So I didn't know anything about this novel, except that the title character was also a governess...though her tenure as one is not nearly as pleasant as Jane Eyre's. It's the shortest of the bunch, and I have to say, I'm glad it was so brief.
Agnes Grey started out strong, albeit rushed: she's left her childhood home by the end of the first chapter. I sympathized with her in the second, as she dealt with evil, unruly little shits and their uncooperative parents. Unlike Jane, Agnes winds up quitting her first gig and returns home, then gets another job as a governess. The next set of children, while better than the first, are also corrupted and disagreeable...yet she somehow manages to stay on with this family for almost three years. The major conflicts in the story fizzle before we're through ten chapters.
The rest of the novel is, indeed, a romance. Agnes' elder pupil, Rosalie, is in active pursuit of a suitor, and Agnes herself falls in love with the new curate, Mr. Weston. While I commend the execution of this part of the tale--I felt for Rosalie even though she kind of deserved the unhappy marriage she wound up getting, and Agnes' feelings for Mr. Weston were developed and described with realism--it seemed to forget what the hell it was about in the beginning. One can say that it's about the pursuit of happiness, as Agnes has found it at its conclusion, while others (Rosalie in particular) have lost it because they did not follow their hearts. But that doesn't excuse the fact that I saw how things would end a mile away, and the last page itself was woefully rushed (it went something like this: we lived happily ever after, the end).
So, while the story is very realistic in plot, language, and characterization, it lacks enough conflict (for me) to keep the story engaging. The second half is pretty predictable, for the most part, and that makes it a little dull. No wonder Anne's first novel (she wrote another book, which I haven't read) has faded in literary memory among the general public. It's not nearly as exciting as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. (And I don't think the fact that Mr. Weston isn't a "bad boy" has anything to do with it.)
I give it...three-point-five out of five stars (the writing itself is good enough to give it that high of a rating). Anyone who likes stories about nice people becoming happy and not-so-nice people not being happy might like this stories. If you're not a fan of the other Brontes, you probably won't like this one, either.
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