I wanted to like this -- and I did like some aspects very much. However, those were not enough to balance out the unreasonable (and to my mind, unrealistic) characters and the too frequent passages that bored me.

What I liked: the setting (early 1800s in northern England), the part of the plot about the mill owners versus the workers, some of the romance

What I disliked: Caroline's weak character; Shirley demanding a man who can master her!! and she is also very weak in her dealings with Louis; the style of the writing especially in the descriptive passages. I also found the ending unconvincing.

( )

There is only about 30 years between the time of Jane Austen and that of Charlotte Brontë, and yet the economic outlook for women was entirely different. Shirley was only Charlotte Brontë's second novel. Many readers and critics consider it a less successful novel, but this seems a bit unfair.

Shirley ends with a double marriage, but they aren't marriages of romantic love. In Austen's novels attraction between men and women is often compared to manneristic dance movements, in Shirley it remains unclear to the very end which pairs are formed, an outcome quite unexpected.

In the time of Jane Austen, women from less well-to-do families set their eyes on marrying a man of wealth or at least a parson. In Charlotte Brontë's time this is very different. First of all, women could go out and work as governesses and provide for themselves. This is what one of the main characters, Caroline Helstone intends to do, although there is some doubt as to her abilities. Half-way through the novel, Caroline is spared this fate, as Mrs Pryor seems willing to care for her in exchange for companionship. Her motivation seems to be purely out of sympathy, although it is later revealed that she is actually Caroline's mother.

The other main character in the novel is a very different kind of woman. Where Caroline appears meek, Shirley Keeldar is entrepreneurial, a very strong woman. The prominence of Shirley in the novel also gives the novel a feminist characteristic.

Although large parts of the novel, and surely the first 400 pages make for fast and exciting reading, the final 200 pages seem a bit tiresome. Part of the excitement of the novel is the late introduction of Shirley Keeldar, who doesn't appear until after about 250 pages. The last 250 pages of the novel give meticulous descriptions of a large number of other characters who appear on the sidelines of Caroline's life. Instead of a novel of manners, it seems to be a study of character.

The historic setting of the novel is appealing and interesting, in the sense that it indicates a transition from a rural economy with landed gentry to the beginnings of the industrial revolution. The plot of the novel is situation at the moment where the industrial revolution is about to begin, and country folk rebel against it, trying to stop its development. Perhaps in describing the rustic characters Charlotte Brontë was trying to capture a world that was about to vanish, while she welcomed the new age with the strongest characters, recognizing that the new age would usher in many new developments that would in the end benefit women toward more independent lives.

Besides description of character, Shirley is also a novel of exquisite description of the landscape in western Yorkshire. ( )

There is only about 30 years between the time of Jane Austen and that of Charlotte Brontë, and yet the economic outlook for women was entirely different. Shirley was only Charlotte Brontë's second novel. Many readers and critics consider it a less successful novel, but this seems a bit unfair.

Shirley ends with a double marriage, but they aren't marriages of romantic love. In Austen's novels attraction between men and women is often compared to manneristic dance movements, in Shirley it remains unclear to the very end which pairs are formed, an outcome quite unexpected.

In the time of Jane Austen, women from less well-to-do families set their eyes on marrying a man of wealth or at least a parson. In Charlotte Brontë's time this is very different. First of all, women could go out and work as governesses and provide for themselves. This is what one of the main characters, Caroline Helstone intends to do, although there is some doubt as to her abilities. Half-way through the novel, Caroline is spared this fate, as Mrs Pryor seems willing to care for her in exchange for companionship. Her motivation seems to be purely out of sympathy, although it is later revealed that she is actually Caroline's mother.

The other main character in the novel is a very different kind of woman. Where Caroline appears meek, Shirley Keeldar is entrepreneurial, a very strong woman. The prominence of Shirley in the novel also gives the novel a feminist characteristic.

Although large parts of the novel, and surely the first 400 pages make for fast and exciting reading, the final 200 pages seem a bit tiresome. Part of the excitement of the novel is the late introduction of Shirley Keeldar, who doesn't appear until after about 250 pages. The last 250 pages of the novel give meticulous descriptions of a large number of other characters who appear on the sidelines of Caroline's life. Instead of a novel of manners, it seems to be a study of character.

The historic setting of the novel is appealing and interesting, in the sense that it indicates a transition from a rural economy with landed gentry to the beginnings of the industrial revolution. The plot of the novel is situation at the moment where the industrial revolution is about to begin, and country folk rebel against it, trying to stop its development. Perhaps in describing the rustic characters Charlotte Brontë was trying to capture a world that was about to vanish, while she welcomed the new age with the strongest characters, recognizing that the new age would usher in many new developments that would in the end benefit women toward more independent lives.

Besides description of character, Shirley is also a novel of exquisite description of the landscape in western Yorkshire. ( )

Victober 2022 re-read: After revisiting works from each Bronte sister this year, I can categorically confirm that I am Team Charlotte. Even so, this is not her best novel. I'd say it's a battle between Jane Eyre and Villette for that title. Still, Shirley has tons of great passages. It's just very long and keeps switching focus.

Original review follows:
----------------------
After placing this on my did-not-finish shelf earlier in the year, I was motivated to give it another try after listening to the BBC Radio 4 dramatization. Having a basic idea of where the plot is going was very helpful and made it easier to stick with the book through all the divagations.

It's a long book. The beginning is a bit of a slog, and it wasn't until about a quarter of the way in that I got into enjoyable territory. It begins with a lot of description about the idiosyncrasies of minor characters, and the plight of Robert Moore, who wants to mechanize his textile mill but faces backlash from his workers who fear they will lose their jobs. Interesting in spots, but a bit snoozy, if you ask me. If this book were a modern publication, I'm sure it wouldn't leave the editor's desk without being severely tightened up and condensed. There is A LOT of description.

But once the narrative focused on the two women at the center of the book, my attention was caught. Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar are both fascinating women in their own way, but very different. Caroline, the niece of the rector, is quiet and retiring on the outside but with the strength of steel underneath, and quite a few of her own strongly held beliefs. Shirley, the newly arrived inheritor of the manor, is whimsical and bright, a leader amongst followers.

The friendship of these two girls makes for a satisfying read. Their romantic experiences are of secondary importance. Indeed, it is hard to muster too much enthusiasm for the man that Caroline loves. Shirley's suitor is much more intriguing, even if he doesn't show up until the book is more than half over.

This is an interesting contrast to Charlotte Bronte's first published book, Jane Eyre. Where Jane Eyre is beautifully Gothic and emotional, Shirley deals more straightforwardly with the real world and ordinary people. Oh, there is a secret or two to be revealed, but nothing in the nature of Jane Eyre.

After reading Charlotte Bronte's letters recently, and then this book, I thought Caroline Helstone could be a reflection of how Charlotte Bronte saw herself, more so than any of her other characters. Although Caroline struggles with anxiety, she is not so separate from society as Jane Eyre or Lucy Snowe. She has something more of humility and patience mixed in with her strength. She does not thrive on being on her own against the world...ultimately, her world ends up giving her a place to belong. ( )

As the author warned us, this book would be full of people who we don't like. Some of the most consarned-est Humans ever born live in this little part of York. There is Daniel Malone, a curate so full of himself; Mrs. Yorke--ugh, the meanest, most undeserving mother of nice husband and kids; and many more. The notes, since this deals with the early 19th century, and we don't know the literary and historical references, are mostly as Greek to me, since for most of them, you would have to further look up stuff in the Bible. No thank you. However, the author so understands human emotions and so values natural beauty and so craftingly shares this with us, her Reader, and even talks to us as if she knows us, that I will forgive her the crazy Greek notes, and say thank you, Charlotte Bronte, for a beautiful work. ( )

Boring, and the "hero" is horrible. ( )

This was Charlotte Brontë's second novel, written during the terrible period in her life when Branwell, Emily and Anne all died within a few months of each other. It never had quite the popular success of Jane Eyre, and it tends to get tucked away in the category of "industrial novels" together with North and South and Hard Times. But it is one of the handful of books that can claim to have introduced a new given name into the language (where would we be without Ms Bassey, Ms Temple and Ms Williams?). And in places it's a fairly hard-hitting feminist text as well.

The story is set in the early 1810s, with the Yorkshire textile industry hard-hit by the export restrictions of the Napoleonic wars. Unemployed textile operatives, with no prospect of work, are getting drawn into rioting and machine-breaking. Vicar's niece Caroline is in love with her cousin Robert, an Anglo-Belgian mill-owner ruined by the war in Antwerp and trying to make a new start in Yorkshire, but of course he can't think of marriage until his business is on a sound footing, which it won't be until the war ends and the operatives stop rioting. And to make a bad situation worse, Caroline's fiery uncle quarrels with Robert over politics and forbids her to see him.

Then, a good third of the way through the novel already, Shirley finally arrives on the scene. She's a young woman of independent ideas who has, very unusually, inherited an estate in her own right, and she's determined to show that she can run it as well as any man. Charlotte Brontë must have heard tales about the famous Anne Lister, of Shibden Hall in Halifax, who was in a similar situation and about the same age as Shirley. (Obviously she didn't know about Lister's secret diaries, full of her love affairs with local young women, which were only deciphered fairly recently.) Caroline and Shirley soon become intimate friends and have long discussions about politics, the church, women's role in society, how damaging it is that middle-class women have so few types of employment open to them, and so on. Shirley scandalises a few curates, there are rumours of an involvement with her tenant Robert, but she still finds just about all the eligible men in Yorkshire chasing her.

Shirley is a wonderful character, Caroline is enjoyable if sometimes just a bit too good to be true, and there are some splendid dialogues and set-pieces, including the Sunday-school picnic and the grand scene when the rioters attack the mill, and there's a host of entertaining minor characters who give Brontë the opportunity for flashes of authentic Yorkshire dialect and some ironic voice-over commentary. I especially enjoyed Robert's very Belgian-bourgeoise sister Hortense, with her stubborn insistence on living according to the standards she's been brought up to, even though the whole of West Yorkshire is laughing at her odd dress and the strange food she prepares.

But it does all seem to ramble a bit, strands of plot seem to fall out of sight to be picked up again apologetically many chapters later, and for all its feminist bravura the plot comes to a very conventional conclusion with a double marriage, at least one half of which makes nonsense of about half the talk that preceded it. The shocking defeat of Napoleon that makes such a happy-end possible may not be altogether a surprise to the reader. Also, Caroline and Robert have both found themselves in life-threatening situations at points in the story where the reader knows there is no way the author would be able to proceed further without them, and Caroline herself is probably the only person who was surprised when her long-lost mother was finally unmasked.

Whilst Brontë is clearly very sympathetic with the plight of the starving workers, she is almost nauseously insistent that all the trouble is the fault of external agitators who are non-conformist preachers and therefore — in her Anglican view of the world — ipso facto alcoholics. And she has no qualms at all about seeing the lot of them transported to Australia. So probably not the place to look for balanced political insight. But well worth all that inconvenience for the time we spend with the title character.

The audiobook read by Anna Bentinck works well: she has a very good feel for the rhythm of Brontë's prose, and she has no trouble at all making French with a Yorkshire accent sound different from French with a Belgian accent, a trick that is required rather more often in this book than in most other Victorian novels. ( )

For my full, non-spoiler review: https://christianlovingbooks.blogspot.com/2020/01/shirley-review.html ( )

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Shirley
Series: ----------
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 743
Words: 215K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia

Robert Moore is a mill owner noted for apparent ruthlessness towards his employees. He has laid off many of them, and is apparently indifferent to their consequent impoverishment. In fact he had no choice, since the mill is deeply in debt. He is determined to restore his family's honour and fortune.

As the novel opens Robert awaits delivery of new labour-saving machinery for the mill, which will enable him to lay off additional employees. Together with some friends he watches all night, but the machinery is destroyed by "frame-breakers" on the way to the mill. Robert's business difficulties continue, due in part to continuing labour unrest, but even more to the Napoleonic Wars and the accompanying Orders in Council, which forbid British merchants from trading in American markets.

Robert is very close to his cousin Caroline Helstone, who comes to his house to be taught French by his sister, Hortense. Caroline worships Robert. Caroline's father is dead and her mother has abandoned her, leaving her to be brought up by her uncle, Rev. Helstone. To keep himself from falling in love with her Robert keeps his distance, since he cannot afford to marry for pleasure or for love.

Caroline realises that Robert is growing increasingly distant and withdraws into herself. Her uncle does not sympathise with her "fancies". She has no money of her own, so she cannot leave, which is what she longs to do. She suggests that she might take up the role of governess, but her uncle dismisses the idea and assures her that she need not work for a living.

Caroline recovers somewhat when she meets Shirley, an independent heiress whose parents are dead and who lives with Mrs Pryor, her former governess. Shirley is lively, cheerful, full of ideas about how to use her money and how to help people, and very interested in business. Caroline and Shirley soon become close friends. Caroline becomes convinced that Shirley and Robert will marry. Shirley likes Robert, is very interested in his work, and is concerned about him and the threats he receives from laid-off millworkers. Both good and bad former employees are depicted. Some passages show the real suffering of those who were honest workers and can no longer find good employment; other passages show how some people use losing their jobs as an excuse to get drunk, fight with their previous employers, and incite other people to violence. Shirley uses her money to help the poorest, but she is also motivated by the desire to prevent any attack on Robert.

One night Rev. Helstone asks Shirley to stay with Caroline while he is away. Caroline and Shirley realise that an attack on the mill is imminent. They hear the dog barking and realise that a group of rioters has come to a halt outside the rectory. They overhear the rioters talking about entering the house, but are relieved when they decide to go on. The women go to the mill together to warn Robert, but they are too late. They witness the ensuing battle from their hiding place.

The whole neighbourhood becomes convinced that Robert and Shirley will marry. The anticipation of this event causes Caroline to fall ill. Mrs Pryor comes to look after her and learns the cause of Caroline's sorrow. She continues her vigil even as Caroline worsens daily. Mrs Pryor then reveals to Caroline that she is Caroline's mother. She had abandoned her because Caroline looked exactly like her father, the husband who tortured Mrs Pryor and made her life miserable. She had little money, so when her brother-in-law offered to bring up the child, she accepted the offer, took up the name of Pryor and went off to become a governess. Caroline now has a reason to live, since she knows that she can go and live with her mother, and begins to recover.

Shirley's uncle and aunt come to visit her. They bring with them their daughters, their son, and their son's tutor, Louis Moore. He is Robert's younger brother and taught Shirley when she was younger. Caroline is puzzled by Shirley's haughty and formal behaviour towards Louis. Two men fall in love with Shirley and woo her, but she rejects both of them because she does not love them. The relationship between Shirley and Louis, meanwhile, remains ambivalent. There are days when Louis can ask Shirley to come to the schoolroom and recite the French pieces she learned from him when she was younger. On other days Shirley ignores Louis. However, when Shirley is upset the only person she can confide in is Louis. After a supposedly mad dog bites Shirley and makes her think that she is to die early no one except Louis can make her reveal her fears.

Robert returns one dark night, first stopping at the market and then returning to his home with a friend. The friend asks him why he left when it seemed so certain that Shirley loved him and would have married him. Robert replies that he had assumed the same, and that he had proposed to Shirley before he left. Shirley had at first laughed, thinking that he was not serious, and then cried when she discovered that he was. She had told him that she knew that he did not love her, and that he asked for her hand, not for her sake, but for her money. Robert had walked away filled with a sense of humiliation, even as he knew that she was right. This self-disgust had driven Robert away to London, where he realised that restoring the family name was not as important as maintaining his self-respect. He had returned home determined to close the mill if he had to, and go away to Canada to make his fortune. Just as Robert finishes his narration his friend hears a gunshot and Robert falls from his horse.

The friend takes Robert to his own home and looks after him. After a turn for the worse Robert slowly gets better. A visit from Caroline revives him, but she has to come secretly, hiding from her uncle and his friend and his family. Robert soon moves back to his own home and persuades his sister that the very thing their house needs to cheer it up is a visit from Caroline. Robert asks for Caroline's forgiveness.

Louis proposes to Shirley, despite the difference in their relative situations, and Shirley agrees to marry him. At first Caroline is to be Shirley's bridesmaid, but Robert proposes to her and she accepts. The novel ends with Caroline marrying Robert and Shirley marrying Louis.

My Thoughts:

I kept going back and forth in my head if this was a 3star or a 3.5star read. There were times that I was really enjoying what I was reading and other times I simply wanted it to be gotten over with. This was very much a romance but with no gothic overtones.

Two women pine away almost to death for love of two brothers and the men manfully overcome their manliness and cultural ideals to marry them anyway. What a heart stopping story!

I can see why this isn't one of the better known stories by the Bronte's. At over 700 pages it is just LOOONG and really feels very rambly and voyeuristic into the lives of Shirley and Caroline. Given, that's what is expected but it just hit me that way.

I can say with some authority that there is no chance I'll be re-reading this book. I've read it and can cross it off the (imaginary) List.

★★★✬☆ ( )

This book is high key horrible and I fucking love it! Shirley is trans. End of review. ( )

If there was a 4 1/2 that is what I would have given this book. I really, really liked it but the last little part "less" good. The tension between Robert and Caroline was very intense but then when I figured it was going to work out and Shirley really liked Louis then I wasn't quite as absorbed... ( )

Charlotte Bronte was a gifted writer who had one great story to tell -- the story of self. She told that story best, and electrifyingly, in Jane Eyre, the story of an indomitable ego that chooses morality and personal integrity at any price. Her later books are sometimes-interesting, sometimes-not, reworkings of that theme. "Villette" has the integrated, appealing central character of JE, but succumbs to pathos. "Shirley" is full of interesting twists and turns, nearly all of which peter out, or worse. The subplot of populist rebellion against automating industrialism is interesting, but deflates as British military victory returns prosperity to the region. CB splits her female heroine into two women, demure Caroline and bold Shirley, who has what was then a man's name, and who is occasionally referenced with male pronouns and called "Captain Shirley." Caroline and Shirley clearly esteem and love each other, but this too goes wrong as the narrative requires classic marriage-plot denouements, with each proving unintentionally unsavory. Caroline's devotion to her leading man is creepily self-effacing, while Shirley's is even ickier, as she, her boyfriend, and CB all seem to agree that she will never live happily ever after unless and until she finds the man who can master and dominate her. The plot obliges, in a benevolent way that makes it clear this is not meant as irony. Anyone who thinks of CB as a feminist might want to read the last few chapters while hiding under a 19th century writing desk.

And yet . . . the book is worth reading. The frequent doses of great writing; the unflinchingly honest, and funny, insights into social foibles and clerical failings; the deeply resonant and empathetic portrayals of human loneliness and frustration all make it worthwhile. And what if CB, with her gender-bending, Luddite-channeling, transparently absurd love-is-submission happy ending, was groping toward something her early 19th century mind just wasn't ready for? ( )

The first chapter of Shirley ("Levitical") hooked me. Nineteenth-century Church of England politics? Yes, please! But the rest of the novel doesn't quite deliver, on that or any other score. Brontë's prose is so pleasant to read that I stayed engaged and ultimately persevered with the book over the course of a few months, but I don't think I'd repeat the experience; I just didn't care about the characters quite enough. ( )

This was the second novel by Charlotte Bronte, but I didn't find this anywhere near as interesting as Jane Eyre (or indeed the other three Bronte novels by Emily and Anne). While set in an interesting historical period, the economic depression following the Napoleonic wars and the era of Luddite opposition to industrialisation, this was only a minor part of the backdrop and nowhere near as vivid as the description of industrial strife and economic hardship in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, which I read last autumn. The title character was not really the most prominent one (she wasn't mentioned until nearly a third of the way through) and I can't say I found any of the main quartet especially interesting, though there was some amusing sharp dialogue between Shirley and her uncle. The minor character of schoolboy Martin Yorke was also quite funny. Overall, definitely my least favourite Bronte novel. ( )

Oh, this book. How did the same author who wrote my beloved Jane Eyre also write this and Villette?

Unfortunately, I felt much the same way as I did about Villette when reading Shirley - boring, pretentious, and practically intolerable. I wanted so badly to like this but I just couldn't connect to the story or characters. Bronte throws some social commentary (owner vs. worker) in your face but doesn't make it feel integral to the story. And we get the typical woman who is disappointed in love and takes to her death bed only to recover when she finds her long lost mother has been right in front of her the whole book. I'm not sure how a book can be over-dramatic and boring at the same time.

I feel guilty not liking this, but there it is. ( )

Brontë showing her mastery by dropping twenty different styles on the reader, almost like a prose collage. ( )

Shirley is an odd book. It doesn’t offer a tightly cohesive plot, but it does offer many moments In Which Charlotte Has Opinions, opinions about: politics, social and industrial change, marriage, the church, unrequited love, governesses, society’s expectations of women, family dynamics, illness and grief. I don’t always agree with her, but I enjoy how fiercely passionate she is -- and how fiercely passionate her characters can be. I also enjoyed that the plot twists unexpectedly at times, I found the portrayal of a Yorkshire community interesting, and I liked that at the centre of this novel, as much as it has such a thing, are two young women who are friends.

In spite of the title, Shirley arguably revolves as much around Caroline Helstone, the rector’s niece, as it does around Miss Shirley Keeldar, a landowner who has taken control of her property now that she is of age. The novel begins with a description of the curates and with unrest at Robert Moore’s mill, but these things belong to Caroline’s world: she lives with her uncle, and Robert Moore is a sort-of cousin3 and Caroline has French lessons from his sister.

Moreover, the book gives insight into Caroline’s inner-thoughts and anguish, whereas Shirley is always viewed with some distance. Significant moments for Shirley often occur off-screen and the reader learns about such incidents only once Shirley, or another character, tells someone else about them. A significant moment which does take place on-screen is told from the perspective of another character. While the narrative’s insistence that the reader cannot ever know Shirley and her story fully is a touch unsatisfying, it is also kind of fascinating.

(I suspect that the reader has to rely on what Shirley says and does, and on what others say about her, as we do for people we know in real life, because Charlotte was aiming to create something that was different not only from her previous work but from, as she saw it, many other novels of her time: a novel which better reflected reality.)

I don’t anticipate rereading Shirley for enjoyment the way I have read and reread Jane Eyre, but I am glad to have finally read it -- and I can see how it would be fun to analyse and discuss it.

A longer version of this review is on my blog: https://ladyherenya.dreamwidth.org/530348.html

“If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about women: they do not read them in a true light: they misapprehend them, both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend. Then to hear them fall into ecstasies with each other's creations, worshipping the heroine of such a poem -- novel -- drama, thinking it fine -- divine! Fine and divine it may be, but often quite artificial -- false as the rose in my best bonnet there. If I spoke all I think on this point; if I gave my real opinion of some first-rate female characters in first-rate works, where should I be? Dead under a cairn of avenging stones in half-an-hour.” ( )

Not as intriguing as I would have thought.

For me, nothing special. It was OK. ( )

Slow read. At first it is a social commentary about the changes brought on by new technology. The mill owner who needs to innovate to stay in business vs. the workers who will lose there jobs.

Shirley arrives and it is about the position of women.

Then at the end it is a love story. ( )

Probably a revolutionary novel at print, but a rather long, slow read in the 21st century. Shirley, the character, doesn’t make an appearance until a quarter way in. Shirley is an heiress who makes friends with Caroline a self-effacing young woman in love with her mill-owning but near-bankrupt (because of the Napoleonic war) cousin.

Bronte’s novel touches on war, politics, trade, unemployment through mechanisation, & the role of women struggling in a patriarchal society. All fascinating stuff, but this modern reader longed for a tighter structure & a stricter editor to speed the pace & lose some of its 700 sometimes indulgent pages. ( )

I did not like Shirley.

That could be my entire review. After reading a novel that was at least 200 pages too long, it probably should be. Because it is late and I am not feeling too charitable towards Charlotte Bronte I will make this brief.

There were many things I disliked about Shirley (★★) but the one thing that I did like was the character of Shirley. Where Shirley was lively and engaging, the other characters were dull, overwrought and over described. I may be in the minority but I think it is a huge problem if the eponymous character does not show up in your story until page 187. Once she did show up she gave everything a much needed jolt of life, including this reader. Honestly, I can’t believe I made it to page 187. I was very close many times to abandoning the book. I didn’t but I can’t say that I’m glad I didn’t.

After reading the brilliance of Anne Bronte’ masterpiece, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Shirley read like an author trying too hard. I should give Charlotte some slack since she lost her three siblings while writing Shirley (including Anne, *sniff*) but I cannot. Especially after learning that Charlotte repressed Anne’s work after she died. It infuriates me that Charlotte and Emily are well-know two hundred years later while Anne, who had much more to say and said it much better, was silenced. I admit I am biased against Charlotte because of it. I cannot help it.

Even if I did not have that prejudice I would not like Shirley. The language was pedantic, the characters annoying and the storyline meandered around searching for a social cause to champion. Unlike Bronte’s contemporary, Elizabeth Gaskell, who wrote brilliant novels about industrialization and the subsequent social struggles, it seems obvious that Bronte had no real experience or knowledge of the lower classes, only what she read in the newspaper. Even without first hand knowledge a writer of Charlotte Bronte’s caliber (at least the caliber she thought she was) should have been able to make her point eloquently. If she had a social point to make, I missed it. Or maybe after slogging through 600 pages I didn’t care. ( )

Five reasons why I liked "Shirley":

Free-spirited Shirley: Miss Keeldar is a great heroine. Charlotte Brontë have enriched Shirley with great wealth, she’s a land owner and independent, which means she can speak against the corrupt curates, help the mill owner - start a social reform program for the poor - and in one of the best scenes of the novel go against her uncle when he thinks he has found the best match for her. Just brilliant.

Luddites uprising: The novels first chapters takes us right into the historical setting (1811-12) in Yorkshire during the Napoleonic Wars where the poor workers try to attack and kill the mill owner, Robert Moore, because he’s replacing workers with new industrialised equipment. A very interesting conflict that’s the background for the two romantic plots.

Women’s role in society: The novel have several interesting discussions on women’s emancipation - We empathize with Caroline Helstone and the constraints society puts on her - she has limited possibilities in life without parents and dependent on a fickle uncle - and marriage seems out of reach. Shirley on the other hand embraces her economic and social independence which defies conventions and expectations.

Enduring friendship: The deepening and beautiful friendship between Caroline and Shirley is a great pleasure to follow. They have altogether different temperaments and characters - yet support and help each other throughout the novel.

“The Valley of the Shadow of Death” Headline for this chapter with Caroline on her deathbed. I can still remember walking and listening to it with both fascination and trembling - and it reveals one of Charlotte Brontë's famous plot twists. It’s haunting with gothic elements - and no doubt influenced by her own life experience. Three of Charlotte Brontë’s siblings died during the writing of this novel (all wihtin nine months). First her alcoholic brother, Bramwell, and then shortly after each other, Emily and Anne. ( )

Started reading this book, but I must admit that it is not the right book for me at this point in time.
I like the language, but I can't concentrate on the very sliwly developing story. The many characters that have already given presence I can hardly tell apart.
I find myself making excuses not to go on in this book, not wanting to read on.

For now I quit reading. Maybe at another time I'll try again. Maybe I find a translation, that would be great too.

Though titled Shirley, she only appears about a quarter into the plot. Caroline dominates the story for the first quarter before fleeting in and out. Similarly, Louis Moore, the man that Shirley has fallen in love with, only appears three-quarters into the plot. Still, the unlikely romance between Shirley and Louis was a delight to follow. ( )

Approaching “Shirley” for a second time, after first reading it six years previously, I realised that I remembered little about it yet seemed to think I’d enjoyed it. In retrospect, had I remembered more about it, I wouldn’t have returned for another read.

This surprised me, actually, as when I re-read Charlotte Brontë’s “Villette” and “The Professor” I appreciated them both more after a second reading.

Having checked some of the other Goodreads’ reviews of “Shirley” it seems to be a book that you either love or hate. I wouldn’t go as far as stating that I hate it. As the two-star rating suggests, I thought it was “okay”, but the good parts are hard to find in this mundane tome.

The elements that appeal to me are few. Seldom did I find myself engaged with what the author had to offer. I did like some of the characters, such as Caroline, the Moore brothers, Malone, young Martin, and Shirley herself, but none of these were of a classic or memorable mould.

One of the few interesting scenarios I liked was the part where young Martin Yorke comes to the fore. His interaction with Caroline was engaging. Can’t say too much more in case I reveal a spoiler, but this section adds a different slant to the novel for a short while.

Wish I could mention further positive points, as I am a fan of Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne, but of the seven novels produced between them, “Shirley” is the only one I’d never read again.

One of the main reasons I have such a low opinion of this book is owing to the third person narrator rambling on and on, boring me stupid with chapters like “Mr Yorke”, which is an elongated description about the man’s personality and appearance that could’ve been whittled down to a short paragraph.

I always hate it when authors write endless explanations of what a character is like, *telling* us all about them, when they could’ve served the reader far better by *showing* us what the character is like through dramatizing scenes. The amount of telling as opposed to showing is one of this novel’s let-downs.

Another negative aspect is the excessive amount of characters. Had Charlotte halved the amount of actors it would’ve made a positive difference.

A further let-down, albeit not too frequent but often enough to draw attention to, is unrealistic dialogue. This quote of Caroline addressing Martin at his father’s gate is a prime example:

> “But here we must part; we are at your father’s gate.”“Mauvaise tête vous-même; je ne fais que mon devoir; quant à vos lourdauds de paysans, je m’en moque!”
“En ravanche, mon garçon, nos lourdauds de paysans se moqueront de toi; sois en certain,” replied Yorke, speaking with nearly as pure a French accent as Gérard Moore.
“C’est bon! c’est bon! Et puisque cela m’est égal, que mes amis ne s’en inquiètent pas.”
“Tes amis! Où sont-ils, tes amis?”
“Je fais écho, où sont-ils? et je suis fort aise que l’écho seul y répond. Au diable les amis! Je me souviens encore du moment où mon père et mes oncles Gérard appellèrent autour d’eux leurs amis, et Dieu sait si les amis se sont empressés d’accourir à leur secours! Tenez, M. Yorke, ce mot, ami, m’irrite trop; ne m’en parlez plus.”
“Comme tu voudras.”He proceeded to recite the following. He gave it in French, but we must translate, on pain of being unintelligible to some readers.At length, however, a window opened, and a female voice called to him, —
“Eh, bien! Tu ne déjeûnes pas ce matin?”
The answer, and the rest of the conversation, was in French; but as this is an English book, I shall translate it into English.she bent her head et les effleura de ses lèvres. (I put that in French because the word effleurer is an exquisite word.) ( )