A decent read, but awfully predictable. The "romance" between Agnes and Mr. Weston wasn't exactly sizzling, but it was sweet. ( )

For those who find reality boring, don't read this book. But for those who find awe in every moment, Agnes Grey is a masterpiece. ( )

Agnes has big dreams and she wants to be a governess, able to shape young lives and make changes to her own family's financial situation. However, the career does not live up to her expectations and already she encounters difficult parents while tutoring their two children. The second family are easier but one of the children later has different views on marriage compared to Agnes, arguing their thoughts on the clergyman. Written under the pseudonym, Acton Bell, Anne Brontë demonstrates life and the difference in status in the 19th Century while providing readers insight from Agnes's perspective.


I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )

Agnes Grey is the story of a young woman, the daughter of an ailing clergyman, who becomes a governess. She is first employed with terrible people, but is let go; afterwards she spends several years as the governess of two young women, much spoiled and greedy, but not bad girls for all that. In her second placement she meets a young curate, and falls in love with him.

I've read several Bronte novels, but never one by Anne Bronte. It was an audiobook, but still a lot to handle in the 21st century. The piety of the main character, and the pedantic nature of the novel had me groaning. I have nothing against piety, but it was overworked in Agnes' character. Also, although she is the star feature of the novel, she looks at all who live other than she does as inferior to herself, which I see as a distinct fault.

I listened to the book with interest, but it was difficult for me to truly like the story. It is the sort of "improving" novel that I think may have been designed for the teaching of youngsters, and which I think deliberaely resembles a religious tract. I am pleased to have read more work by the Bronte sisters, and to have added Anne to the sisters whose works I have rea ( )

I can't say I totally didn't like it---but it's definitely not on my list of faves. To sum it up, it was sort of a bad Jane Austen knock-off from the point of view of a Negative Nelly. Like Austen's stories, it ends with the girl getting the guy and a happy marriage and a happily ever after---it was just so full of whiney waa-waas. Agnes's negative self-talk got annoying fast and her over-abundance of humility seemed fake. Besides that, there's just not a whole lot to it. Girl works for bad family. Girl works for not so bad family. Girl gets guy. The End. Just not a lot of substance.

Still, Agnes was quiet the little evangelist. I liked her conversations with Nancy---especially this from page 94 in my book: "An' so it is, Miss Grey, 'a soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger.' It isn't only in them you speak to, but in yourself." It's very true that we will feel so much less negative emotions---less bitterness, less anger---when we give a soft and respectful response to a disagreement. Love this.

I also love the response that Agnes's mother gives her own father who has negative things to say about her marriage to Agnes's father--- a man the grandfather said was beneath his daughter to marry. She basically tells him to shove it...Ha! Leave and cleave! Love it!

I actually found myself way more interested in the biographical info at the beginning and end of the book. For instance, I've always thought it was strange that the Bronte line just completely died out. First the mother died, then the two older sisters died. Then the only son died. Then the two younger sisters. Then the last sister and, years later, the father--having never remarried. Just so weird. Makes me wonder what was in this family that God allowed that to happen? Another "bio thing"---this one an irritation---is the fact that Charlotte completely discounts the heart of Anne's other novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by basically saying it was a mistake for her to have ever written it and that the character of the novel was not the character of the author. I think this is pretty shallow of Charlotte. For one thing, she doesn't know what was in her sister's heart. Anne obviously felt strongly enough about it to seek publication. Secondly, it's pretty ridiculous for her to even give a bit of credence to the idea that the story should be taken as biographical. Can't an author just write a great story without critics---let alone family---reading more into it than there was? I remember feeling put out with Charlotte when I read the forward to Wuthering Heights, as well. She seems like a busy-body who was too overly concerned with her family's reputation to stand up for their genius.
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