Agnes Grey

Agnes Grey is the debut novel of English author Anne Brontë, first published in December 1847. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as she works in several bourgeois families and deal with issues of oppression and abuse of women and governesses, isolation and ideas of empathy. An additional theme is the fair treatment of animals. Agnes Grey also mimics some of the stylistic approaches of bildungsromans, employing ideas of personal growth and coming to age, but representing a character who in fact does not gain in virtue.