• About
  • Introducing…
  • Analysis
  • Misc.
  • For the Student of Literature

Christian Victorian Literature

Christian Victorian Literature

Search results for: jane eyre

Introducing “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

11 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Introducing...

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, faith, film adaptation, law, marriage, novel, romance

 “I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man.” – Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre (1847) is a novel that needs no introduction as a classic, that’s for certain. But why it is rarely regarded as a Christian novel appears a mystery to me, as the novel is surely one woman’s constant struggle to reconcile the desires of her heart with the will of God, with references to God in heaven as explicit in meaning and numerous in quantity as those in any modern Christian romance or amish fiction. And yet I have never seen it on any Bible bookstore shelf. The fact that it is gothic and disturbing in nature signifies little, considering other works of fiction that contain violence or horror, such as Frank Peretti novels or the multitude of spy and terrorist bestsellers (which unfortunately tend to be more of the drugstore paperback caliber), that span the shelves at Christian bookstores and libraries. The only conclusion I can arrive at is that, firstly, the book is simply too intellectual, and secondly, the church has long abandoned classic art (we rarely see Bach in the music section either, although we are seeing a revival in hymnody, at least).*

Image result for Jane eyre

Jane Eyre is often framed as a “beauty and the beast” narrative, but her romance with the unbecoming Mr Rochester occupies only half or more of the novel; in actuality, the story is about Jane and the choices she must make in defiance of those who would control her, as well as her reactions to the twists of providence that leave her with little choice at all. The Christian reading that I extract from the novel is that Jane only achieves happiness by acting in accordance with both the law of God and the Spirit of God – by walking in both obedience and love.  Jane loves Mr. Rochester desperately, but chooses not to marry him because such an adulterous action would be disobeying God’s law. She also refuses to marry St. John Rivers, even though he offers her lawful matrimony, because it would not be a covenant formed in love, and she believes God made marriage to be both lawful and loving; because neither Rochester nor Rivers offer her both, she must live a chaste and solitary life so as to be faithful to God’s will.

Both men’s offers are a source of temptation to Jane; Rochester’s adulterous affair entices her with the indulgence of her senses and emotions (“while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me….They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. ‘Oh, comply!’ it said. ‘Think of his misery…soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his.'”), and Rivers lays before her religious security: “Religion called – Angels beckoned – God commanded – life rolled together like a scroll – death’s gates opening, showed eternity beyond: it seem, that for safety and bliss there, all here might be sarificed in a second.”  But Heaven cannot be gained here on Earth in defiance of God; neither can Heaven be won through human toil on Earth. Neither earthly pleasure nor toil can secure true happiness, Jane knows full well.  Jane knows the voice of the devil when it tempts her, and makes the better choice than Eve. For all Rochester’s arguments that she would not be a mistress, but his genuine wife, because his first marriage was a sham, Jane knows that to admit anything other than the truth is “sophistical – is false.” She clings to her faith, explaining to the reader the motive for her actions and perhaps the  definitive statement of her faith:

 “I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man…. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation; they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth –  so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane – quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.'”

Here is where modern romances part ways with Jane Eyre; being in love, Bronte says, can be a kind of madness that affects one’s ability to think rationally and we should not allow it to become our slavemaster. Modern popular doctrine of the Eat, Pray, Love variety urges exactly the opposite: just follow your heart (consider, in contrast, Jeremiah 17:9 and how it applies to Jane Eyre). Certainly, “I need to follow my heart” is the refusal Jane gives Rivers (in much more eloquent wording) in answer to his proposal of marriage, but of course her heart is bound to God first and foremost and tempered by his law, and so even though her heart calls her after Rochester, she does not follow it but instead chooses to watch that dream float away. Her faithfulness to God is rewarded later in life when she is able to legally marry Rochester.

But there is more than just the specter of adultery that shocks Jane to her senses after her failed wedding. Jane also realizes that

“My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for his creature: of whom I had made an idol.”

Contrary to film adaptations and academic readings of the book that stupidly, in the case of the former, turn a blind eye, and in the latter, subordinate it to a feminist narrative, Jane Eyre is about Jane’s working out of her faith. It is categorically a Christian novel, a story dealing with sin, salvation, redemption, the ten commandments, mercy, grace, the afterlife – the whole nine yards, much more than can be covered in one blog post. Surely we can start stocking it on the shelves of Christian bookstores now.

* Also it doesn’t help that the film industry completely erases most traces of Christianity in most film adaptations of classic literature. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is an excellent (read: terrible) example of this.

 

Read works by Charlotte’s sister Anne:

Introducing “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë

Fruits of the Spirit in “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë

Introducing the Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Christian School Catechism Includes Excerpt From Jane Eyre

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Misc.

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Charlotte Bronte, Classical Education, Jane Eyre, temptation

Classical schools emphasize, among many other subjects, the study of classic art and literature, and the use of memorization to retain and internalize knowledge. Interestingly, a teacher of a Modern European Humanities class at Veritas School, a classical Christian school in Virginia, has included a powerful excerpt from Jane Eyre as part of his daily catechism for his students to recite and commit to memory.  Charlotte Brontë herself would have been educated in the classical method (as was Jane), so I think she would approve.

The excerpt from Jane Eyre, which answers question 8 of the the catechism, follows.

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, themore I will respect myself.  I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man.  I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now.  Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be.  If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?  They have a worth—so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane—quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.

Read about how Jane Eyre is a Christian novel. 

Image result for jane eyre

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

“The Way We Live Now” by Anthony Trollope

14 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Analysis, Introducing...

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Anthony Trollope, social commentary, The Way We Live Now

“If one wants to keep one’s self straight, one has to work hard at it, one way or the other. I suppose it all comes from the fall of Adam.” – The Way We Live Now

Whoever originated the writerly advice, “Show, don’t tell,” a commonly touted golden rule of fiction writing, apparently never read a Victorian novel. The Victorians are master story tellers, and the intense, psychological study of character is one of the defining features of Victorian novels (particularly the hefty ones). Rarely does a character act (“show”) first before an in-depth description of his personality, and all the vices and virtues such a personality induces, as well as the influence of his history or upbringing, are set before the reader. Before the character acts, we already understand him, and his words and deeds become plausible. The Way We Live Now, a long, critical commentary on the moral ills of Victorian society by Anthony Trollope, exemplifies this feature as the narrator spreads out an array of Londoners for the reader’s consideration, but mostly for her disapproval. Trollope’s narrator delineates his characters like an omniscient, god-like authority who sees into the very heart of a person. But the narrator does more than just reveal characters; he also judges him or her – also like God. Frequently, Trollope tells us what opinion we should have about a character’s behaviour.

Victorian literature fans may often be tempted to look back wistfully at Victorian society’s high standards of modesty, virtue and propriety; however, reading a little bit of Trollope is like a bucket of cold water on the head reminding us that sin pervades every society and culture and has since the dawn of time, since sin germinates in the heart of every person, quickly curing us of “good old days” syndrome. Whether it is marriage, the family, religion, the treatment of women, racism, the government, the economy, or vocation, there is hardly an area of society that escapes Trollope’s scathing reproof. What’s worse is that Trollope fixes his critical eye mainly upon the genteel class, where we would expect to find the best representation of Victorian values, but the vice hiding therein reduces our beloved propriety to a charade, and we are forced to swallow the uncomfortable truth that that which we admire so much in the Victorians was sometimes simply a veneer for vice. The lowest criminals are honest, at least, about their dealings. Of course, as Christians we should know that virtue has nothing to do with class or appearance. This is one of the plainest teachings in the Bible about human character.

Trollope’s epic novel follows a wide cast of characters whose lives and fortunes are greatly affected by an illustriously wealthy newcomer to the London scene. From the beginning the narrator strongly hints that Augustus Melmotte is duplicitous; he attracts other unscrupulous characters to him, while repulsing those who are honest and principled. The novel chronicles the sad story of his daughter Marie as she tries to gain some agency in her life both in love and in money, the parallel love story of Hetta and Paul and all of the obstacles in the way of their marriage, and the pathetic exploits of Hetta’s brother, Sir Felix Carbury, an utter profligate with no hope of reform.  

Although Trollope is not forthright with his religious beliefs in The Way We Live Now, he was an Anglican and the opinions that he sets forth in the novel can be understood through a Christian worldview, particularly his view on marriage and the sexes, which I would like to take up in another post. Clearly, if Trollope’s depiction of marriage in the novel was representative of nineteenth century society, the treatment of marriage as a kind of prostitution of women is a corruption of the model of marriage proscribed in the New Testament. In the little bit of research I did on Trollope’s personal life I learned that he, among many other Anglicans, did not appreciate the boldness of the evangelical movement, which burgeoned in the nineteenth century, seeing it as almost brash and annoying. This surely explains the understated Christian beliefs in his novels, as well as in Jane Austen’s (Jane Eyre is quite an exception to this, however, as well as Elizabeth Gaskell‘s works), and the explicit gospel and devotional themes in today’s typical Christian evangelical novel, which many of us have grown up with and thus have come to expect as the norm for Christian fiction. It’s why some people are surprised to find or feel skeptical that Austen was actually a Christian, and why she is so easily co-opted by feminist scholars.

I feel it is incumbent upon one when reviewing an eight-hundred-page novel to comment on its readability to help one decide whether to attempt such a herculean endeavour. For those who have given up halfway when slogging through some of Dicken’s massive tomes, take heart. I don’t think Trollope has the genius or wordsmithery of Charles Dickens, but I also think that makes him a little more accessible and less bewildering, at least in The Way We Live Now. I also don’t think that Trollope’s work delves as deeply into the good and evil of humankind or presents such a hellish or angelic view of people as Dickens does. Rather, The Way We Live Now is more a commentary on the lamentableness of Victorian society in terms of all of its hypocrisy, two-facedness and double-standards; there are no murderers or starving children in the gutter in Trollope. I personally found that The Way We Live Now is quite readable and it was one of the easiest large tomes I have read in a long time. There is just enough scandal and drama balanced with a light intellectual commentary to make picking up the novel something to look forward to each time.

Introducing “Barchester Towers” by Anthony Trollope

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Introducing “Sylvia’s Lovers” by Elizabeth Gaskell

08 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Analysis, Introducing...

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Eyre, press-gangs, tyranny

“Yes; with God all things are possible. But ofttimes He does his work with awful instruments. There is a peacemaker whose name is death.”

Sylvia's Lovers - Elizabeth Gaskell's anti-romantic novel ...

Elizabeth Gaskell’s final novel Sylvia’s Lovers is a historical tale set in a whaling town in northern England in the 1700s, and, not unlike Mary Barton and North and South, amid the struggle of an oppressed class against its oppressors. But instead of the factory workers against the owners, in the town of Monkshaven sailors have to worry about being “pressed” (kidnapped) into naval service by press-gangs, which had legal auspices. Although the press-gang incidents in the novel shape the plot, Gaskell doesn’t attempt here to reconcile these two hostile groups like she does in other novels. Rather, other than a brief commentary early on, she appears to avoid the political and focuses on the characters’ lives, and weaves the story into a tragic, haunting tale not unlike Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, replacing the wild moors with the wild sea perpetually washing up on the shores below Monkshaven. Sylvia’s Lovers would make a wonderful movie.

Beautiful Sylvia Robson is sought after by two lovers, a charming, flirtatious sailor, Charley Kinraid and a serious, responsible cousin, Philip Hepburn. The heroine falls for the sailor, but when he disappears and Philip supports her during the terrible tragic events surrounding her father, she feels she has little choice about her future. She later experiences regret.

*some spoilers ahead*

Charley and Philip are foils for each other: when Philip rises in the reader’s estimation, Charley seems to fall, but then in the middle of the novel Philip seems to sink in our estimation, while Charley rises, only to apparently change places again at the end; except by then, it is too late for happiness to ensue (without giving away too much). Thus, it can seem difficult to gauge Philip’s character with finality. Like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, at times I was disgusted by him, but it is also difficult not to sympathize with him and wish that Sylvia could just return his love, so that he could be happy. But his love is not without a shadowy undercurrent, for his love is so exhaustive that it almost borders on obsession. His tricking Sylvia into marrying him by not revealing the truth about her lover seems to confirm this. In the end, he admits his idolatry in putting Sylvia above all else, even before God himself. If he is a tragic hero, this is his tragic flaw.

Within the larger narrative of governmental tyranny (regarding the press-gangs), I believe Gaskell inscribes a tale of domestic tyranny. While he may have had good intentions (as the government would also claim it had – for the safety of England against Napoleon), because Philip tries to control Sylvia’s whole future and does not let her be free to make her own choice, he appears, to me, to be as tyrannical as the government which mandates the kidnappings of its own citizens. Such a marriage must necessarily be loveless. There can be no happiness in a marriage where the wife does not willingly submit. We see the contrast with Sylvia’s own parents’ happy relationship, where her mother Bell takes pleasure in yielding to and forbearing with Sylvia’s father Daniel, even though Gaskell makes clear several times that Mrs. Robson is certainly his superior in intellect and sense. Many times Philip becomes frustrated with Sylvia’s emotional distance and automatic obedience and longs for a feisty retort or expression of anger. She appears to have lost her will altogether, and her will, which he most desires, is not hers to give because she married him under pressure. He stole a thing which can only be given.

Perhaps their story is Gaskell’s answer to the political tyranny transpiring in the background. The government that attempts to control (and trick, as the press-gang does with the fire bell in the novel) its citizens, will necessarily meet with resistance, and disharmony will ensue. Submission is unquestionably the Christian’s duty, but where it is forced its virtue is taken away and we are left with oppressed and oppressor, and these are injustices that Christ came into the world to set right. Consider that we are under Satan’s tyranny, but Christ calls us freely to come to him – or reject him. Consider too that Christ’s greatest act of submission was done of his “own accord,” which is what makes the deed so especially wondrous (why did he do it?); if he had been forced, the deed would be emptied of love (and divinity), and we would probably feel rather sorry for Him. We could not say that it was done out of love for us; love is a gift. I think it is worth pointing out that Gaskell aligns Philip with the press-gangs early on in the novel, when he defends the legality of their actions – “But t’press-gang had law on their side, and were doing nought but what they’d warrant for” – and later with Satan. Daniel calls the deeds of the press-gang the “devil’s work,” and Alice warns Philip that “The flesh and the devil are gettin’ hold on yo’, and yo’ need more nor iver to seek t’ ways o’ grace.” (Here she is referring to his pursuit of Sylvia, although she does not know of his deception.) This may seem harsh on Philip to associate him with Satan (and Alice’s warnings perhaps can be seen as excessive), as he certainly had good intentions by deceiving Sylvia; he believed he was protecting her, and his concerns about Charley may have been justified. But we know to what destination good intentions pave the road.

Only at the end, when Sylvia can truly make her own choice, can she return Philip’s love, and God finally brings about Philip’s greatest desire. But such an outcome can only arise after Philip casts down his idol and lets her be free, and in this final act of submission to God, and allowing Sylvia to willingly submit to him, Philip’s sanctification is complete. All along Sylvia’s happy submission to him was what Philip most desired, but his tyranny over her prevented such a possibility.

I don’t know whether Gaskell intentionally set out to write a novel with the above moral, and perhaps some will say I have read too much into the story. Primarily, Sylvia’s Lovers is a haunting, tragic romance with a beautiful setting and page-turning plot. But if Sylvia’s Lovers is a response to Jane Eyre, which the editor to my Oxford edition insists that it is – well, Jane Eyre contains one of the greatest expositions of Christian ethics in all of literature. It would be no surprise that Gaskell’s novel might respond in kind. (She and the Brontës were good friends.) And if the editors of the Oxford edition can interpret this story to be primarily about a young girl’s “sexual journey,” I think I can take a little theological licence with a novel by a minister’s wife.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

The 200th Birthday of Charlotte Brontë

22 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Misc.

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

agnes grey, Anne Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Charlotte Bronte and Christianity, Christian Victorian women writers, Jane Eyre

In honour of Charlotte Brontë’s 200th birthday today, Karen Swallow Prior at The Gospel Coalition illuminates this Victorian writer’s faith and explains why Jane Eyre (1847) is a deeply Christian novel in Jane Eyre and Our Age of Authenticity.

Here are some interesting facts about Charlotte Brontë’s life at CBC.ca and two previous posts about Anne, Charlotte’s sister.

Introducing “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë

Fruits of the Spirit in “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë

 

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

5 Classic Christian Novels You Won’t Find At Your Bible Bookstore

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Misc.

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christian bestsellers, Christian literature, classic Christian novels

For the Jane Austen fan bored of the bland selection on the fiction shelves at your local Christian bookstore or church library, consider the classics below, all written by Christians during the Victorian Era. These novels (and more), which I analyze in depth on my blog, pack intellectual and theological punch – and enough time-period drama for even the Downton Abbey addict.

1. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore – This tale of forbidden romance on the wild, rugged moors is sure to please any Jane Eyre fan. But with guns, outlaws, highway robberies and horse-riding men of brawn you might want to pass this English western onto a male in your life once you’re finished with it (or vice versa). (And somebody ought to tell John Eldredge and co. about this one.)

2. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell – Can a congregation overcome scandal? Or are sinful secrets better kept quiet? Read this little-known Victorian Mary Magdalene story to find out. This book, however, is definitely a secret better not kept.

3. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell – Why read historical fiction when you can read novels written by eyewitnesses from that very period? The smoke, grime and grinding cogs of industrial Manchester come to life in this story of murder, mystery and romance.

4. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte – A disastrous marriage, a harrowing escape and a mysterious woman with a past. Thought the Victorians were prudes? This novel fearlessly tackles alcoholism, marital abuse and adultery – waters today’s Amish and other G-rated Christian Harlequins fear to tread.

5. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope – This novel unfolds a romantic comedy with many hilarious mishaps and misunderstandings, all amid the setting of the stuffy and magisterial Anglican church in mid-19th century England. Trollope tackles absurdity, immorality and superficiality in the church without fear, always with a dose of humour, and even sometimes with outright buffoonery.

Have you ever heard of any of these novels, and if so, where from?
Do any appeal to you?
Do you prefer contemporary Christian novels or the classics?
Leave a reply below.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Introducing “Lorna Doone” by R.D. Blackmore

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Introducing...

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Christian western, Lorna Doone, R.D. Blackmore

“For either end of life is home; both source, and issue, being God.” – Lorna Doone

This tale of forbidden romance on the wild, rugged moors is sure to please any Jane Eyre fan. But with guns, outlaws, highway robberies and horse-riding men of brawn you might want to pass this English western onto a male in your life once you’re finished with it (or vice versa). (And somebody ought to tell John Eldredge and co. about this one.)

Set in the English countryside in the 1680’s during Monmouth’s rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the new Catholic king James II, Lorna Doone is actually a historical novel. John Ridd, a young farmer renowned for his robust physique, recounts his romance with the daughter of his family’s enemy and the tragic events that climax the novel in sorrow and joy at once. Blackmore’s authentic Christian treatment of adventure, romance, religion, politics and nature combine to make Lorna Doone one of the great reads of the Victorian era.

Analyses for further reading:

Part I: Pure at Heart: Masculinity and Godliness in “Lorna Doone”

Part II: The Male Gaze: Masculinity and Godliness in “Lorna Doone”

Part III: Nature Reveals the Glory of God in “Lorna Doone”

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Introducing “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Brontë

10 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Introducing...

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Anne Bronte, christian review, tenant of wildfell hall christianity

I wrote that Anne Brontë‘s first book, Agnes Grey, was anything but gothic, especially in comparison to her sisters’ novels Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Anne’s second and only other novel, however, could be considered the most gothic tale of all the Brontës’ works because of its frighteningly realistic subject matter. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights border on the spectral, but in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the specter comes to life like a waking nightmare.

The real-life monster that haunts Wildfell Hall is an abusive and degenerate husband, and more generally, a corrupt legal system that protects such tyranny (at this time women were not allowed to divorce on the grounds of adultery, so legally Helen is bound to her husband, Arthur Huntingdon). The horrors of Jane Eyre and Wutherings Heights are imaginary creations inspired by an eerie setting (the moor), but Hungtingdon is not a figment of the imagination and will not dissipate like the ghostly vapour off the moor. His haunt is not the wilderness or the gloomy castle, but the English drawing room, and this makes him the most frightening monster of all.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the novel’s devoutly Christian protagonist:

“Then I saw the eternal stars twinkling down on me; I knew their God was mine, and He was strong to save and swift to hear. ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’ seemed whispered from above their myriad orbs. No, no; I felt He would not leave me comfortless: in spite of earth and Hell I should have strength for all my trials, and win a glorious rest at last!”

Read scripture-based book club discussion questions in “Marriage, Divorce and Universal Salvation in ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ by Anne Brontë.”

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Introducing “Agnes Grey” by Anne Brontë

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by ChristianVictorianLiterature in Introducing...

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

agnes grey, Anne Bronte, literature

There is no mad woman in the attic or slinking maniac on the moor in this Brontë novel. In fact, Agnes Grey is not very gothic at all, unlike its cousins Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, literary offspring of sisters Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë, respectively.

Agnes Grey, a plain and sensible governess (not unlike Jane Eyre) with a fitting name, tries to supplement her impoverished family’s income by attempting to instruct wild, unruly and spoiled children of wealthy parents. Her employers undervalue her moral instruction and care mostly about matching their older daughters with rich suitors and keeping the younger children out of sight.

In Agnes’ lonely and friendless life appears an equally conscientious and principled young rector, stirring the governess’s heart to flame with hope for a future of Godly companionship.

Once you’ve finished the book, read an in-depth literary analysis “Fruits of the Spirit in ‘Agnes Grey’ by Anne Brontë.”

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Posts

  • “The Way We Live Now” by Anthony Trollope
  • Introducing “Sylvia’s Lovers” by Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Introducing “Home Education” by Charlotte Mason
  • My Story: A Victorian Healing
  • Christian Victorian Readings for Advent
  • A Christian Jane Austen Biography
  • Introducing: “Aurora Leigh” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Introducing “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 58 other subscribers
Follow Christian Victorian Literature on WordPress.com

Tags

agnes grey Anne Bronte C.S. Lewis Charlotte Bronte class Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Gaskell George MacDonald industrial England Jane Austen Jane Eyre literature Lorna Doone marriage mary barton masculinity Nature novel R.D. Blackmore Wild At Heart

Blogroll

  • Faces of the Victorian Era
  • The Victorian Review
  • This Victorian Life
  • Vintage Novels
  • Far Cry
  • Christian Mom Thoughts
  • Kingdom Poets
  • Christian Novel Studies
  • The Long Victorian

Links

  • Earn free amazon.ca gift cards.
  • Excellent essay on Christianity in literature over the centuries
  • More amazon giftcards for free
  • My Curriculum for Sale at TeachersPayTeachers
  • Progeny Press

BlogCatalog

Books Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Christian Victorian Literature
    • Join 58 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Christian Victorian Literature
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: