Two Is All We Get

“Agnes Grey,” written by Anne Brontë, the youngest of the three Brontë sisters, was originally published in 1847. It is one of only two novels that she published. It is a very uncomplicated story, at least on the surface of it, about the travails of governess Agnes Grey in the privileged world of wealthy, mid 19th century British society. It is autobiographical. It is a sensitive and beautiful novel, reflective of Anne Brontë’s own religious convictions. Sadly, it is the last of Anne Brontë’s two books that I can read, as she only had time to write two. She died young. I spoke of the other, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” (1848), some weeks ago. Family financial difficulties drive Agnes to leave her loving home and serve as a governess for young children and teens who, to say the…