This book was recommended to me by CarolynMarieReads on YouTube. She was so excited and happy about it that she infected me with her enthusiasm, and I had to get the book and read it immediately. I am so glad I did. It was absolutely fantastic.

„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 meagre income and 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.“

Blurb

The heart of the novel is its protagonist, Agnes Grey. She is very sweet and sees the good in people. I loved her so much, cared for her, and hoped for her throughout the entire book. Is she sometimes too meek for the world? Should she occasionally be harder or louder, to let everyone know how great and intelligent she is? Of course. But given the setting and the time, life was not all fun and games for someone in her position, so her restraint feels entirely believable rather than frustrating. She is simply great.

Her family is lovely as well, especially her mother and father, who share a wonderful marriage and treat each other with genuine kindness. That said, they are by no means perfect. They have their part in looking down on Agnes at times, not in a mean or intentional way, but somewhere in the grey zone of being condescending. They want to protect little Agnes without seeing that she is very much capable of doing her share. Flawed but loveable, the whole lot of them.

The other families Agnes works for are a completely different story. The Bloomfields and the Murrays are absolute jerks, every single one of them. Horrible children and horrible parents alike. Just awful. I genuinely hated them for it.

I did an immersive read and also listened to the audiobook. One thing I particularly appreciated was that the introduction was placed at the end of the audiobook to prevent spoilers. With older books, introductions often give everything away, so that was a really smart decision. Through that introduction, we also learn a great deal about Anne Brontë and her sisters, and you can see just how autobiographical the whole novel really is. So many events and details are taken directly from her real life, and that made certain moments even more heartwarming.

Anne Brontë turns out to be a very interesting person, and I want to read more from her and about her. After some research, I also find myself firmly on her side when it comes to the family dynamics. Charlotte was sometimes not kind to her, not intentionally cruel perhaps, but not as self-aware as Anne, and far too focused on making the whole family conform to what society expected. In Anne’s shoes, I would have wanted to be buried somewhere else as well, and I would turn in my grave knowing that my sister had suppressed my work to protect the family’s reputation. Very unsympathetic in my eyes, even if we will never know the whole truth.

As for the book itself, the romantic thread running through it is genuinely lovely, especially whenever a certain clergyman appears on the page. The ending was satisfying and warm, even if it was fairly easy to predict. None of that mattered. This was a five-star read for me, a book that will stay with me for a while.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📝 If you are looking for my own short stories, poems and texts, check out my Substack: https://substack.com/@fragmentsandthedark