A lovely little chaste book that is romantic and VERY much a book of it's period - it's also a touch self-righteous.

With this I have now read a book by each of the Brontë sisters, and I found this to be a perfectly serviceable book about a governess, but not much more. It is very well written I suppose, hard to find any fault with the actual writing... it's just that Agnes, well she's lovely really, maybe a bit whiny, and oft put upon, but we really can't fault her for anything, can we? I think that's the problem, she's always so correct in everything she does, says, even in her thoughts, so umm... she's hard to relate to, dear girl. She had some toils and certainly seems to deserve a very happy life, but I frankly just don't care much. Maybe the book should have stuck with the very disturbing little psychopath that enjoyed the torturing and murdering of helpless animals that she was a governess to at first - that would have been a wholly uncomfortable book, but at least it would evoke a strong reaction from it's readers - a violent dislike and repulsion no doubt, but I think that might be preferable to indifference. I am likely being too harsh, but I do maintain that this is a book of static characters which while well enough told lacks much in the way of interest. The book has been completed and yet I find I am still waiting for some turn...

If you need a palate cleanser between other reads this might be the perfect church wafer of a book.