SOURCE: "A New Reading of Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey," in Brontë Society Transactions, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1987, pp. 113-8.

In the following essay, Costello recounts the plot of Agnes Grey and examines the novel as one that "criticizes the corruption of moral and ethical values" in Victorian society.

Anne Brontë's first novel, Agnes Grey, published in 1847, is ordinarily either ignored by literary critics or treated summarily as a charming though not too serious endeavour. It is an apparently simple story of a parson's daughter who endures the trials of a governess, and eventually marries the young minister she loves. Underneath this simplicity, however, is not only a realistic and unmelodramatic account of the life of a governess, but also a study of Victorian values. Through a portrayal of five different families, Anne Brontë gives us a microcosm of Victorian society, with five class levels. Through her analysis of...