Agnes Grey Audiobook By Anne Bronte cover art

Agnes Grey

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Agnes Grey

By: Anne Bronte
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
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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 Classics Genre Fiction European World Literature Biographical Fiction
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An enjoyable read, immersed in the culture and customs of those long ago. Found myself listening quite often and for long stretches.

A lovely escape to the Victorian era

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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.

Very Nice

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

Great story okay narration.

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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.

Loved This!

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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.

Make.it.stop.

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