ABSTRACT
Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey has been overlooked or misjudged by even the most adamant Bronte enthusiasts. Among the few considerations Agnes Grey has received, it has been judged to consist of three principal purposes: 'a pedagogic one, a protest against tyranny, and an attempt to reconcile the passionate yearning hexart with life's realities'. Agnes Grey as a novel specifically, might be achieved if the work were to be approached in two previously ignored ways: first, it must be understood as a Romantic work, where the novel is not a mere retelling of Anne's experiences, but a self-projection of Anne the novelist into Agnes the character. Secondly, and this approach is a logical extension of the first, Agnes Grey must be viewed as a Bildungsroman. This distinction is key because Agnes Grey does not fit into the paradigm constructed by English-language scholarship. Agnes Grey is a Bildungsroman that carries this term without awkwardness.
