First
published in: 1847, under the pseudonym Acton Bell
By: Thomas Cautley Newby Publisher
Number
of pages: 194
Reading
attempt: 1
Reading
time: 3 days
Rating: «« ½
Advice: A classic yes, but not a must read!
Also
available in French as: same title
The
context
As I am writing,
I remember a quote from the movie Mona
Lisa Smile where Julia Roberts, along with her students, examine a painting
by Jackson Pollock (if I’m not mistaken).
She said: “You’re not required to like it, but you are required to
consider it.” As I attempt to reread
Emily and Charlotte Brontë’s most famous books (Jane Eyre and Wuthering
Heights), with whom I have a love-hate relationship, it dawns on me that I
should probably consider Anne Brontë as well, since they all wrote their novels
during the same period and under pseudonyms.
The story
As Anne Brontë’s
first book, Agnes Grey depicts the
life of a young woman who, concerned with her family’s financial troubles,
decides to become a governess, the only respectable job for an unmarried woman
at the time. She steps into this new
life full of her romantic illusions about the profession, not anticipating the
downside. As she attempts to educate the
youngsters of the Bloomfield and Murray family, Agnes will soon learn what it
truly means to be a governess.
The review
This novel is
said to be based on Anne Brontë’s own five-year experience as a governess. Just like everyone else, I had my own
conception of what being a governess meant and let’s just say that, just like
Agnes, I was dumbfounded what how the book addresses the instability, hardship
and humiliation that came with this type of employment. Just how precarious a position it was for
young women and how it affected them on the short and long term, was not what I
expected. So in sense, it also made me
lose all of my illusions of the subject and gave me a new appreciation of those
women who gave part of their lives in an attempt to educate rich little snobbish
brats.
But the book isn't
just about that, it is also a “coming of age” book as we see Agnes grow and
lose her illusions about what she considered the perfect situation (taking care
of children and educating them), learn from her mistakes and become wiser. The book also shows us the other side of the
coin, where Miss Rosalie Murray, who also comes of age, does not learn from her
experience, ends up miserable with a rich husband and mother-in-law who do not
love her, feels completely miserable and finally calls on Agnes to help her
rectify the problem.
In other words,
as a whole the book is well written and showcases two women of about the same
age who both come of age but with different social standing, which accounts to
me, for the morality lesson we get: “Money and social standing are not the only
important things in life...especially when making an alliance”.
And yet, I do
not consider this book to be an essential classic to put on your reading list. Although pretty short (less than 200 pages),
it contains length which sometimes made me want to give it up altogether. Moreover, (and this may be the reason why I
have so much difficulty with the Brontë sisters’ books) the author focuses on
the pains and humiliation of her first character and how she submits to them
without fighting back, thinking it is the families right to treat her as such, going
on and on about why she can’t stand up to them and how it pains her. I found it gave a “whining” tone to the story
and I hated it.
All in all, a
classic is considered as such because it can withstand time and strikes a chord
in its readers, whether by stimulating the imagination or by disrupting the
ideas we had about certain subjects. Agnes Grey may be considered a classic
for all mentioned above, but to me it remains a non essential one.
What do you
think about it?
As
always, keep reading all of you bookworms and book lovers out there. Let
me know what you’re reading or how you found it. Who knows, you might
inspire me my next great read.
Until
next time J
Ladybug
