I first read Agnes Grey in the summer of 2020, as I was just beginning my classics journey. I enjoyed it, but I didn't understand it all and this year, I thought I should reread it to see if my opinions changed and if I could get a little more out of it than I did the first time round.
Agnes Grey is very underrated and Anne Bronte is often overshadowed by her sisters. Having read and loved Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, I wanted to see if I could read and also fall in love with Agnes Grey. I really like it, however, it doesn't quite in my opinion live up to the passion of Wuthering Heights and the emotion in Jane Eyre. It evokes, in fact, a whole different level of quiet simplicity and beauty. I feel that while Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre pack a punch and are naturally very powerful books, Agnes Grey is more discreet and often falls through the cracks of the literary canon for this reason. It doesn't have the same intensity, the same hard-hitting ending that the other books have. Where the ending of Wuthering Heights is anything but comforting and sweet, the ending of Agnes Grey is heart-warming and personal.
Many people love Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for all of the reasons listed above, but I believe that the reason people also love Agnes Grey (I know of several BookTubers and book bloggers who love Agnes Grey) is because of how much calmer it is than its sister novels. This is most likely down to the fact that Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre fit into the Gothic genre, whereas Agnes Grey is realistic so it's not entirely fair to compare them. However, after having read one book from each sister, I am enjoying looking for similarities and seeing what each book does and the individual messages that they convey.
I realise I should probably tell you what it is about, seeing as most people don't know.
Agnes Grey follows a young woman called Agnes as she becomes a governess to help support her family. She is a governess to two different families, who are both challenging in their own way. This book really explores the everyday life of a governess and it is fascinating to read and discover this aspect of Victorian life.
Agnes herself is a very religious character, very similar to Jane Eyre and it additionally has the similar theme of a governess to Jane Eyre although I think Agnes Grey is the most realistic of the two - it was certainly unusual for a governess to fall for her master! Agnes is so calm when dealing with atrocious children and as Lucy Powrie says in a video about it, Agnes is basically a saint to these ungrateful spoilt children!
The ending of this book as I said above, is so heart-warming. When you also consider what it meant to the Brontes on a more personal level, it becomes something much more. I don't want to say too much about it because of spoilers, but I think it's a very special ending. There is a specific scene at the end that I had forgotten about and that definitely got to me! It's a scene I can totally imagine and it was so beautiful.
This is a very important book and I hope that you will consider reading it. It has a wonderful perspective on what being a governess was like and I particularly like a part of the blurb on my edition (Wordsworth) that is actually my Grandma's but I borrowed it and never got round to giving it back - which is probably a good thing seeing as I've reread it! Anyway, there is this part of the blurb that gave me a lot of food for thought when I reread it;
Agnes Grey is a trenchant exposé of the frequently isolated, intellectually stagnant and emotionally starved conditions under which many governesses worked in the mid-nineteenth century.
There were also several quotes that were just stunning and Anne Bronte's writing is beautiful and yet simple and in my opinion relatively approachable. It is one of those books I can see myself returning to many times and I think I will get something new out of it each time.
Rating:
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I hope you are all well.
Let's chat!
Have you read Agnes Grey? Would you like to read it? Have you read any of the other Bronte novels? Which one is your favourite?
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I have not read Agnus Grey, but it sounds good. I like that it gives an everyday look into what it's like to be a governess in Victorian times.
ReplyDeleteIt has that very real, quiet feeling about it...but it's well worth a read. I think it is gaining more popularity, especially over on BookTube, but still nowhere near as much as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Governesses are fascinating and I loved living with Agnes for a bit!
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