sincerity, so that it succeeds in persuading rather than alienating the reader. The philosophy guiding her intent as a writer is that "the end of Religion is not to teach us how to die, but how to live; and the earlier you become wise and good, the more of happiness you secure." Nevertheless, as the critic Terry Eagleton has observed, "for such a resolutely moral writer, Anne Brontë is remarkably unsmug." Agnes Grey is the novel in which, according to Mrs.

Gaskell, Charlotte's "sister Anne pretty literally describes her own experience as a governess." This remark, which seems as much an oversimplification as saying that Villette (1853) is the novel in which Charlotte pretty literally describes own experience as a teacher in Brussels, has resulted in Agnes Grey being interpreted as a mere autobiography or diary—an estimation which does great disservice to Brontë's abilities as an artificer. This erroneous view of the book is also due, in part, to a frequent misunderstanding of the mode in which it is written. Purporting to be a "true history," it is in the tradition of the fictitious memoir which dates back to the eighteenth century and such novels as Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1721). Indeed, the influence of Defoe and other writers of that period on Brontë has been noted frequently. Moll Flanders claims to be a true history and, like Agnes Grey, contains many references to its truthfulness and moral purpose.

Moll's avowal that "publishing this account of my life is for the sake of the just moral of every part of it, and for instruction, caution, warning, and improvement to every reader" is closely echoed by Agnes Grey's claim that "my design, in writing the last few pages, was not to amuse, but to benefit those whom it might concern," and by the phrase which begins the novel: "All true histories contain instruction." Brontë's publicly declared purpose as a writer (stated in her preface—dated 22 July 1848—to the second edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) was "to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it ...

and if I can gain the public ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much soft nonsense." Clearly, she intended to instruct, and she shrewdly chose the most appropriate form to achieve her goal; Inga-Stina Ewbank points out that "for the purposes of instruction, truth is more impressive than fiction—hence her [Brontë's] insistence on Agnes Grey being a genuine autobiography." Brontë does not analyze the workings of the human mind; rather, she writes in what F. R. Leavis has described, in another context, as "the tradition coming down from the eighteenth century that demanded a plane-mirror reflection of the surface of 'real' life." Consequently, she makes the reader form opinions of her fictional people by their actions rather than by the psychological forces which motivate those actions. She reveals the nature of her characters not so much by what they think as by what they say and do. The resulting effect bears a resemblance to a morality play—a world of black and white, right and wrong, in which only very occasionally is the conscience of a character torn between the polarities of good and evil.

In Agnes Grey, goodness is equated with adherence to a set of values which takes for granted the supreme importance of love and compassion for one's fellow man as stated in the tenets of Christianity; but such goodness is represented by only a tiny minority of characters in the book. Among them are Agnes herself; her father, an impoverished clergyman; her mother, who, by marrying Mr. Grey for love against the wishes of her wealthy parents, has cheerfully sacrificed a handsome inheritance and thus rejected materialism; and by Agnes's elder sister, Mary. It is of great import that all the characters in the story for whom Agnes feels true affinity and respect are members of the poor and working classes; one of these is Edward Weston, a conscientious, underpaid curate of firm faith and ardent piety, whom Agnes marries in the final chapter. Through her sympathetic presentation of such people, juxtaposed with her unflattering and often satirical depiction of the hollow values of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy, Brontë makes an unmistakable equation between wealth and moral bankruptcy. In its indictment of the conduct of the financially privileged members of Victorian England, Agnes Grey qualifies as a novel of sociological as well as moral significance.

It is also a novel about failure—a subtly cynical portrayal of the triumph of mediocrity over excellence. Agnes begins her career as a governess at the age of eighteen, with eager, almost naive anticipation: "how charming to be entrusted with the care and education of children ... to train the tender plants, and watch their buds unfolding day by day!" But chapter two (which has the splendidly ironic title "First Lessons in the Art of Instruction") marks the beginning of Agnes's disillusionment; soon after initial contact with her first pupils, she becomes conscious of "a vicious tendency in the bud." The rest of the story depicts her varied, valiant, but futile attempts to combat the callousness, selfishness, vanity, greed, cruelty, and indifference of her employers and her young charges. The human failings (and their unhappy consequences) which Agnes so clearly deplores are most effectively demonstrated in the career of her oldest pupil, Rosalie Murray. Agnes's evaluation of her is clear-sighted but compassionate: "her faults ...

I would fain persuade myself, were rather the effect of her education than her disposition: she had never been perfectly taught the distinction between right and wrong." With the connivance of her unscrupulous and ambitious mother, Rosalie exchanges her idle career as a heartless coquette for a marriage of convenience to a wealthy, aristocratic, but debauched man, Sir Thomas Ashby. In her eagerness to become the mistress of Ashby Park, Rosalie rationalizes that "reformed rakes make the best husbands, everybody knows." Agnes Grey knows better! Agnes's own marriage to Edward Weston serves as a modest rather than triumphant conclusion to the novel; he is a vaguely sketched, particularly one-dimensional character, and her union with him seems to be Brontë's nod in the direction of the traditional happy ending. In dramatic terms, the event is anticlimactic and at variance with the powerful sense of disillusionment which pervades two chapters near the end of the novel, when Agnes pays her final visit to Rosalie. Having confided to Agnes that she now despises her rich, dissipated husband, Rosalie is reluctant to let her former governess go.

The following excerpt from chapter twenty-three demonstrates, in style, the clarity of Brontë's prose; in content, it testifies to the author's tacit acknowledgment of the predominantly melancholy nature of the human condition: "it was with a heavy heart that I bade adieu to poor Lady Ashby, and left her in her princely home. It was no slight additional proof of her unhappiness, that she should so cling to the consolation of my presence, and earnestly desire the company of one whose general tastes and ideas were so little congenial to her own—whom she had completely forgotten in her hours of prosperity, and whose presence would be rather a nuisance than a pleasure, if she could but have half her heart's desire." The supreme irony of this often ironic novel is that it is Agnes—a teacher by instinct and profession—who learns how to come to terms with life. She is the pupil who says "I had been seasoned by adversity, and tutored by experience," and who, as a result, formulates the simple but sound philosophy that "the best way to enjoy yourself is to do what is right and hate nobody." Her ultimate defeat is that she has failed to educate others to share that philosophy.

Why the author allowed this defeat is better understood if one recalls that elsewhere Brontë qualified her contention that "truth always conveys its own moral" by adding the artfully sardonic phrase: "to those who are able to receive it." Agnes Grey was received quite warmly when it appeared in 1847, but being published as part of a "three-decker" with Wuthering Heights was definitely not to its advantage. Emily's novel had a mixed reception: it was generally misunderstood and considered "coarse"—as, indeed, were all the early Brontë novels when they were first presented to the public—but its strangeness and eccentricities made good copy. Consequently, it got the attention, if not necessarily the praise, of the critics. The inevitable comparisons were made, and Agnes Grey—by its very nature—appeared "less powerful." The major preoccupation of Brontë's other novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), is very much the same as that of Agnes Grey, but the war between good and evil is waged on a considerably larger battleground.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is much longer than its predecessor, and more complex in structure, scope, and the number of characters it contains. It has been suggested that Agnes Grey influenced the composition of Jane Eyre, and close examination shows that they contain a considerable number of similarities in "cast of thought, incident and language." For example, Agnes's "marked features," "pale hollow cheek," and "ordinary dark brown hair" anticipate Jane Eyre's unprepossessing physical appearance. (Traditionally, it is Charlotte, not Anne, who has been credited with the introduction of the irreversibly plain heroine to English fiction.) Also, there are indications that Wuthering Heights influenced the subsequent composition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The two books have a number of similarities, including an unusual degree of passionate intensity (in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, this is particularly evident in the vehemence of which Gilbert Markham is capable).

George Moore commented that Anne Brontë "could write with heat, one of the rarest qualities"—but it is a quality conspicuous by its absence in Agnes Grey.Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall also show similarities in construction, such as the device of employing double narrators—Mr. Lockwood and Ellen Dean in Wuthering Heights; in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Gilbert Markham and Helen Huntingdon. Gilbert—a gentleman farmer—falls in love with Helen, the enigmatic tenant of Wildfell Hall, who is presumed to be a widow. She is, in fact, the estranged wife of the alcoholic and lecherous Arthur Huntingdon. Gilbert's narrative, in the early chapters, skillfully maintains the air of mystery which surrounds Helen and demonstrates his growing attachment to her. This narrative, which begins and ends the novel, is contained in a series of letters (the form bears some resemblance to Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein [1818]). Gilbert's letters provide the framework for a transcript of Helen's diary, which she has given to Gilbert to help him understand the trials of her past life.

This diary, containing a graphic account of her optimistic entry into marriage with Huntingdon and of the gradual disintegration of that marriage brought about by his debauchery, occupies the central and major part of the novel. Arthur Huntingdon and his cronies are forcefully portrayed; the depths of depravity to which they are capable of sinking is demonstrated in some remarkably vivid and lurid scenes, and there has been some speculation that Brontë's inspiration for such incidents could have come from her years at Thorp Green Hall. Charlotte Brontë claimed that Anne "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." The reference is to their brother, Branwell's, refuge in alcohol and drugs following his abrupt dismissal from his post as tutor at Thorp Green Hall. To the end of his life, Branwell adhered to his assertion that the cause of that dismissal was the discovery by his employer, the Reverend Edmund Robinson, of a clandestine love affair between Branwell and Robinson's wife, Lydia.

The suggestion that Anne may have been an unwilling witness to this liaison is interesting but refutable; what is beyond dispute is that she closely observed the ravaging effects that gin and laudanum had on the mind and body of her brother. Helen Huntingdon's diary effectively demonstrates her gradual metamorphosis from an optimistic, eager young girl—convinced that she can reform her rakish, irresponsible husband—into a mature, somewhat cynical, worldly-wise woman. It depicts her long, arduous struggle to persuade the man she loves to heed the principles of Christianity in order to overcome his many weaknesses and to live a life that will lead to salvation, not degradation. Helen, like Agnes Grey, is highly principled and deeply religious; also like Agnes, she is a teacher by instinct.

Helen firmly believes that "it is our duty to admonish our neighbours of their transgressions"; and when speaking of her son, Helen states that "the child's education was the only pleasure and business of my life." Plainly, she is adamant that the son will not emulate the behavior of the father, and that he will be "perfectly taught the distinction between right and wrong." Unlike Agnes, she is not a teacher by profession; she is, in fact, a member of the privileged classes. Consequently, compared with Agnes, she is much more openly self-assured and composed. Brontë succeeds admirably in convincing the reader of the air of elegance in Helen's demeanor and the element of self-reliance in her conduct (which strongly hints of feminism). In the words addressed by Helen to her enemies (including her husband's shallow mistress, Annabella Wilmot), Brontë employs a grand style of language which is reminiscent in its imperious tone of the prose in wrathful letters of the first Queen Elizabeth.

Although The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, like Agnes Grey, has a conventional happy ending (Huntingdon dies as the result of his excesses, and after a respectable lapse of time, Helen marries Gilbert), it, too, is a novel about defeat. Ultimately, the significance of the marriages of Helen and Agnes to men who love them pales beside the facts that Helen has failed to save Arthur Huntingdon and that Agnes has failed to save Rosalie Murray. Both books have overtones of despair, reflecting Brontë's bleak but realistic and unflinching view of the world. The reviews of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in the summer of 1848 were varied; an accusation that the author had "a morbid love for the coarse, not to say the brutal" was echoed in several quarters, but the book was recommended by the Athenaeum as "the most interesting novel we have read for a month past." A flurry of public interest led to a hurried printing of a second edition in August with a preface by the author—the final words she wrote specifically for publication.

Brontë was bold and defiant in her response to a critic who had suggested that if The Tenant of Wildfell Hall had been written by a woman, that fact would make it even more unpalatable to him: "in my own mind, I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man." Charlotte Brontë was disturbed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and made no secret of her distaste for the book. In her "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" (1850), she referred to the fact that Anne's second novel had had a predominantly unfavorable 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." Thus, in September 1850, in her influential position as one of the most lionized writers of her time, Charlotte Brontë helped to quell interest in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by publicly condemning it. Privately, during the same month, she sealed the fate of Anne's second novel by declining Smith, Elder's offer to issue a reprint edition, saying, "Wildfell Hall it hardly appears to me desireable to preserve." Less than seven years later, in her Life of Charlotte Brontë, Mrs. Gaskell's brief reference to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall included this telling phrase: "it is little known." During her brief and seemingly circumscribed life, Anne Brontë only once ventured outside her home county of Yorkshire; the occasion was a fleeting visit to London with Charlotte in July 1848, an incident now renowned in the annals of English literature—it has even found a niche in the Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes! The purpose of this urgent, hurried journey was to disprove the rumors then rampant (and unscrupulously fueled by Anne's and Emily's publisher T. C.

Newby in order to capitalize on the astonishing current success of Charlotte's Jane Eyre) that Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell were not three authors but one. Determined to disassociate themselves from this falsehood, Anne and Charlotte gained entry to the Cornhill office of Charlotte's publisher George Smith, who had no knowledge of the Bells' true identities or of their gender; there, Charlotte startled him with the dramatic declaration, "We are three sisters." Many years later, George Smith recorded his impressions of Anne, based on that very brief meeting with her; he said, "She was a gentle, quiet, rather subdued person, by no means pretty, yet of a pleasing appearance. Her manner was curiously expressive of a wish for protection and encouragement, a kind of constant appeal which invited sympathy." Although "of a pleasing appearance," Anne had no serious suitors during her lifetime; however, it has been suggested by some biographers—and avowed by others—that she was in love with William Weightman, an attractive, exuberant young man who served as the Reverend Patrick Brontë's curate from August 1839 until his death from cholera in September 1842.

The evidence to support this theory is flimsy and is based primarily on a remark in a letter written by Charlotte: "He [Weightman] sits opposite to Anne at Church sighing softly and looking out of the corners of his eyes to win her attention—and Anne is so quiet, her looks so downcast—they are a picture." The significance of this statement is severely undermined by observations about Weightman made by Charlotte in other letters, which clearly demonstrate her opinion of him as an inveterate flirt; she says, among other things, "I'm afraid he is very fickle" and "He would fain persuade every woman under thirty whom he sees that he is desperately in love with her." It appears that Weightman did not feel strongly about Anne; the conjecture that she felt strongly about him is based on several of her poems, written after September 1842—including A Reminiscence (1844) and Severed and Gone (1847)—which lament the death of a loved one and which may be autobiographical in nature. No other romantic connections are alleged for Anne; she received no recorded offers of marriage, and she died a spinster at the age of twenty-nine.

Her death, from tuberculosis, took place at the coastal resort of Scarborough. Eighty years separated Anne's death from W. T. Hale's Anne Brontë: Her Life and Writings (1929), the first publication to treat her as more than a peripheral player in the Brontë story and to challenge some of the myths which had surrounded "dear, gentle Anne." In his sympathetic, often astute monograph, Hale firmly states: "The truth about her is that her gentleness was not weakness. Childlike and unsophisticated in many ways she was, but she had a power of will and a strength of character that always carried out the dictates of her sense of duty." Professor Hale's point of view was innovative; and by choosing to focus his attention on Anne, he created a precedent. Since then, a number of prominent critics have deemed Anne Brontë and her work to be worthy of serious consideration. The result of this re-evaluation has been a growing conviction that she is a minor but worthwhile nineteenth-century novelist who, although admittedly less gifted than her sisters, demonstrates a considerable degree of individuality, originality, and even daring in her modest but far from negligible output. F. B.

Pinion's contention that "there can be little doubt that, had The Tenant of Wildfell Hall received more critical attention, its merits would be more widely recognised," can be applied with equal validity to Agnes Grey. The 1979 publication of a carefully edited edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in the Penguin English Library and the appearance in the same year of The Poems of Anne Brontë: A New Text and Commentary by Edward Chitham are encouraging signs that there is indeed a growing trend to regard Anne's work in a fresh and positive light. There can be no doubt that as her books are more widely read—with care and attention—there will be a commensurate acknowledgment and appreciation for what she achieved during her brief but productive life. Discover this poet's context and related poetry, articles, and media. Poems by Anne Brontë Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë on iBooks This book is available for download with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device, and with iTunes on your computer. Books can be read with iBooks on your Mac or iOS device. Description Agnes Grey is an 1847 novel written by English author Anne Brontë.

The novel is about a governess of that name and is said to be based on Brontë's own experiences in the field. It was Brontë's first novel. Similar to her sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre, this is a novel that addresses what the precarious position of governess entailed and how it affected a young woman. The Irish novelist George Moore praised Agnes Grey as "the most perfect prose narrative in English letters." -- Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Seller: MobileReference Language: English Requirements: To view this book, you must have an iOS device with iBooks 1.3.1 or later and iOS 4.3.3 or later, or a Mac with iBooks 1.0 or later and OS X 10.9 or later. Customer Ratings Anne Brontë Anne Brontë Anne Brontë WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SAMANTHA ELLIS When Agnes’s father loses the family savings, young Agnes determines to make her own living – as a governess. Working for the Bloomfields, her enthusiasm is soon dampened by isolation and the cruelty of the children in her charge.

Agnes hopes for better in her second job, but when the scheming elder daughter Rosalie makes designs on Agnes’s new friend, the kind curate Mr Weston, she feels herself silenced and sidelined. Becoming a governess is one thing, becoming invisible is quite another. Charlotte Brontë (and others) Jane Eyre | Wuthering Heights | The Tenant of Wildfell Hall | Villette This stunning box set brings together the Brontë sisters' four greatest novels in beautiful Penguin editions designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. From the bleak moors of Wuthering Heights to the Belgian capital in Villette, and the mysterious, gloomy country estates of Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, these four novels of passion and struggle show the most famous siblings in literature at the peak of their powers. Anne Brontë When the mysterious and beautiful young widow Helen Graham becomes the new tenant at Wildfell Hall rumours immediately begin to swirl around her. As her neighbour Gilbert Markham comes to discover, Helen has painful secrets buried in her past that even his love for her cannot easily overcome.

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë 'She looked so like herself that I knew not how to bear it' In this sensational, hard-hitting and passionate tale of marital cruelty, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall sees a mysterious tenant, Helen Graham, unmasked not as a 'wicked woman' as the local gossips would have it, but as the estranged wife of a brutal alcoholic bully, desperate to protect her son. Using her own experiences with her brother Branwell to depict the cruelty and debauchery from which Helen flees, Anne Brontë wrote her masterpiece to reflect the fragile position of women in society and her belief in universal redemption, but scandalized readers of the time. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War. Anne Brontë The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Anne Bronte's second and most celebrated novel. Set in the dramatic northern landscape made familiar by the author's more famous sisters, it tells the story of Helen Graham, a mysterious single woman who rents the semi-ruinous Hall of the title.

With a child but no husband, Helen divides the community between those who admire her charm and spirit and those who suspect her morals. Chief among her supporters is a local farmer, Gilbert Markham, who tells her story. Written before The Tenant, Agnes Grey, based on the author's own experience, explores the position of women in Victorian society through the story of a young woman forced to work as a governess when her father is ruined financially. Anne Brontë When the mysterious and beautiful young widow Helen Graham becomes the new tenant at Wildfell Hall rumours immediately begin to swirl around her. As her neighbour Gilbert Markham comes to discover, Helen has painful secrets buried in her past that even his love for her cannot easily overcome. Anne Brontë (and others) The Penguin Classics edition of Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her groundbreaking study of a woman's valiant struggle for independence from an abusive husband is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis. Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son.

He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. It is only when she allows Gilbert to read her diary that the truth is revealed and the shocking details of the disastrous marriage she has left behind emerge. Told with great immediacy, combined with wit and irony, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful depiction of a woman's fight for domestic independence and creative freedom. In her introduction Stevie Davies discusses The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as feminist testament, inspired by Anne Brontë's experiences as a governess and by the death of her brother Branwell Brontë, and examines the novel's language, biblical references and narrative styles. Anne Brontë (1820-1849), youngest of the Bronte sisters, was born at Thornton, West Yorkshire. Her father was a curate, and her mother died when she was a baby, leaving five daughters and one son. After the death of her sisters Maria and Elizabeth from tuberculosis in 1825, the Brontë children were homeschooled, and together they created fantasy worlds and kingdoms which they explored in writing.

Anne worked as a governess between 1840 and 1845, after which she published Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) under the pen-name Acton Bell. Anne Brontë died in 1849. If you enjoyed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall you might also like Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, also available in Penguin Classics.

Question: Who wrote the novel Agnes Grey, in 1847?
Answer: Anne Bronte