This first autobiographical novel by Anne Brontë, which George Moore has described as flawless, tells the story of a young governess’s struggle to exist in the adult world, with an in-depth look at the values, gender roles and empathy of the period.
Agnes Grey, published by Acton Bell at the time of its publication, is the first novel by Anne Brontë, the youngest of the Brontë sisters. The novel, in which traces of the author’s life are clearly seen, deals with the governess, the widely preferred method of education of the period, and its difficulties. Hailed by Irish writer George Moore as “the most perfect prose narrative ever written in the English language”, Agnes Grey is a coming-of-age story that transcends its time.
Agnes, who has just entered adulthood, thinks she can comfort her financially struggling family. Her ambition to prove her abilities and competence to the other adults around her leads Agnes on a governessing adventure where she encounters all kinds of people from different classes. Struggling to learn about people and concepts such as morality, honesty and goodwill for the first time away from home and on her own, Agnes will face the realities of life, which sometimes do not seem so endearing, with her inexhaustible love, passion for learning and strong sense of empathy.
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ANNE BRONTË was born in Yorkshire in 1820, the youngest of a family of six children. Her father was a poor Irish clergyman and Anne spent most of her life in his parish. With her sister Emily, she fictionalized the imaginary kingdom of Gondal and wrote poems and stories set there. She worked as a governess in the homes of several families. Together with her sisters Charlotte and Emily, she wrote 21 poems collected under the title “Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell” and signed with their pseudonyms, which they also used in their novels. Her first novel, Agnes Grey, was published alongside Emily Brontë’s Uğultulu Tepeler. The success of these two novels was synonymous with the popularity of Jane Eyre in the eyes of the reader and hastened the arrival of Anne Brontë’s second novel. In the first year of good sales, Brontë contracted tuberculosis and died less than a year later, aged 29. Charlotte Brontë, who was preparing Agnes Grey for reprinting, prevented it from being reprinted, arguing that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was not noteworthy because of its poor choice of subject matter. Some critics of the period wrote that Anne Brontë was a Brontë lacking in genius. It was not until the 20th century that Brontë’s biography and novels received the attention they deserved.
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PINAR KÜR was born in Bursa but never lived there. She spent her childhood in various cities in Anatolia and in London. At the age of thirteen, she went to the USA, where she stayed for five years. She completed her secondary education in New York and started her higher education there. After graduating from Robert College High School in Istanbul, he lived in Paris for five years. He received his doctorate in Comparative Literature at Sorbonne University. After returning home, he started working at the State Theater. He wrote theater criticism for various newspapers and magazines. In 1984, he won the Sait Faik Story Prize with his short story collection, Akışı Olmayan Sular. He worked as a faculty member at Istanbul Bilgi University and Istanbul University.
TITLE
Book Title: Agnes Grey
Author: Anne Brontë
Translator: Pınar Kür
Publisher: Can Yayınları
Series: Classic
Genre: Novel
Page Count: 224
