
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 & assert her independence But Agnes&s enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children & 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 Bronte&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