Agnes Grey is a novel by English author Anne Bronte, who was, let's face it, the least awesome of the Bronte sisters. She was, however, a lesser genius in a family of literary geniuses - so it certainly deserves to be read if you're a lover of 19th Century British lit. Agnes Grey is an autobiographical novel which recounts the experience of a young governess born of a financially-ruined clergyman. During England's Victorian period, there wasn't much else for a respectable and intelligent young woman to do: you were either wealthy and had governesses to care for your children, or you were, well, a governess yourself. Such was Anne's life, and the life of her protagonist. Agnes goes to work for two families, the Bloomfields and the Murrays, who are not so much the virtuous Victorian bourgeois, but are the corrupt and callous, but aren't If one were to read the novel for its realistic depiction of life as a governess, it's an incredibly accurate account: the spoiled kids, the sneering servants, the aloof parents with their yapping dogs. If one were to look at Agnes Grey with contemporary eyes, one could see her as a nanny working for a rich couple today in London or New York of today. The only joy Agnes finds comes from a Mr. Weston, the good-natured curate. Will Agnes escape her toil and misery to find love and happiness? Read on!"