Agnes Grey
Anne Brontë, Rosemary Davis, ISIS Audio Books
Audiobook
(ISIS Audio Books, Dec. 16, 1999)
In Victorian times, an unmarried woman of good breeding didn't have much choice of vocation. Agnes Grey, a single woman, becomes a governess because it is one of the few respectable occupations open to her. Ill treated by her employers, she finds that the only person who treats her well is the curate, Mr. Weston. Told in a simple, realistic style, and drawing on Anne Brontë's own experiences as governess at Thorp Green Hall near York, this first novel by Anne Brontë depicts the small humiliations and inhumanity a governess was forced to endure, and in so doing is a powerful indictment of Victorian society.