SOURCE: "Agnes Grey," in The Novels of Anne Brontë: A Study and Reappraisal, Merlin Books Ltd., 1992, pp. 1-30.

In the following essay, Bell studies the sources, structure, style, and characters of Brontë's "quiet, controlled, realistic" Agnes Grey.

Like not a few novelists the Brontës began their career in the belief that they were first and foremost poets; and in fact their first work to be printed was their collective Poems, by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell published by Aylott & Jones in May, 1846. It was the complete failure of this little volume to make any impression on the literary world that drove them to try their fortunes yet again with novels. In Charlotte's words in her Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell:

Ill-success failed to crush us: the mere effort to succeed had given a wonderful zest to existence; it must be pursued. We each set...