Agnes Grey (Wordsworth Classics)

Although anyone who loves English literature has probably read this book, it doesn't seem that many high schools or colleges have it on their lists. It's a great little read, an endearing story you should try!

Recently discovered Anne Bronte - am enjoying her works

The book is a great view into an era long gone. It’s observations of human character and values are thought provoking - especially considering that in our day we seldom take the time to reflect that deeply about anyone.

The Bronte Sisters had real talent for writing. I loved this book. It is stepping back into history and feeling like you are really there living the experience. The fact that it is partly a true account made it even more engaging. This is a rather simple tale but at the same time brilliant.

Agnes Grey is like an undergrad at Harvard sat down with the prompt of writing a off-brand story that was a mashup of Jane Eyre and The Sound of Music in a week.The Prose are what saves this immature novel. However, there is something beautiful about the simplicity of the work by the least known Bronte that deserves some credit.

Thank goodness it is short. A bit of a rough read.

The books starts off well but then devolves into long, disgusting descriptions of children torturing wildlife, like tearing the legs off of small birds and twisting their heads off. This behavior is praised by their father and uncle and dismissed by their mother. I thought the ugly episodes would pass, but they kept recurring. We live on a mountain where people love, respect, and care for wildlife. We will not give the book to the library, we will just throw it away.

As a fan of the Bronte sisters, I believe that Anne and her writing is most often overlooked. Everyone has read 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte or 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily, but few have read 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' or 'Agnes Grey'. While similar in style to her sisters' writings, Anne's writing has the proclivity to explore the religious side of her characters and their experiences. Her characters find great solace through their faith in God. 'Agnes Grey' is the 'diary' of a young governess. Its title character sets out to portray the squalid conditions that governesses worked under - how they were less than servants in the eyes of families whose children could do no wrong; but if they did do wrong, it was the fault of the governess and not the parent. As someone who works with children, it is no surprise that parents do not want to recognize their own fault in their children's misbehavior. Agnes' life is marked with poverty and fear that the only man she loves does not return her feelings. Throughout the novel, the reader is treated to the inner thoughts of the main character, as she pours out her soul (and her numerous tears) onto the page. 'Agnes Grey' is a quick and straight-forward read, with little romanticizing; Bronte's narrator is quick to point out that there are certain things that the reader would not want to read and therefore she has left them out. Overall the book is a telling look at what life must have been like for one of the Bronte sisters - three sisters of a poor curate with few prospects for fortune other than through their writing. Yet the summation is a bit too cursory for a 'tell-all' look at Agnes Grey's life. She says few words, when more are wanted to fully conclude her story.

If you are curious about how the English educated their children a couple of centuries ago, it's a good book. But it is definitely not in the class of Thomas Hardy or Jane Austen. I liked Jane Eyre better.

Overall the edition is fine, it's very inexpensive that's why the quality of the covers is not going to be the best. The quality of the paper is very good though. The introduction is helpful and the notes are good too, however, I did have to cover off the image in the cover by putting some black contact paper because every time I had a look at it I nearly got a heart attack, man it's really ugly!! They had better leave the cover all black and it'd be nicer and more profitable for them since they wouldn't have to pay for a designer to create these disgusting images. I do recommend it, though, thanks to its good price-quality balance. it is a fine edition but the cover does ruin the presentation of this otherwise decent paperback edition. If you can spare a little bit more of money in order to get a Penguin or Oxford edition I think it'd be better to do that. It'd be fine to pay a little bit more to get a better edition of this superb Brontë classic.

ottimo

Although I read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall many years ago, I had never read Agnes Grey until recently, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Anne Bronte had a superb command of English and the way she writes it is a joy to read. She certainly knew how to tell a story and Agnes Grey gains because it's so well focussed. Avoiding tedious embellishments, Anne keeps to the point with the result that the reader is readily able to gain a very good impression of how life was like for a good many goveresses in early Victorian England. Anne writes so well the reader can feel that he/she is there with Agnes Grey as she struggles to maintain order and teach her unruly pupils.Besides all this, the reader is given a very good impression of how marriages were arranged among the upper classes in the mid Nineteenth Century. Anne Bronte brings it out how both her heroine, Agnes Grey, and Agnes' mother married for love, which she contrasts with the unhappiness of Rosalie Murray in her arranged marriage, which Rosalie choose to enter into rather than wed the man who truly loved her. Rosalie and her sister Matilda were Agnes Grey's pupils in her second stint as governess, which was rather better than the difficult time she had during her first appointment with the Bloomfield family. Agnes eventually marries a young clergyman, who has just been appointed as rector of a £300.00 per year living. One gets the impression that this is how Anne would have liked things to turn out for herself. Sadly she died of TB aged only 29. One can only wonder at the great works she might have written had she lived into old age. We can only be sad that someone with such a beautiful mind and strength of character should have died so young. Thank you Anne for writing such a revealing, succinct and very readable masterpiece.

Je veux commencer par tordre le cou aux idées reçues au sujet de cette auteure : CE N'EST PAS L'OMBRE DE SES AINEES, ni une copie !!!I love this author, she is so witty, and always gloomy like Emily, there's a light somewhere afar.... there is room for hope... I am really found of this writer. Je vous invite à la découvrir.Anne Brontë possède son propre style littéraire. Elle a travaillé à une écriture personnelle,un style direct pour dénoncer les injustices, et tout particulièrement la condition de "governess", mais aussi la condition des femmes, la cruauté de celles et ceux qui par leur rang se considèrent comme supérieurs .Il y a de nombreuses ressemblances entre la vie de Anne Brontë et de Agnès Grey : - Toutes 2 sont les dernières d'une fratrie dont le père est un pauvre clergyman - Anne Brontë fut contrainte, comme son héroïne de devenir gouvernante dans 2 familles. Anne Brontë a vraisemblablement retranscrit dans le vécu d'Agnès, les brimades qu'elle a subit, la stupidité, l'arrogance, la cruauté, la vulgarité.... Des jeunes enfants dont elle avait la charge... D'où les portrait criant de vérité des "monstrueux" enfants Bloomfield auxquels est confronté Agnès Grey ! c'est ce que Anne avait dû affronter au sein de la première famille elle fut gouvernante, de véritables petits terreurs !Mais Anne a eu une enfance beaucoup plus difficile, rude, marquée par la mort de nombreux proches, alors Qu'Agnès Grey a la bénédiction de vivre au sein d'une famille aimante, auprès d'une mère qu'elle admire pour son intelligence, sa liberté de penser et d'agir. Mrs Grey épousa un clergyman modeste... Ce qui entraîna la rupture de tout lien avec sa propre famille... Cette mère qui a fait un mariage d'Amour est un exemple et une source auprès de laquelle Agnès Grey s'abreuve pour se renforcer.Au fur et à mesure des pages, des chapitres, des épreuves, Agnès Grey gagne en assurance, en profondeur... Mais cette assurance n'a absolument rien de commun avec celle de Jane Eyre.Agnès n'est pas "sauver" de sa condition de "governess" parce qu'elle aime et se fait aimer de her master, Mr Rochester, où parce que le sort lui permet d'entrer dans une famille qui la considère comme une jeune lady....NON, Anne Brontë, ne cherche pas en enjoliver la situation, elle décrit avec minutie,de façon très directe les travers des êtres humains, leur tendance naturelle à être égoïstes, égocentriques, dédaigneux, vulgaires, alcooliques(en ce qui concernent plusieurs personnages masculins du roman)... L'obsession des mères à marier leurs filles coûte que coûte... Même si cela conduit à la destruction de leur progéniture... Parce que la loi anglaise de l'époque ne permet pas aux femmes d'hériter... Donc elles doivent se marier ... pas vraiment d'autre issue !Anne Brontë a crée Agnès (peut-être son double ?), une jeune femme qui trouvera la force, le salut et le bonheur (que l'auteure n'a jamais connu, ni même approché) dans sa foi, sa force psychologique, sa capacité à transformer une épreuve, une douleur... En un terreau fertile pour son élévation intellectuelle, spirituelle... pour donner plus aux autresAgnès Grey est un personnage qui "nous parle" beaucoup, se confie à nous lecteur... on est partie prenante, on s'attache à elle, on se plaît à la voir se fortifier, s'épanouir, devenir libre. Elle est extrêmement vivante et touchante, sans jamais être ostentatoire dans ses paroles, ses actes... Elle est brûlante à l'intérieure... Mais garde cela en elle, et nous le livre. Seules Deux personnes seront invitées dans son intimité : sa mère et une autre... Que je vous laisse découvrir...J'ai choisi un extrait qui ne dévoile rien du roman, pour vous donner le goût de le lire, mais qui dévoile un peu du tempérament d'Agnès:"We often pitty the poor, because they have no leisure to mourn their departed relatives, and necessity obliges them to labour throught their severest afflictions : but is not active employment the best remedy for overwhelming sorrow - the surest antidote for despair? "IL EST TEMPS QU'ANNE BRONTE, sorte de l'ombre de ses 2 aînées. Cette auteure est morte extrêmement jeune à 28 ans, songez que ce roman fut écrit alors qu'elle avait tout juste vingt ans!Anne était la sixième d'une fratrie composée d'1frère et de 5 soeurs : Maria (née en 1814), Elisabeth (née en 1815), Charlotte (née en 1816),Branwell (né en 1817), Emily (née 1818) Anne (née en 1820).La mère mourut lorsqu'Anne avait 18 mois... Aussi assez rapidement, le père envoya ses 4 filles aînées dans un pensionnat pour qu'elles acquièrent des connaissance pour devenir governess... Ce lieu était l'exact réplique du terrible LOWOOD SCHOOL ou vécu Jane Eyre... Si bien que 2 filles y moururent : Maria à l'âge de 11 ans et Elisabeth à 10 ans... à quelques semaines d'intervalle.Les Deux rescapées Emily et Charlotte revinrent à la maison paternelle... Et Anne n’eut accès à l'école qu'à l'âge de quinze... elle passa donc toute son enfance et son adolescence confinée au domicile paternel. Elle reçut son éducation de son père, de sa tante et de sa soeur Charlotte.Et a 19 ans Anne prit son premier poste de governess... véritable sinécure !!!C'est dans cette vie marquée par le malheur, l'isolement, la solitude... qu'elle a trouvé le matériau pour crée Agnès Grey... A qui elle offre une mère, un avenir, une vie porteuse d'espoir... Alors qu'elle même mourut à 28 ans , 2 ans après son frère Branwell (qui avait sombré dans l'alcool) et 1 an après sa soeur Emily...4 étoiles largement méritées... Je garde l'éventualité dans mettre une 5° après une seconde lecture!Well after a second reading .... I give 5 stars .Wordsworth classics is a wonderful editor, because it give you a access to so manny treasure for a so modest price.... it's a gift,let's enjoy it.I wish you a very very good time