Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

FIRST PRINTING

Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë was born on January 17, 1820, into one of English literature’s most remarkable families. The youngest of Patrick and Maria Branwell Brontë’s six children, Anne was only a year old when her mother became ill with cancer. Within months, Maria Branwell Brontë died, the first of many early deaths that would ultimately decimate the large family. Patrick Brontë, by then a curate at Haworth, turned to his wife’s sister, Elizabeth Branwell, for help in raising his children; Anne grew very close to her aunt. In 1825 the eldest Brontë children, Maria and Elizabeth, died within weeks of one another, leaving Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne.

The babies of the family, Emily and Anne created an imaginative kingdom called Gondal that they filled with fantastic characters and stories. Although she attended school at Roe Head for two years, Anne was primarily educated at home, where the children studied literature and poetry as well as the Bible. An illness at school prompted her return to Haworth in 1837 and provoked a religious crisis, raising doubts and concerns Anne would revisit later in life.

Seeking financial independence, Anne found work in 1839 as a governess at Blake Hall, near Mirfield, caring for the unruly children of Joshua Ingham. Within a year, she had left the Inghams and was employed as governess for the family of Reverend Edmund Robinson at Thorp Green, near York. She remained in their household for five years, each summer accompanying the family to the seaside resort of Scarborough. Away from her family, she often turned to poetry for solace, sometimes writing her own. In 1843 Anne secured a position with the Robinsons for her brother, Branwell. In June 1845 Anne resigned and returned to Haworth, followed shortly by Branwell, who, under the shadow of a scandal, was dismissed.

Back home, Anne’s literary career was initiated by Charlotte’s enthusiastic discovery of Emily’s Gondal poems. The sisters each agreed to contribute poems to a collection for publication. Under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, respectively), the Brontës published the collection in 1846 at their own expense, to positive criticism but dismal sales. Undaunted, the sisters turned their attentions to novel writing, each bringing a unique and highly inventive style to the effort. In 1847 Anne’s labors produced Agnes Grey, published jointly with Emily’s Wuthering Heights in December of that year by Thomas Cautley Newby. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre had been published two months earlier by a more prestigious house, Smith, Elder and Co., to great success, overshadowing her sisters’ novels and surpassing them in acclaim. Less sensational in its subject matter than either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, Anne’s Agnes Grey received relatively little attention. Nonetheless, Anne began work immediately on her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (published by Newby in 1848), which was a commercial and critical success. The novel’s frank depictions of alcoholism and violence shocked readers but fueled its popularity. Wild speculation about its mysterious authorship prompted Charlotte and Anne to disclose to their publishers their true identities.

In September 1848, Branwell Brontë died, his body destroyed by illness and alcohol. In December, Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis, following a rapid decline. Anne herself became ill with influenza, then tuberculosis. Though weak and frail, she determined to travel once more to her beloved Scarborough, ostensibly for the curative powers of the sea air. The trip proved her last; Anne Brontë died on May 28, 1849, and was buried in Scarborough.

The World of Anne Brontë and Agnes Grey

1820 Anne Brontë is born on January 17, in Thornton, York- shire. She is the sixth and last child of Patrick and Maria Branwell Brontë; her father is a curate. The family moves from Thornton to Haworth. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound and Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe are published. George III dies, and George IV is crowned king.

1821 Maria Branwell Brontë dies of cancer. Elizabeth Branwell , her sister, comes to Haworth to care for the family. She and Anne become particularly close.

1824 Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë attend Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge. The Athenaeum Club is founded in London; the National Gallery opens.

1825 In May, Anne’s oldest sister, Maria, dies of tuberculosis. The second oldest, Elizabeth, dies shortly thereafter. Charlotte and Emily are withdrawn from school. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is first performed in England .

1830 George IV dies and is succeeded by William IV. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Poems, Chiefly Lyrical is published. American poet Emily Dickinson is born.

1831 Charlotte attends Miss Wooler’s school at