Agnes Grey, A Novel is the debut novel of English author Anne Brontë (writing under the pen name of ‘Acton Bell’), first published in December 1847, and republished in a second edition in 1850.
The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as she works within families of the English gentry. Scholarship and comments by Anne’s sister Charlotte Brontë suggest the novel is largely based on Anne Brontë’s own experiences as a governess for five years. Like her sister Charlotte’s 1847 novel
Jane Eyre, it addresses what the precarious position of governess entailed and how it affected a young woman.
The choice of central character allows Anne to deal with issues of oppression and abuse of women and governesses, isolation and ideas of empathy. An additional theme is the fair treatment of animals.
Agnes Grey also mimics some of the stylistic approaches of bildungsromans, employing ideas of personal growth and coming to age.
The Irish novelist George Moore praised
Agnes Grey as ‘the most perfect prose narrative in English letters, ‘ and went so far as to compare Anne’s prose to that of Jane Austen. Modern critics have made more subdued claims admiring
Agnes Grey with a less overt praise of Brontë’s work than Moore.
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