When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meager income & assert her independence. But Agnes’s enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children and then with the painful disdain of the haughty Murray family; the only kindness she receives comes from Mr. Weston, the sober young curate. Anne Bront’s first novel, which draws on her own experiences, offers a compelling personal perspective on the desperate position of unmarried, educated women for whom becoming a governess was the only respectable career open to them in Victorian society.
