&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RAgnes Grey&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RAnne Bronte&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&R&&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R

• New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&RWritten when women--and workers generally--had few rights in England, &&LI&&RAgnes Grey&&L/I&&R exposes the brutal inequities of the rigid class system in mid-nineteenth century Britain. Agnes comes from a respectable middle-class family, but their financial reverses have forced her to seek work as a governess. Pampered and protected at home, she is unprepared for the harsh reality of a governess's life. At the Bloomfields and later the Murrays, she suffers under the snobbery and sadism of the selfish, self-indulgent upper-class adults and the shrieking insolence of their spoiled children. Worse, the unique social and economic position of a governess--"beneath" her employers but "above" their servants--condemns her to a life of loneliness. &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&RLess celebrated than her older sisters Charlotte and Emily, &&LSTRONG&&RAnne Bronte&&L/B&&R was also less interested in spinning wildly symbolic, romantic tales and more determined to draw realistic images of conditions in Victorian England that need changing. While Charlotte's &&LI&&RJane Eyre&&L/I&&R features a governess who eventually and improbably marries her employer, &&LI&&RAgnes Grey&&L/I&&R deals with the actual experiences of middle-class working women, experiences Anne had herself endured during her hateful tenure as a governess. &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&LSTRONG&&RFred Schwarzbach&&L/B&&R&&L/B&&R serves as Associate Dean and teaches in the General Studies Program of New York University. He is the author of &&LI&&RDickens and the City&&L/I&&R, the editor of &&LI&&RVictorian Artists and the City&&L/I&&R and &&LI&&RDickens's American Notes&&L/I&&R, a contributor to the &&LI&&ROxford Reader's Companion to Dickens&&L/I&&R, and the author of scores of articles, essays, and reviews on Victorian life and letters.&&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R