Agnes Grey: Penguin Classics

Anne Brontë

Jan 2020 · Penguin Classics · Narrated by Louise Brealey

About this audiobook

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Louise Brealey, known for her roles in Sherlock, Clique and Death in Paradise. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Angeline Goreau.

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 personal perspective on the desperate position of unmarried, educated women for whom becoming a governess was the only respectable career open in Victorian society.

© Angeline Goreau, 1988, 2004 (P) Penguin Audio

About the author

Anne Brontë was born in 1820, the youngest of the Brontë family. She was educated at home in the Yorkshire village of Howarth, and later held two positions as a governess, difficult experiences which inspired her first novel, Agnes Grey, in 1847. This was followed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848. Anne died of tuberculosis in 1849, aged twenty-nine.