I’d long wanted to complete my “Brontë trifecta” by reading something by Anne Brontë. Even before I’d finished the Fred Chappell book of poems from last week, I started Agnes Grey. I was in a used book store and spotted a copy of this Anne Brontë novel on the shelves and bought it immediately. If you’ve paid any attention to my 2013 Reading List (which I doubt – Why are we all so busy, anyway? Wasn’t technology supposed to give us all oodles of free time to do things we love? But it seems we’re forever distracted by – oh, there’s my mobile, can you hang on a few…?), you’ve noted that Agnes Grey isn’t the next book in that reading list. Of course, the first letter of the shared last name, “B,” corresponds to the family name Brontë) was also the name used for the author when Agnes Grey was first published in 1847. i.e., “Currer” = Charlotte and “Ellis” = Emily as “Acton” = Anne. Anne’s nom de plume, “Acton Bell” (the first letter of each male name corresponds to the first letter of the author’s real name. She also contributed poetry to the volume that was the Brontë sisters’ first “real” publication, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, (the male pseudonyms used, as was common in the 19th century, to conceal the fact that the authors were “ladies” who were not considered “sensible” enough to pursue a serious artistic/intellectual pursuit such as writing literature).
The (to us) least well known Brontë sister (that most tragic family of English literature: of six children born to Reverend Patrick and Maria Brontë, none lived to reach the age of 40), wrote two novels, one wildly popular in her lifetime ( The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) and the novel of which I write here, Agnes Grey. “I could only conclude that excessive vanity, like drunkenness, hardens the heart,enslaves the faculties, and perverts the feelings, and that dogs are not the only creatures which, when gorged to the throat, will yet gloat over what they cannot devour.” – Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey Anne Bronte as drawn by sister Charlotte (courtesy Wikimedia)
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