This is Anne Brontë's first novel and my first by her. The youngest of the four Brontë children—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne—she was only a year old when her mother died. Raised by a reputedly gloomy and difficult father, the children seemed to transcend their drab and overbearing lot through elaborately constructed fantasy worlds which were the juvenile precursors to their adult literary constructs.

In Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë fictionalizes her own real life experiences as an English governess, usually trying to establish and maintain order without the requisite authority to do so. Despite her own hard work, humility, patience, perseverance, correct application of sound principles and even sensible affection for her charges, the fictional Agnes Grey, a young woman of genteel poverty meets with little success. Nevertheless it doesn’t get her down; she maintains her integrity and where we are allowed glimpses of the future, fate proves her right for all the good it does those she seeks to counsel.

Predictable though the story is, it’s gentle message of continuing to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing—despite the lack of any obvious success or gratification—is one of those messages I wouldn’t expect to be very popular at any time, but especially not in an age of instant gratification.

Overall, I found Agnes Grey to be very satisfying. A good book to curl up with on a cold winter’s afternoon or evening by a fire with a cup o’ tea. It takes you back to another time and place.