Agnes grey
Bronte, Anne
Agnes grey - New Delhi: Penguin Random House, 2021. - 224p.;pbk. 20cm.
Published in 1847, Anne Brontë’s first novel exposes with remarkable realism the hardships and exploitation endured by governesses in Victorian England. In a narrative that drew heavily on her own experience, Brontë’s goal was not to amuse or to entertain but, as Agnes Grey says, to benefit those whom it might concern—governesses themselves, whose numbers were rapidly growing in the late nineteenth century, and the British aristocracy who employed them. Because of the great imbalance in the ratio of women to men in England, with so many men living and working abroad in the far reaches of the British Empire, thousands of women were unable to marry. This problem was compounded by the strong social stigma against women working and the extremely limited professions to which they were admitted. Increasingly, out of desperation, women became governesses, accepting terms that would leave them exhausted, impoverished, and socially outcast. Brontë sought to make their plight visible to the English public and to arouse the kind of compassion that might lead to reform.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/329102/agnes-grey-by-anne-bronte/9780140432107/readers-guide/
9780140432107
England--English fiction
Governesses
Manners and customs
Single women
Social conditions
Man-woman relationships
823.8 / BRO
Agnes grey - New Delhi: Penguin Random House, 2021. - 224p.;pbk. 20cm.
Published in 1847, Anne Brontë’s first novel exposes with remarkable realism the hardships and exploitation endured by governesses in Victorian England. In a narrative that drew heavily on her own experience, Brontë’s goal was not to amuse or to entertain but, as Agnes Grey says, to benefit those whom it might concern—governesses themselves, whose numbers were rapidly growing in the late nineteenth century, and the British aristocracy who employed them. Because of the great imbalance in the ratio of women to men in England, with so many men living and working abroad in the far reaches of the British Empire, thousands of women were unable to marry. This problem was compounded by the strong social stigma against women working and the extremely limited professions to which they were admitted. Increasingly, out of desperation, women became governesses, accepting terms that would leave them exhausted, impoverished, and socially outcast. Brontë sought to make their plight visible to the English public and to arouse the kind of compassion that might lead to reform.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/329102/agnes-grey-by-anne-bronte/9780140432107/readers-guide/
9780140432107
England--English fiction
Governesses
Manners and customs
Single women
Social conditions
Man-woman relationships
823.8 / BRO
