Books - Agnes Grey

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	Books - Agnes Grey

Agnes Grey is a novel about a governess of that name, written by Anne Brontë in 1847. The novel is said to be based on Anne Brontë's own experiences as a governess. Agnes Grey was Anne Brontë's first novel, and as such it has a stronger stylistic connection to the works of Jane Austen than Anne's later writings do. Like her sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre
, this is a novel that addresses what the precarious position of governess entailed, and how it affected a young woman: some critics, in fact, feel that Agnes Grey deserves the reputation of a "governess novel" far more than Jane Eyre, as it is decidedly more realistic and down-to-earth in its depiction of the life of a governess.

The novel tells the story of Agnes Grey, the daughter of a minister, whose family comes to financial ruin. Desperate to earn the money to care for herself, she takes one of the few jobs allowed to respectable women in the early Victorian era – the role of governess to the children of the wealthy. In working with two different families (the Bloomfields and the Murrays), she comes to learn about the troubles that face a young woman who must try to reign in unruly, spoiled children for a living, and about the ability of wealth and status to destroy social values. After her father's death, Agnes opens a small school with her mother and finds happiness with a man who loves her for herself.

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