The name of governess, I soon found, was a mere mockery … my pupils had no more
notion of obedience than a wild, unbroken colt’
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. Drawing
on her own experience, Anne Brontë’s first novel offers a compelling