Reading Order
Agnes GreyAgnes Grey Reading Order
Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Brontë is the quietest and most underrated of the Brontë first novels — a spare, realistic account of Agnes Grey's experience as a governess in two Yorkshire families, drawn directly from Anne's own years as a governess in the Ingham and Robinson households between 1839 and 1845. Where Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights have been absorbed into the cultural mythology of the Romantic heroine and the Gothic landscape, Agnes Grey has been overshadowed by its more spectacular siblings — a critical neglect that several twentieth-century readers (including George Moore, who called it 'the most perfect prose narrative in the English language,' a claim that has been both celebrated and disputed) have worked to correct. Agnes, the youngest daughter of a clergyman who has lost his money, takes a position as governess to a wealthy family and encounters the systematic social condescension, professional humiliation, and loneliness that Victorian governesses endured — the peculiar position of being educated enough to teach the children of the wealthy but not wealthy enough to be their social equals. The novel is also a love story: Agnes's gradually developed love for the curate Mr. Weston, a man of genuine religious scruple in contrast to the worldly clerics she encounters elsewhere, gives the novel a quiet emotional resolution. George Moore's hyperbolic praise apart, Agnes Grey is a carefully observed, morally serious, and formally elegant work — and the essential companion to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for any reader of Anne Brontë.
Where to start
Agnes Grey (1847) — the Oxford World's Classics edition edited by Robert Inglesfield and Hilda Marsden is standard; the Penguin Classics edition by Angeline Goreau is excellent. Short (about 200 pages) and a quick read. Read alongside The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to get the full picture of Anne's work.
Complete Agnes Grey Book List
- 1Buy
Agnes Grey (Oxford World's Classics)
Anne Brontë (ed. Robert Inglesfield and Hilda Marsden)·2010·The scholarly standard edition — the notes identify the autobiographical parallels with Anne's own governess experience and the Yorkshire locations; essential for understanding how closely Anne drew on lived experience in contrast to the more imaginative flights of her sisters. - 2Buy
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Anne Brontë·1848·Anne's second and final novel — reading both Anne Brontë novels together gives the fullest picture of the most realistic and socially acute of the three Brontë sisters; Tenant develops the social criticism of Agnes Grey to its most radical extreme. - 3Buy
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë·1847·The companion governess novel published in the same year — the contrast between Jane Eyre's Gothic romance and Agnes's quiet realism is one of the most interesting comparisons in Victorian fiction; Agnes Grey is in some ways the realist counterpart to Jane Eyre's Romantic heightening of the governess experience. - 4Buy
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
Elizabeth Gaskell·1857·The first biography of the Brontë family — Gaskell's account (which drew on Charlotte's letters and interviews) gives the essential context for all three sisters' lives, including Anne's governess years; the biographical context illuminates Agnes Grey's autobiographical fidelity. - 5Buy
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray·1848·The companion novel of social ambition published in the same year — Becky Sharp is what a governess becomes when she decides to fight the system rather than endure it; the contrast between Agnes Grey's quietly Christian endurance and Becky Sharp's ruthless social climbing illuminates both characters.
Agnes Grey — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Agnes Grey about?
Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Brontë is an autobiographical novel about Agnes Grey, a clergyman's daughter who takes a position as governess to two Yorkshire families. Agnes encounters the systematic social condescension and professional humiliation that Victorian governesses endured — educated enough to teach the wealthy but not wealthy enough to be their social equals. The novel is also a quiet love story: Agnes's gradually developed love for the curate Mr. Weston, a man of genuine moral scruple, gives the novel its emotional resolution. Agnes Grey draws directly from Anne Brontë's own experience as a governess in the Ingham and Robinson households between 1839 and 1845.
How does Agnes Grey compare to Jane Eyre?
Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Brontë and Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë are both governess novels published in the same year, and the contrast between them is one of the most instructive comparisons in Victorian fiction. Jane Eyre is Gothic, Romantic, and melodramatic — the governess falls in love with her brooding employer, discovers his mad wife in the attic, and eventually marries him when fate has equalized their social positions. Agnes Grey is realistic, quiet, and carefully observed — the governess is condescended to, professionally humiliated, and falls in love with a curate rather than an employer; the resolution is domestic and modest rather than dramatic. Anne was the realist of the family where Charlotte was the Romantic.
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