Finished Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey

I've read this as part of Laura's challenge, the version I borrowed from the library was the Penguin Classics version "with a memoir of her sisters by Charlotte Bronte".

It was a nice gentle read and I picked it as I hadn't read it before. Amazing to think that she while waiting for Agnes Grey to be published, she started writing the much wilder Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was published only a year later.

You can really sympathise with poor Agnes, volunteering to work as a governess and then having such awful disobedient children to manage. They ended up telling Agnes to work for them leaving her no time of her own. Then when she meets Mr Weston, the elder daughter of the family tries to add him to her collection of men. Luckily good trumphs and the story ends happily.

Throughout the book, I kept realising how autobiographical the book was about governessing from the Brontes' own real life experiences. This made it all the more poignant. In the introduction, one critic in the past said: "The heroine is a sort of younger sister to Jane Eyre, but inferior to her in every way". I agree with this sentiment.

After finishing the book, I then read the introduction and another section "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" by Currer Bell dated September 19, 1850. Charlotte wrote beautifully about her sisters, revealing their true identity.

All in all, a pleasant, gentle read.