ABSTRACT
The seventh and final volume of Frances Burney’s Diary and Letters appeared in 1846; in 1847, Anne Brontë’s eponymous heroine and first person narrator of Agnes Grey concluded her own story: ‘Here I pause. My diary, from which I have compiled these pages, goes but little further. I could go on for years: but I will content myself with adding, that I shall never forget that glorious summer evening ... .’1 This is the first reference to such a document, a daily record which contributes to the memorial reconstruction of Agnes’s story. The novel was equally lost in the furore which accompanied the reception of Wuthering Heights with which it was published. In the following year, Brontë’s next novel concerned a diary very much rediscovered and presented directly within the text of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
