# Is "Agnes Grey" by Anne Brontë (as 'Acton Bell') a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (as 'Acton Bell') (Thomas Cautley Newby, London, 1847) is identified by: The true first is volume III of the Newby three-decker issued December 1847, in which Wuthering Heights by "Ellis Bell" fills volumes I-II and Agnes Grey fills volume III. Confirmed: there is no separate first edition of Agnes Grey.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is volume III of the Newby three-decker issued December 1847, in which Wuthering Heights by "Ellis Bell" fills volumes I-II and Agnes Grey fills volume III. Volume III has its own title page: "Agnes Grey
- A Novel, by Acton Bell, Vol
- III. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847"; the Princeton Parrish copy collates 1 preliminary leaf and 363 pages
- A four-page publisher's advertisement leaf headed "New Works by Popular Authors" and dated November 1847 is bound at the back of volume III — a required point, noted independently by Parrish and by Bonhams
- Newby's printing is notoriously careless: wrong page numbers, missing and incorrect punctuation, and running-head misspellings ("Anges Grey", and "Heghts" in the Wuthering Heights volumes)
- Parrish records that title-page punctuation varies in volume II, and Anne Brontë's own copy carries her pencil corrections on 81 pages
- Publisher imprint reads Thomas Cautley Newby, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anne Brontë (as 'Acton Bell') |
| Publisher | Thomas Cautley Newby, London |
| Year | 1847 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is volume III of the Newby three-decker issued December 1847, in which Wuthering Heights by "Ellis Bell" fills volumes I-II… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is volume III of the Newby three-decker issued December 1847, in which Wuthering Heights by "Ellis Bell" fills volumes I-II and Agnes Grey fills volume III. Volume III has its own title page: "Agnes Grey. A Novel, by Acton Bell, Vol. III. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847"; the Princeton Parrish copy collates 1 preliminary leaf and 363 pages. A four-page publisher's advertisement leaf headed "New Works by Popular Authors" and dated November 1847 is bound at the back of volume III — a required point, noted independently by Parrish and by Bonhams. Newby's printing is notoriously careless: wrong page numbers, missing and incorrect punctuation, and running-head misspellings ("Anges Grey", and "Heghts" in the Wuthering Heights volumes); Parrish records that title-page punctuation varies in volume II, and Anne Brontë's own copy carries her pencil corrections on 81 pages. Probably no more than about 250 sets were printed (Charlotte Brontë's letter of 13 September 1850). The publisher's cloth is blind-blocked on covers and spine but is recorded in more than one colour across sources, and almost every surviving set was rebound by the circulating libraries — cloth colour is therefore not a safe point. Parrish pp. 85-86; Sadleir 350; Smith pp. 60-63.

## Is this the true first?
Confirmed: there is no separate first edition of Agnes Grey. The true first is physically the third volume of Newby's 1847 Wuthering Heights three-decker, so it is almost never found alone, and a stray volume III on the market is a broken set rather than a self-contained first. Circulating libraries lent the volumes singly and later sold them off singly, which is why complete three-volume sets — not the individual books — are the rarity. No earlier or competing printing of the text exists.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Not applicable — the book predates book-club publishing. The standing "first thus" trap is Smith, Elder's 1850 one-volume "Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. A New Edition Revised" (xxiv, 504 pp.), printing Wuthering Heights at pp. [1]-296 and Agnes Grey at pp. [297]-468 and adding Charlotte Brontë's "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" dated 19 September 1850 plus her "Editor's Preface". It is the first appearance of those two pieces and the first corrected text, and it is often mis-sold as a first — it is a second edition. Parrish notes its pagination jumps from xvi to [xix]. Smith, Elder's 1881 "A New Edition" is a further reprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Agnes Grey* by Anne Brontë (as 'Acton Bell') a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/agnes-grey
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.