Anne Brontë is easily my favourite Brontë sister but, frankly, she held that position without me knowing anything of her or her writing, her standing based entirely on my dislike of her sisters’ books. I have also always rather liked her pen name, Acton Bell, which is perhaps a silly reason to favour a person but there you have it. My dislike of Jane Eyre is well documented and my opinion of Wuthering Heights is so low that expending the effort to express it would be to give the novel more attention than it deserves. But, other bloggers were quick to cry, Anne Brontë is different! Hate Charlotte, loathe Emily, but give Anne a chance! Who am I to resist the advice of such learned friends? I picked up Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë, read it, and, I am happy to report, rather enjoyed it.
The eponymous heroine of Agnes Grey is the youngest daughter of a well-meaning clergymen, beloved by his wife and daughters but rather irresponsible when it comes to managing the family’s wealth. When they fall on hard times, Agnes is determined that she shall not be a strain on her parents’ limited resources so she hires herself out as a governess. And, thank goodness, this is where the story began to both surprise and delight me. It is funny! I had not anticipated that, not realised that Anne Brontë would be able to make me smile and chuckle as she unerringly portrays her overbearing employers and ill-behaved charges. This is not an affectionate portrayal of the life of a governess. It stresses the isolation Agnes feels in the households where she is employed, how powerless she is in dealing with both the children and the adults but, generally, it is by no means a dreary book. If anything, it attempts to cover too many things in too few pages, turning this into a book crammed with wit, romance, a shocking amount of moralizing (usually expressed with some painfully affected writing), and some rather heavy themes (isolation and oppression being the two main ones). It is an interesting but confusing mix.
In Mansfield Park, the morally malleable Crawford siblings steal the show from the pious, respectable Fanny. Miss Murray, one of Agnes’ grown charges, does the same thing here. Beautiful and very conscious of it, Miss Murray is out to break hearts and toy with the local men before making the most brilliant match she can manage. She is selfish, vain, and greedy and I adored her. There is much moralizing done at her expense but her little speeches, her maneuvers when it came to attracting the attention of the gentlemen of the region, were, to my way of thinking, Brontë’s most realistic passages in the entire novel (and some of the most entertaining, it should go without saying):
…if I could be always young, I would be always single. I should like to enjoy myself thoroughly, and coquet with all the world, till I am on the verge of being called an old maid; and then, to escape the infamy of that, after having made ten thousand conquests, to break all their hearts save one, by marrying some high-born, rich, indulgent husband, whom, on the other hand, fifty ladies were dying to have. (p. 71)
I have mixed feeling about the central romance story. Agnes falls in love with the new curate Mr Weston almost immediately after meeting him. Mr Weston is very, very good (as behoves a clergyman) and very, very boring. It takes only a few glances at him in the pulpit, a few words of praise from a mutual acquaintance, and one face-to-face conversation before she is quite enamoured. This alone amused me. What young woman hasn’t nursed a crush through such adversary, through a total lack of contact or communication, through complete ignorance of his interests, background or, indeed, character? Who hasn’t, like Agnes, built castles in the sky on the strength of one perfunctory conversation? I adored Brontë’s description of Agnes’ rapture on seeing him speak in church. How convenient to be in love with someone who you can so easily gaze on and listen to without looking like a stalker!
…at church I might look without fear of scorn or censure upon a form and face more pleasing to me that the most beautiful of God’s creations; I might listen without disturbance to a voice more charming that the sweetest music to my ears; I might seem to hold communion with that soul in which I felt so deeply interested, and imbibe its purest thoughts and holiest aspirations, with no alloy to such felicity, except the secret reproaches of my conscience which would too often whisper that I was deceiving my own self, and mocking God with the service of a heart more bent upon the creature than the creator. (p. 118)
It is a strange novel in that, though it covers many years of Agnes’ life, she does not develop during that period. She remains exactly the same from start to finish. As a reader, I am usually eager to feel sympathy with the heroine but there is nothing particularly sympathetic about Agnes. Respectable and admirable, yes, but not sympathetic. I want to like Agnes, do in fact love her when she is thinking catty things about her charges and employers, but she turns into a bit of a drip over Mr Weston, mooning over him and daydreaming about him with no encouragement, which I suppose is realistic enough but still tiresome. The ending is disappointingly formulaic and needlessly drawn out. The good, moral characters get good endings while the selfish ones are punished for their sins – instructive, no doubt, but not particularly satisfying or memorable. Still, it is a highly entertaining novel if not necessarily a great work of literature and I’m very happy to have finally found a Brontë whose work I enjoy!
The Captive Reader 
Agnes has been sitting on the TBR shelf unread but you’ve inspired me to put it in the bookbag for my upcoming vacation. I loved Jane Eyre but HATED Wuthering Heights and Villette dragged on far too long. I did like Anne’s other work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, so I’m encouraged by your review. I’ll give the Brontes another try.
Oh, I’m so pleased that you’ll be giving Anne another chance! Enjoy!
Great review! I don’t know why I haven’t picked up Agnes Grey when I have read the other Bronte sisters. Must have something to do with Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre getting more discussion time, especially in my college lit courses. I’m going to have to fix that this summer.
Yes, Anne is definitely neglected when it comes to discussions of the sisters’ works. I’m not sure this is a great book or worthy of being deemed a classic but it is certainly entertaining.
Yay! If you liked this one, I bet you’ll like Tenant of Wildfell Hall even more; I read that one first, which made me like Anne (I do not like her sisters either) and this one disappointed me a bit.
I’m glad to hear that I started with the weaker novel and have the better one to look forward to. Excellent!
Yay! I was so glad to read that you dislike Jane Eyre – I thought I was the only one, so I was happy to discover I’m not 🙂 As far as this book goes, I loved your review of it – makes think that perhaps one day I will give it a chance, just not yet. Cheers!
I wouldn’t rush out to grab this but it an entertaining read!
Oh, you’ve made me eager to pull it down from the TBR shelf and blow the dust off of it. Glad you enjoyed it.
I hope you do exhume the book from your shelves and that you enjoy it too!
I’ve been reluctant to read Anne Bronte because my feelings for the Bronte sisters are strong too, although in my case it’s loving Jane Eyre more than almost any other book in the whole world, and utterly loathing Wuthering Heights. I feel like Anne Bronte will let me down in the way of Emily Bronte. That would be sad for me.
I can definitely understand your reasoning there. This is vastly superior to Wuthering Heights (but what isn’t) but I could still seeing it proving a disappointment.
Agnes is wonderful, I’m glad you got to her. As Eva says, Tenant of Wildfell Hall is completely amazing and if you like Agnes you will love ToWH. I reserve the right not to loathe the other Bronte sisters but Anne’s my favourite!
Glad to hear another recommendation for Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I have to admit that, left to my own devices, I probably would never pick of ToWH even after enjoying Agnes Grey simply because the plot summary sounds so unappealing. But I shall give it a try!
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Poor Mr Weston. I liked him because he was so different from basically everyone else in the book, but you’re right in that he’s kind of boring. Agnes, though, is also kind of boring, so perhaps they fit together that way.
And I agree about the ending being a disappointment! I thought for sure Agnes was going to get some gumption near the end (I thought I saw hints of character growth!) and start off into the world being more independent and whatever, but instead she just reverts back(or stays) to how she was in the beginning. Bah.
Honestly, the Mr Westons of the world are usually my favourite heroes but he just did not appeal to me. In theory, yes. In practice, not so much.
I have not read any of her novels, I have her sisters thought.I might now though. It’s a shame that she has become the blunt of jokes in pop culture. I know Family Guy mocked her one time.
Is it better to be remembered and mocked or forgotten and ignored? I think I’d rather we make fun of her – goodness knows I enjoy making fun of the rest of her family.
This is one of those books I have been meaning to read for some time but haven’t gotten to yet. I have a feeling I will really like it once I make the time for it!
I hope it lives up to expectations when you do read it!
I loved Jane Eyre but couldn’t finish Wuthering Heights. I haven’t read Anne’s book yet though it sounds like it could be a fun read. I mean to read more of the classics. Thanks for posting such a nice review!
Anne is definitely worth trying, certainly a good place to start if you’re looking to read more classics! I’m very pleased you liked the review!
I read “Agnes Grey” this summer, too, and I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was – especially the 3-way interaction between the unruly, horrible children, the parents spoiling their children and believing them to be angels, and the Governess trying to do her job with her hands tied (without the real backing of the parents to use discipline or authority). The way this dilemma was portrayed, repeated with two different families, was both serious and funny at the same time. I thought that this even contains a message for our times – especially when we see how difficult it is for many of our present-day teachers in some schools to provide an education where nearly all effective means of discipline have been eroded and denied to them, and where parents don’t appear to encourage their children to value education or take notice of teacher’s authority in the school setting.
I was also surprised by the theme of the elderly lady parishioner who seemed to be suffering from depression as well as bad eyesight – and it was refreshing and interesting to see the difference in the way the older Rector and the younger Curate (Mr. Weston) tried to help this elderly parishioner to tackle this depression – the latter with success. For this reason, Mr Weston as a character became less boring in my eyes – he obviously had plenty of insight into human nature and saw the elderly lady as a whole person, and not just one of his flock, as the older Rector did.
I have not yet read “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”, but I look forward to it, too !!