Date of publication: 1847
The novel is about a governess of that name and is said to be based on Brontë's own experiences in the field. It was Brontë's first novel. Similar to her sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre, this is a novel that addresses what the precarious position of governess entailed and how it affected a young woman.
The Irish novelist George Moore praised Agnes Grey as "the most perfect prose narrative in English letters."
Plot Summary
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.
(From Wikipedia, description text under GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL))
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