Agnes Grey provides a penetrating insight into the mid-nineteenth
century world of the governess. A definition of the governess was provided by Lady Eastlake, whose withering criticism of~ane Eyre is notorious. She wrote, a governess is 'a being who who is our equal in birth, manners, and education, but our inferior in worldly wealth.' (The Quarterly Review, December i848). Drawing on her own experiences as a teacher in the Ingham and Robinson families,Anne Bronte depicts with keen and ironic observation the social isolation, emotional starvation and frustrations of governess life.……

Agnes Grey is a trenchant expose of the frequently isolated, intellectually stagnant and emotionally starved conditions under which many governesses worked in the mid-nineteenth century. This is a deeply personal novel written from the author"s own experience and as such Agnes Grey has a power and poignancy which mark it out as a landmark work of literature dealing with the social and moral evolution of English society during the last century.

INTRODUCTION
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Parsonage
First Lessons in the Art of Instruction
A Few More Lemons
The Grandmamma
The Uncle
The Parsonage Again
Horton Lodge
The "Coming Out"
The Ball
The Church
The Cottagers
The Shower
The Primroses
The Rector
The Walk
The Substitution
Confessions
Mirth and Mourning
The Letter
The Farewell
The School
The Visit
The Park
The Sands
Conclusion
APPENDIX
Biograpbical Notice of Fllis and
Acton Bell, 1850
Charlotte Bronte
NOTES