Agnes Grey provides a penetrating insight into the mid-nineteenth

century world of the governess. A definition of the governess was provided by Lady Eastlake, whose withering criticism of~ane Eyre is notorious. She wrote, a governess is 'a being who who is our equal in birth, manners, and education, but our inferior in worldly wealth.' (The Quarterly Review, December i848). Drawing on her own experiences as a teacher in the Ingham and Robinson families,Anne Bronte depicts with keen and ironic observation the social isolation, emotional starvation and frustrations of governess life.……

Agnes Grey is a trenchant expose of the frequently isolated, intellectually stagnant and emotionally starved conditions under which many governesses worked in the mid-nineteenth century.

This is a deeply personal novel written from the author"s own experience and as such Agnes Grey has a power and poignancy which mark it out as a landmark work of literature dealing with the social and moral evolution of English society during the last century.

INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Parsonage

First Lessons in the Art of Instruction

A Few More Lemons

The Grandmamma

The Uncle

The Parsonage Again

Horton Lodge

The "Coming Out"

The Ball

The Church

The Cottagers

The Shower

The Primroses

The Rector

The Walk

The Substitution

Confessions

Mirth and Mourning

The Letter

The Farewell

The School

The Visit

The Park

The Sands

Conclusion

APPENDIX

Biograpbical Notice of Fllis and

Acton Bell, 1850

Charlotte Bronte

NOTES