Monday, December 2, 2013

Review: Agnes Grey

Title Agnes Grey
By Anne Bronte
Genre Adult classic
Pages 272
Recommended by Book Club

First sentence All true histories contain instruction; though, in some the treasure may be hard to find and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.

Synopsis
Agnes leaves home to be a governess and learns many lessons from two different families finally finding a happy ending of her own.



What it has going for it
A friend of mine and I have been talking about reading this one forever so when my book club decided to read it I was excited to finally get to it. I hated (LOATHED)  Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights is just ridiculous so I was curious what the other sister had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised. This one is so much more calm and down to earth. Sure, Agnes is rather boring and pretty self righteous but in comparison to Jane and Cathy...Oh, so much better. This one took me a whole month to read. Mind you, I was getting married and honeymooning but, still. I think it reflects how dull the book was. It was fine just not much happened. However, if you read the first sentence of the book again...we are warned. Maybe Anne Bronte just wanted to write something dull because her sisters ridiculous stories drover her as crazy as they drive me. The reason I liked this one, though, despite it's dryness and dull story, was because Agnes' little crush and her ponderings and feelings reminded me of *ahem* someone. *cough cough me cough cough*. I actually laughed out loud at those chapters.

What's lacking
As I mentioned, this one was rather dull. If it wasn't for the romance in it I seriously would have felt like the whole book was a complete waste. Sure, Agnes goes through some crazy families that make the reader think but I never felt like Agnes grew up. I felt like she assumed she was perfect and everyone else outside her family was horrible and has low morals. *shrugs* It wasjust a little demeaning. Thank goodness for the romance. That's all I can say.

Favorite moment
The entire chapter where Agnes muses about hope. I giggled the whole way through it.

Yea or Nay?
There's only a few classic books I'd warn you away from reading but most are usually worth a read. 

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