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  • Agnes Grey

  • By: Anne Brontë
  • Narrated by: Emilia Fox
  • Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (830 ratings)
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Agnes Grey cover art

Agnes Grey

By: Anne Brontë
Narrated by: Emilia Fox
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Summary

Exclusively from Audible

Drawing heavily from personal experience, Anne Brontë wrote Agnes Grey in an effort to represent the many 19th Century women who worked as governesses and suffered daily abuse as a result of their position.

Having lost the family savings on risky investments, Richard Grey removes himself from family life and suffers a bout of depression. Feeling helpless and frustrated, his youngest daughter, Agnes, applies for a job as a governess to the children of a wealthy, upper-class, English family.

Ecstatic at the thought that she has finally gained control and freedom over her own life, Agnes arrives at the Bloomfield mansion armed with confidence and purpose. The cruelty with which the family treat her however, slowly but surely strips the heroine of all dignity and belief in humanity.

A tale of female bravery in the face of isolation and subjugation, Agnes Grey is a masterpiece claimed by Irish writer, George Moore, to be possessed of all the qualities and style of a Jane Austen title. Its simple prosaic style propels the narrative forward in a gentle yet rhythmic manner which continuously leaves the listener wanting to know more.

Anne Brontë, the somewhat lesser known sister, was in fact the first to finish and publish Agnes Grey under the pseudonym of Acton Bell. Charlotte and Emily followed shortly after with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

As Anne passed away from what is now known to be pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of just 29, she only published one further title; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. As feminist in nature as Agnes Grey, Anne's brave voice resonates and permeates during one of the most prejudiced and patriarchal times of English history.

Narrator Biography

Emilia Fox is an English stage, film and TV actress, best known for playing the role of Dr Nikki Alexander on the BBC's crime drama Silent Witness. Having been involved in the programme since 2004, she is now its longest serving cast member.

Her other credits include Merlin, Pride and Prejudice and Rebecca, and her theatre background includes performances of The Cherry Orchard with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Emilia has also starred alongside Adrien Brody in Roman Polanski's The Pianist, beside Billie Piper and Dougray Scott in Things to Do Before You're 30 and with Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas in Keeping Mum.

She has voiced many audiobooks for Audible, including Philippa Gregory's The White Queen, William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus and Victoria Hislop's The Island.

©2007 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Agnes Grey

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Book

Where does Agnes Grey rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

So far this is the first audiobook we have listened to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I found that all the characters were really interesting.

What about Emilia Fox’s performance did you like?

I felt that Emilia Fox was very well chosen to read this particualr book, her voice just seemed to work very well with the period and style.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

At times this book made me thoughtful, and at other times annoyed with what poor Agnes had to put up with. The descripitons of some characters and thier actions could be really amusing.

Any additional comments?

A good book to my mind is something you cannot put down, you just have to start reading or listening to it till the end. Not much could keep us sitting quietly for 80 mins, but this did.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Agnes Grey.

This is a delightful story, very well read. The long moral discourses
I found interesting as they reminded me of my upbringing!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Very average

Do you have any additional comments?

A predictable story about a virtuous girl's hard life as a governess and the eventual change in her fortunes. All very nice, but it lacks the atmosphere, complexity and unexpectedness of other books by the Bröntes. The narration is fine, although nothing special. Also, I don't know whether I'm the only one to have had this problem but, when I listened using headphones, there was an annoying background noise as if the audio had been re-recorded from a tape.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A feel good story

I loved Emilia Fox's reading of Agnes Grey. I have no problem recommending this. It is such a feel good story. The voice characterisations are excellent.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Anne Brontë

The saddest thing about this book is the knowledge that Anne died so young and she never knew how well her novels were received and spent the short time after their publication defending them. I find it particularly hard to stomach that her own sister is the reason she isn’t as well known. She is the stand out for me I love this book but I adore “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” even more, this, I feel, is the book that should be the most famous even though I have read and love all the Brontë’s novels. It’s also sad to think that Anne didn’t fulfill any longing that she may have had to be a wife or mother. Emilia Fox is excellent I hope to hear her again her voice suits this particular genre and era perfectly.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Poor sound quality spoils the performance

Fairly simple story with predictable ending. Not sure why the sound quality was so poor? Don't audible check this before selling it to their customers? If not they ought to.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dreadful audio!

The narrator does a great job with her reading, but unfortunately the audio is awful. Sound levels are all over the place, mics popping, buzzing sounds in the background, audio recording poorly edited (you can actually hear the narrator’s instructions on where to cut and pick up!)…
What a pity.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unexpected deIight

Beautifully read in such a way that completely brought the characters to life. Anne Brontes novel is a joy of language, story line and construction. Something to savour.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

gentle rather than gripping

I don't think I'd have finished this if reading it on the printed page as I did find it rather slow to start.
It was difficult not to judge with a modern perspective. A modern heroine would be expected to show more backbone and resistance to her employers' unreasonable demands, but the author was writing either from the perspective of what was normal then, or what she perceived as the ideal reaction of a contemporary heroine. Perhaps this would have sat better if written in the third person; too often it came across as 'I have been hard done by, but am still a good person'. This might have been more interesting if we had viewed how Agnes was treated and reacted to that treatment from a separate perspective
It was clear that the love interest was the author's ideal man, gentle, perceptive, kind to the old and poor etc.
I would have liked more development of the mother's character, particularly from what we learn of independent attitude at the end.
The whole was very well narrated and brought life to the first person voice of the book.
Overall, enjoyable, but not one I'd listen to again

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Lovely Story Filled With Love, Depth & Wisdom

Anne Bronte wrote such a lovely story some of which was probably based on her own experience as a governess. For such a young age when she wrote this, she had so much wisdom, depth, understanding of life and human beings. Even in todays world people do not have so much depth and understanding. It's so true that beauty is the inner person not what lies on the outside. A beautiful person who forgives and sees the good in everyone. And has value in relationships.

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1 person found this helpful