Helen ODonnell

Boring, plodding, dull, insipid. If her name were not Bronte, I doubt this work would have ever have seen the light of day. Knowing Herman Melvile, a superlative writer with extrememly superlative works, had a hard time getting published, I wonder gow this ever made it into print. The first sentence is the best and there's no other one ike it in the book. Here, the famlies are all awful and bad. The children are all thoughtless and fresh and wild, and Anne Grey is all virtuous and good. So black and white. Give me a break. We know the wealthy people are mainly concerned with money, p[osition, and social standing.. What else is new? Is ths really a revelation to anyone? I doubt if it was to a Victorian audience. This is no Jane Eyre. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that although one may have very skilled and talented siblings that doesn't make one also skilled and talented. I am trying to reread this now mainly for my book group mainly because being a governess was one of the few positions open to an educated woman in her time, and I think I should know more about this. But a non-fiction book could have done the job, likely better than this novel.. I'd never heard of Anne BRonte or this book before. And there's a reason why. My advice would be to pass it over.