Written when she was 26,
Agnes Grey is Anne Bronte's first novel. It tells the story of a rector's daughter who has to earn her living as a governess. Drawing directly from her own experiences, Anne Bronte set out to describe the immense pressures that the governess' life involved: the frustration, the isolation, and the insensitive and cruel treatment on the part of employers and their families.
Too often, Anne Bronte has been portrayed as a saintly, self-effacing shadow of her elder sisters. But clearly she possessed resources of courage and determination equal to theirs, together with a sweetness that was all her own.
