There were a few things I really, really loved about Agnes Grey:1. The beauty, simplicity and flow of Brontë's writing (in epistolary form, no less!),2. The remarkably early consciousness regarding animal rights, and3. The excitement of once again losing myself in a quaint, romantic little jaunt through Victorian England.There were also a few things that really, really irked me about it:1. Agnes (both the character and the work) had a tendency to be overly preachy and moralistic,2. Despite being a coming-of-age story, Agnes herself undergoes very little growth, and3. As beautiful as the writing was, there were some passages throughout the novel that were tedious and dry.Okay, so positives first. The writing was beautiful. To me, there is nothing that quite approaches the beauty of works written in the late 18th through the 19th centuries. Some of my favorite authors and poets -- Austen, all three of the Brontës, Shelley, Tennyson, Frost, Eliot, Rosetti, Thackeray, Dickens, etc. -- were from that era. There are some fantastic modern writers that I would read over and over again, but nothing gives me pause or quickens my senses more than a wondrously written, perfectly worded passage, something that can whisk me away to some other place and time, something that stays with me just because it was so sublime.To wit: my team and I were having a grousing session at work the other day, and I shared this passage from Agnes Grey with them as I thought it was quite apropos (Agnes was complaining about the thankless nature of her job as governess):I can conceive few situations more harassing than that wherein, however you may long for success, however you may labour to fulfill your duty, your efforts are baffled and set at nought by those beneath you, and unjustly censured and misjudged by those above.I was, at first, met with silence, then all of them gushed simultaneously: Martin: "Wow...that was great. Never would I ever have thought to use 'that wherein' together!" Alison: "That is so true! But so wordy! No one uses half those words anymore!" Melissa: "Don't you ever read anything simple? Funny? Easy?"Of course, I could've just as easily have said "Nothing we do will ever please anyone here," but I thought Brontë's passage was so much more beautiful. Wordier, sure. But the fact that someone over a hundred years ago wrote this and elicited a sense of connection and understanding within me...that was pretty amazing.There were many other passages throughout the text that were so carefully and brilliantly crafted, and to me, that made this work something special. I was also quite taken by how Brontë was ahead of her time in crafting a novel that actually tried to make headway in the yet-unknown arena of showing decency to animals. While animal rights are commonplace in our age, a hundred fifty years ago, this was widely unknown. Some critics have posited that Brontë tried to draw parallels between animals and women and their shared vulnerabilities in a society that regarded both quite poorly. No matter the reason though, I liked this aspect of the novel a lot.Of the three Brontë sisters, I've always liked Anne the best, as I think The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is significantly better than Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in tone, scope and delivery. While all three sisters wrote about very strong women, I thought that Wildfell Hall was different in that it was about a woman who chose to openly defy societal and legal strictures to escape from a horrible life/marriage and establish herself as her own woman. Agnes Grey was written before Wildfell Hall, but in a way, I think that Anne Brontë may have used parts of Agnes Grey in what later became Wildfell Hall (e.g., a woman trapped in a horrible marriage, a woman deciding to leave her family and find her own way in the world). While Wildfell Hall is far superior to Agnes Grey, I think any reader would still benefit from a reading of the latter.Now to some of what annoyed me: Agnes was obviously devout and some may even say a bit Puritanical. However, she was also quite proud and I sometimes found myself thinking that she thought her character to be better than her charges' characters. Through a good portion of the first half of the novel, I kept thinking that for someone so religious and pious, Agnes sure didn't recognize that she was quite flawed herself. It was disappointing to me that there really wasn't much growth in Agnes' character. Yes, she left her family to make a living and not be a financial burden. Yes, she tried to instill better values in the children she was hired to watch and teach. But she wasn't very effective as a governess at either family she worked for. She wasn't well regarded by her employers and was even less so by her charges. It was a shame, because I felt that at least in this, Brontë missed the mark.Her romance with Mr. Weston was sweetly done; there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. What gave me pause, however, was not that the romance only blossomed in the last third of the book but that as Mr. Weston grew more familiar with Agnes, he -- and the readers -- didn't really see any growth in her. She was the same person at the start and end of her story and what is there in that, that would make someone fall hopelessly in love with that person? She didn't grow emotionally or psychologically; she didn't have any great discoveries about herself; she didn't have any "A-ha!" moments that made her realize that she had to be someone better. She just was. And that was kind of a letdown.Nevertheless, despite those two things, this was a good, solid read. It wasn't perfect (for that, read Wildfell Hall!), but it was passable and enjoyable. A nice easy read, for someone who just wants something different and who wouldn't mind being whisked away to a quieter, calmer, simpler time.
"In ogni storia vera è racchiusa una morale."Questa frase è l'incipit del nostro Agnes Grey. Orbene, se la storia ivi narrata è vera anche solo in parte, e se essa davvero contiene una morale, quale sarebbe questa morale?Io lo so, io lo so!La morale è: don't worry, anche se sei una giovane istitutrice buona, dolce e caritatevole tanto da far venire il vomito, remissiva tanto da passare per inetta, ingenua tanto da non sembrare verosimile, arriverà anche per te il vicario della zona che ti solleverà dalle tue pene d'amore, da lui stesso inconsciamente scatenate.Adesso, parliamoci chiaro. Magari il romanzo della più giovane delle sorelle Brontë non si merita le due stelline. Magari ne meritava tre. Ma io (chi legge le mie recensioni mi saprà una lettrice talora anche eccessivamente sentimentale) non riesco in nessun modo a passare sopra l'antipatia che mi ha ispirato questa protagonista. Sempre condiscendente, passiva, come smarrita, incapace di lottare veramente per ciò in cui crede. Ho ammirato il suo coraggio nel lasciare la casa natia ed avventurarsi nel mondo del lavoro per aiutare la famiglia, pur essendo così giovane; ma la sua forza si esaurisce lì. All'inizio del suo incarico come istitutrice, dimostra forse un accenno di intenzione a perseguire il suo metodo d'insegnamento, anche se le madri dei marmocchietti si fossero dimostrate troppo deboli di carattere per lasciare che lei svolgesse il suo compito come Dio comanda. Ma tutte chiacchiere e nulla più, alla fine decide di fregarsene altamente di tutti i principi che aveva tanto esaltato e tenersi il posto a costo di crescere male le piccole pesti. Questa è una cosa che io posso anche capire, il sacrificare il proprio pensiero pur di aiutare la propria famiglia, ma almeno non tirartela tanto! E poi abbiamo tutti quei suoi strani vagheggiamenti sul soffrire da sola, sul non mostrare il suo amore. Ad un certo punto si chiede persino se sia eticamente giusto fantasticare innocentemente sull'amato, quando magari l'amato non vuole che tu fantastichi su di lui. Cocca mia, se ti fai di 'sti problemi...Ma la parte più divertente della storia è notare la sfortuna nera che perseguita la povera Agnes. Reietta tra i suoi simili, l'innocente creatura non fa che incontrare gente irrimediabilmente antipatica e fanciulli che più arzilli non si può. Non sto scherzando, non un'anima pia. Povera Agnes, lei tapina!Dopo questa interminabile parentesi sulla protagonista -anche se quel mollusco non ha neppure lo spessore di un personaggio secondario-, immagino vorrete sapere qualcosa sullo stile della piccola Brontë, o sulla storia.Lo stile è curato, lineare, persino piacevole e a tratti deliziosamente ironico. Se non fosse che praticamente l'autrice ha riportato metà Bibbia a furia di inserirne versetti, riferimenti e quant'altro a destra e a manca con un risultato un po' Frankenstein, sarebbe valso al romanzo un voto in più. La trama è di una banalità sconcertante. A pagina cinquanta si capisce tutto. Capisci anche che quel tutto non sarà così emozionante come magari ti aspettavi, purtroppo.Non credo ci sia nient'altro da aggiungere. Se non che per quanto mi riguarda l'orgoglio delle sorelle Brontë rimane sempre e solo Charlotte con la sua Jane Eyre.
What do You think about Agnes Grey (1989)?
I ended up really loving this. Anne is so clearly underrated. This book is really religious, so maybe that turns some people off, but I didn't mind it because there was a clear difference between the crappy religious people and the kind of religious people who love others, including people less fortunate than they are, and care about animals. I also found Agnes to be really funny and sarcastic and realistic. And a cat lady. And she falls in love with a cat guy. MR. WESTON IS WONDERFUL. The animal rights theme in this was lovely. 4 stars because the first five chapters were SO HARD TO GET THROUGH, but after you get past the satanic children, you're good. I do wish she'd elaborated more on the love story. She kept saying things like "I don't want to bore you with the details" - AGNES. BORE ME WITH THE DETAILS. PLEASE.
—Sarah Actually
Again, I am very impressed with the style and proficiency of writing the youngest Bronte sister has. I really blazed through this book, whereas it took me a lot longer to read Villette (despite its being a much longer book, the time spent reading was disproportionate). I was intrigued by the article by Charlotte Bronte at the end of the book, where she reviews the life and works of her two younger sister, Emily and Anne. She really didn't understand Anne or her writing much at all. She had very little good to say about 'Tenant of Wildfell Hall' or 'Agnes Grey,' where these are thus far my favorite Bronte works. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys classics or historical fiction; however, it is written in quite the progressive style for its period, so a contemporary fiction lover would appreciate this just as much as a classics lover. huzzah!
—Rebecca
The story is simple- Agnes Grey is a clergyman's daughter who wishes to earn her living as a governess. The book reads as a diary without the dates of her experiences 'teaching' the offspring of the 'cream of the crop' in nineteenth-century British society. I use those words in quotes because the narrator makes it very clear to the reader that learning for the sake of learning is not foremost on her students' minds. And she also makes it clear that she finds the fact that these shallow, arrogant, shallow, shallow people are so highly esteemed in society laughable. And I burst out laughing pretty much throughout every chapter of the book-which definitely didn't happen when I read Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. It's funny to see the intelligent, subdued Agnes attempt to get into discussions on morality with Rosalie Murray- her sixteen-year-old student who's pretty much a nineteenth-century Paris Hilton. The issue of morality and Christian values is a strong theme throughout the book, which does make Agnes, who's otherwise very likable, a bit self-righteous. She's shocked at the idea of flirting and spending money on pretty clothes. I mean, come on. Then again, this is 1800s England. One thing that irked me is the way all rich people are characterized to be an all-encompassing evil and people of the lower classes are considered to be inherently good. In this story, Agnes meets rich people who torture small animals for no reason, take pride in breaking people's hearts, treat their children like they're dogs, and dissipate their time and energy in celebrating wine, women, and song. Meanwhile, the poor people are nothing but love and light. Sorry- but it don't work that way. I know rich white people have been villainized in literature, but the basic truth is- there's good and bad in all people, regardless of race and class. Yet Agnes Grey finds no redeeming quality (other than physical appearance) in any of her employers. But there were some serious problems with class divide in this society, and this work tackles that- which is commendable on its own. Yes, governesses were treated as barely fit to tie their employers' shoes, no matter how intelligent and refined the governess and how crass and rude the employer. Anne Bronte makes keen observations on a society that has come to pride itself on money and rank above anything else. That said- I still stand by my previous argument. Making a valid point is fine, but when the characters become caricatures, it becomes harder for the reader to take it seriously. I know an author's work should stand on its own- endless comparison to other writers is for boring literary critics and PH.D candidates in English. But with Anne Bronte, I couldn't help it. The legends surrounding the Brontes are almost bigger than their literary conceptions. I kept comparing her to Charlotte and Emily. Anne Bronte, in a way, is more readable than her sisters. Her prose is direct, wit-laden, and almost reminiscent of Austen's cool observations of British class and gender divides. The sense of tragedy and intense romance that permeate her sisters' work is absent here. But that's fine with me. Agnes Grey easily goes down in my list as a favorite.
—Salma
