Agnes Grey

Agnes Grey is the first novel by Anne Brontë (1820-1849), the youngest of the three celebrated Brontë sisters, who all wrote novels now considered classics of English literature. Anne drew on her experience as a clergyman’s daughter and as a governess in telling the story of a young woman looking for her place in the world. Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Acton Bell, Agnes Grey was read as an incisive commentary on the status of the governess and the isolation and disrespect that women in this position endured. Critic George Moore called Agnes Grey “the most perfect prose narrative in English literature” (Conversations in Ebury Street, Boni and Liveright, 1924, p. 222), appreciating the straightforward tale of a young woman’s maturation and the adherence to Christian virtues that lead her to peace of mind and romantic love. Brontë is also known for the acclaimed novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

This guide uses the Wordsworth Classics print edition published in 1998, which includes a short biographical note that Charlotte Brontë wrote concerning the works of her sisters, Emily and Anne.