Agnes Grey

Description

Agnes Grey (1847) was Anne Bronte's first novel and a poignant account of her own experience as a struggling governess, obliged to earn her living in one of the few ways open to an educated Victorian girl. Agnes is not a romantic heroine such as those we find in the books of Anne's sisters Charlotte and Emily, but her story paints a more realistic picture of what happens when an intelligent, sensitive young woman has to endure months of isolation and frustration in an unsympathetic household that is not her home.

Born on the 17th of January 1820, Anne Bronte was one of six children and the youngest of the Bronte sisters. Her first novel, Agnes Grey, was inspired by five years spent working as a governess, and proved itself a commercial success. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne's second and final novel, was published the following summer in 1848. Anne died shortly after, on the 28th of May 1849, while convalescing from tuberculosis at Scarborough.