Agnes Grey

By: Anne Bronte

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

Written when women---and workers generally---had few rights in England, Agnes Grey exposes the brutal inequities of the rigid class system in mid-19th-century Britain. Agnes comes from a respectable middle-class family, but their financial reverses have forced her to seek work as a governess. Pampered and protected at home, she is unprepared for the harsh reality of a governess's life. At the Bloomfields and, later, the Murrays, she suffers under the snobbery and sadism of the selfish, self-indulgent upper-class adults and the shrieking insolence of their spoiled children. Worse, the unique social and economic position of a governess---"beneath" her employers but "above" their servants---condemns her to a life of loneliness. Less celebrated than her older sisters, Charlotte and Emily, Anne Brontë was also less interested in spinning wildly symbolic, romantic tales and more determined to draw realistic images of conditions in Victorian England that needed changing. While Charlotte's Jane Eyre features a governess who eventually and improbably marries her employer, Agnes Grey deals with the actual experiences of middle-class working women, experiences Anne had herself endured during her hateful tenure as a governess.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

Make.it.stop.

The narrator is the only redeeming quality of this book. Every character save the main is utterly without redemption. After three hours I couldn’t take three more minutes. I hate all of them. Shallow, nasty, spiteful children and equally arrogant, petty, oblivious adults. My first book by Anne and no wonder she is not as ‘famous’ as Charlotte.

Some people eat their feeling. Some people write them. No mystery which one Anne did.

Meh

I had difficulty getting past the monotonous reading of the text. I’ll have to wait for a version read by someone else.

Loved This!

I’m interested in classic English Literature, but sometimes get bogged down by the verbose descriptiveness and flowery, “all or nothing”dialogue. Agnes’ story was hopeful and refreshing without being overly saccharine. Because the author had actually been a governess herself, she could truthfully tell of the everyday trials of being neither staff nor family but rather shunned by each. I can imagine how bratty, entitled and incorrigible her charges must have been. Loved the description of her man as not being some swoon-worthy Adonis, but rather an average-looking guy with a good heart and true abiding affection for her. This is what most women really want after all.

Sanctimonious writing, narrator needs allergy meds

Agonizing to listen to. The narrator is very nasal, the protagonist is very assured of her righteousness in the face of wealthy amoral people she places in positions of power over her, and the descriptions of animal abuse are very disturbing.

A lovely escape to the Victorian era

An enjoyable read, immersed in the culture and customs of those long ago. Found myself listening quite often and for long stretches.

Great story okay narration.

Enjoyed this listen. The description of the children is real and also scary, because it’s real… These parents are also are horrible.

Very Nice

The story itself is fantastic. Enjoyed it immensely. The narrator’s voice may seem a bit nasally and irritating at first, but after a few chapters I got used to it and her voice didn’t bother me anymore. Excellent listen.

Disappointing reading

Read this book many years ago and thought to revisit it by audio. The performance by the speaker is so carefully enunciated as to make it robotic - really spoilt the 'read'.