If you have read Emily or Charlotte Bronte's books before, you will find this book a lot easier. Both the language usage and the plot weren't completed as the aforesaid Bronte sisters. This is a story about the struggle of a governess called Agnes and how she found her own future in the end. If you are interested in Victorian Literature, I will then say that this is one of the must read, because it gives you a glimpse of how educated women's life during that time was like. Consider that Anne Bronte herself had been a governess too, it just made this story even truer.

After reading "Wuthering Heights" (by Emily), "Jane Eyre" (by Charlotte), and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (by Anne), I found myself slightly disappointed by the lack of passion and romanticism in Anne Bronte's "Agnes Grey". This novel truly is simple, unpretentious, and down-to-earth--and, therefore, far too easy to underestimate and undervalue.

The title character is the younger daughter of a poor family, who seeks employment as a governess in order to help her parents make ends meet. This noble act of maturity on her part earns her nothing but disillusion, humiliation and hardship in the hands of the tyrannical children and over-indulgent parents of Wellwood House (Note the intriguing initials W.H., which stand for Wuthering Heights and Wildfell Hall in other Bronte books) and, later, Horton Lodge. For several chapters, Anne Bronte does not do much but--dare I say it?--complain about the lot of the Victorian governess. Though her portraits of the children and their parents were obviously drawn from reality, which certainly won sympathy from me, I wanted to tell her to "Get on with the story" many times.

The plot does pick up after the artful and exasperating Rosalie Murray has her "coming out" ball. Thoughtless rather than tyrannical, Rosalie has the most well-drawn character of all of Agnes' charges, which makes her such a great foil for Agnes. Rosalie delights in thinking that she could have any man she wishes and enjoys nothing more than toying with men's hearts. When she finds out that Agnes might be in love with the curate, Edward Weston, she makes every attempt to make Mr. Weston fall in love with _her_, thinking that it would be a grand joke to make Agnes miserable. Yet it is impossible to hate her, somehow. She steals every scene she is in; half the story is truly hers.

I am happy to say that both Rosalie and Agnes get what they deserve, which is, fittingly, what each explicitly asked and worked for. (Read that any way you wish--or better yet, read the book.) "Agnes Grey" has left me believing that we truly do sow what we reap and receive what we ask for.

Agnes Grey is probably the simplest Bronte novel, but in my opinion the best, because it is a sincere story. It is always looked upon as inferior to "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights", but if reviewed as a story of a governess in the Victorian Era, it is suddenly far more interesting. "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre do not give a realistic view of the times the Brontes lived in, but "Agnes Grey" does and she does not spare us the details.

I myself believe that Anne was in love with William Weightman, her fathers curate and seeing that she lets het own heroine Agnes win Mr. Weston, makes me feel that she tries to show us her dream, if she could have had it. It is simple, but happy. And that is exactly what this book is about. It is not to say that love is a never ending passion and all hardships end when one finds THE ONE, but simply to state that joy and wisdom can be found in a happy union.

And now, after I have read it many times, I still cry when Agnes tells Mr. Weston that she loves him. That one word "Yes" says it all.