Author: Anne Bronte
Series: -
Genres: Classics, Romance, Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Books
Release: 1847
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 251
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BLURB:
At age 19 Anne Brontë left home and worked as a governess for a few years before becoming a writer. Agnes Grey was an 1847 novel based on her experience as a governess. Bronte depicts the precarious position of a governess and how that can affect a young woman. Agnes was the daughter of a minister whose family was in financial difficulty. She has only a few choices for employment. Agnes experiences the difficulty of reining in spoiled children and how wealth can corrupt morals.
EXPECTATIONS: Continuing our buddy read of Classics we decided that it would be good to read more of women classics as majority is often overlooked. Therefore we went for the least popular sister of Bronte - Anne Bronte. I personally have only read Jane Eyre of Brontes and was not a super big fan.
THE WORLD: It is around middle of 19th century, the time when women did not have much rights or possibilities other than being married, becoming a nurse or a governess. Tho in the end even they wanted to get married. We don't really travel that much in this book, it is either in the home of main character or at the place she is working that the story takes place.
CHARACTERS: Our main character is called Agnes Grey but in reality Anne Bronte wrote about herself and her experience as governess. It is in a way an autobiography and you can feel it very much. Agnes Grey is a real character, there is no over politeness, ridiculous struggles that many fictional character are expected to face. Agnes lives a real life, she deals with real problems and that is what made me really like her. As a matter of fact if you really think of it, both Anne and Charlotte Bronte wrote about main characters being governess but where Jane Eyre does indeed feel like a fiction Agnes Grey is as real as you and me, or at least it feels that way.
ROMANCE: For once our main character is not all about being married or finding a right husband. Yes there is romance but it is very much not the center of the story.
GOOD: I really liked how real this book was. I do understand in away why something like Jane Eyre is most popular and not Agnes Grey but I prefer the realness of Agnes Grey. There are no mad wives locked in the attic, there is no love story where the lord falls in love with orphan governess. It is just a story about a girl struggling to be a good teacher and to really discovering herself.
BAD: Cannot really think of much. It was not the greatest 5 stars work out there but I still liked it.
OVERALL: I gave this one solid 3.5 stars or even 4 to be honest. I really liked it and I do recommend it to all of you classics lovers.
Other characters in the book I liked, was the Grey family in total. I liked Agnes's friend Nancy, and the love interest Edward. He was the male lead that you will find in any 19th century book, but after Tess, I'm glad to have a nice guy again to be honest.
Characters I hated was the both Murray and Bloomfield family. What rich and awful people they were! To think that people were truly this bad, and I'm sure there are still people like this out there.
MARTYNA'S REVIEW
EXPECTATIONS: This book was my buddy read for December. We are reading only classics now and chancing it with female writers. So this is our first book of Anne Bronte maybe the least known sister of the Bronte family. When I read the blurb it seemed a lot like Jane Eyre so I was very interested to go into this one.
THE WORLD: The plot takes place in 19th century. The world does not differ from any other book taking place in 19th century. The society is the male driven, women take place of either wives, mothers, or governesses for the children. The plot of this book may seem similar to Jane Eyre but it's not really. Do not dismiss this book just because these two books were written by sisters.
CHARACTERS: Our main character is Agnes Grey, she comes from a loving home, her parents are good people, her sister is nice. She has good relationship with her family, but she feels unappreciated so she goes off to help her family out and becomes governess to a rich Bloomfield family, and then a little later to Murrays. I think Agnes was a great main lead. She wasn't naive, or annoying, she had a pretty realistic grip on the world. I think she was a wonderful teacher and I really understood her struggle to teach children, when they don't respect you or even look at you as an authority. It's difficult and Agnes was a good character who just dealt with it in a very normal, life kind of way.
In general maybe the only thing I would say set apart this for me, was just how normal it was. It was just a book about normal people and the struggles of women in 19th century.
In general maybe the only thing I would say set apart this for me, was just how normal it was. It was just a book about normal people and the struggles of women in 19th century.
Other characters in the book I liked, was the Grey family in total. I liked Agnes's friend Nancy, and the love interest Edward. He was the male lead that you will find in any 19th century book, but after Tess, I'm glad to have a nice guy again to be honest.
Characters I hated was the both Murray and Bloomfield family. What rich and awful people they were! To think that people were truly this bad, and I'm sure there are still people like this out there.
ROMANCE: Agnes and Edward. The romance was cute, and I enjoyed it. It was something of a mix between Jane Austen romances and Jane Eyre for me. I liked it, it was nice and adorable.
GOOD: I have to agree with Hannah, I also liked the book a lot because it was very real, it felt real. The story was interesting, the characters were relatable and lovable.
BAD: To me it was a little maybe too one dimensional. I didn't feel much character development from any of the characters but in general that didn't effect me liking the book.
OVERALL: It was light, it was cute, it was interesting. Is it the greatest book ever? No. Should you read it? Yes, because it's good and beautifully written.
What do you think about AGNES GREY?
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