Synopsis "agnes grey"

Anne Brontë's first novel, Agnes Grey, combines an astute dissection of middle-class social behavior and class attitudes with a wonderful study of Victorian responses to young children which has parallels with debates about education that continue to this day. In writing the novel, Brontë drew on her own experiences, and one can trace in the work many of the trials of the Victorian governess, often stranded far from home, and treated with little respect by her employers, yet expected to control and educate her young charges. Agnes Grey looks at childhood from nursery to adolescence, and it also charts the frustrations of romantic love, as Agnes starts to nurse warmer feelings towards the local curate, Mr. Weston. Sally Shuttleworth's fascinating introduction considers the book's fictional and narrative qualities, its relationship with Victorian child-rearing and the responsibilities of parents, and the changing attitudes to the book influenced by modern concerns for children'srights. The new edition includes a revised and updated bibliography as well as revised notes drawing on the latest critical material. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Anne Brontë

(Author)

View Author's Page

Anne Brönte was the youngest of the Brontë sisters. Like her sisters Emily and Charlotte, she has gone down in literary history despite her short life and with only two novels written, which she published under the pseudonym Acton Bell. As a teenager, along with her sister Emily, she created the imaginary kingdom of Gondal, about which they both wrote stories and poems. At 19, she started working as a governess, but soon felt frustrated by her inability to properly educate what she saw as an unruly and spoiled youth. This experience helped shape her first novel, "Agnes Grey". The warm reception of this work allowed the appearance of her second and last novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", the following year. It tells the story of the arrival of a woman, seemingly a widow, and her young son to an old mansion, an event that triggers all kinds of reactions in the neighborhood. This novel was deemed immoral by her contemporaries due to the harshness of certain passages. Finally, Anne died of tuberculosis at the young age of 29.

See less