Agnes Grey is a disregarded book by an overlooked author. Anne Brontë's first published novel has long been overshadowed by her sister Emily's Wuthering Heights, due to its joint publication in a three-decker. This essay examines various readings of Agnes Grey and proposes some alternatives. Dividing the novel into sections to show how each portion of Agnes' life suppresses different aspects of her sense of selfhood, it evaluates themes of erasure from a feminist perspective. Using Wolfgang Iser's reader-response theory, this reading is then measured against a small empirical research study to uncover a range of current-day reader responses demonstrating the subtleties and densities of a finely constructed novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Victorians: A Journal of Culture & Literature is the property of Ohio State University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
