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Agnes Grey

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Agnes Grey is the debut novel of English author Anne Bronte.

The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as she works in several bourgeois families.

Scholarship and comments by Anne's sister Charlotte Bronte suggest the novel is largely based on Anne Bronte's own experiences as a governess for five years.

Like her sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre, it addresses what the precarious position of governess entailed and how it affected a young woman.

The choice of central character allows Anne to deal with issues of oppression and abuse of women and governesses, isolation and ideas of empathy.

An additional theme is the fair treatment of animals.

Agnes Grey also mimics some of the stylistic approaches of bildungsromans, employing ideas of personal growth and coming to age, but representing a character who in fact does not gain in virtue.

The Irish novelist George Moore praised Agnes Grey as "the most perfect prose narrative in English letters," and went so far as to compare Anne's prose to that of Jane Austen.

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Product Details
Lulu
1105860523 / 9781105860522
Ebook
12/01/2013
English
204 pages