Drawing directly on her own experiences, Anne Brontë describes the isolation and dark ambiguity of the governess's life as lived by her fictional heroine Agnes Grey. Mature, insightful, and edged with a quiet irony, this first novel by the youngest of the Brontës displays her keen sense of moral responsibility and sharp eye for bourgeois attitudes and behavior.

Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, 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 Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

Jane, a plain and penniless orphan in nineteenth-century England, accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall and soon finds herself in love with her melancholy employer, Mr. Edward Rochester, a man with a terrible secret.

Fifteen-year-old Miss Penelope Lumley, a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is hired as governess to three young children who have been raised by wolves and must teach them to behave in a civilized manner quickly, in preparation for a Christmas ball.

Overcoming a life of hardship and loneliness, Gemma Hardy, a brilliant and determined young woman, accepts a position as an au pair on the remote Orkney Islands where she faces her biggest challenge yet.

As she arrives at Bridal Veil Island with the Bridgeport family, Callie DeBoyer's just received a letter from her parents, missionaries in coastal Africa, stating they are in dire need of more personnel. Should she give up her governess job and join their important work? When she enrolls young Thomas Bridgeport in golf lessons, Callie meets Wesley Townsend, who urges her to take lessons as well. Callie comes to care for Wesley - until she discovers...