"Shirley" by Charlotte Bronte. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-043095-4
This is a gem of a book, written just after Jane Eyre and set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, it is one of Charlotte Bronte's best.
It follows the fortunes of two women Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar and their involvement with the Moore brothers. These relationships are set against the politics of England and the Continent at the time of the Luddite uprisings and Napoleonic wars respectively. In that respect Shirley has a farther reach as a novel than some of Charlotte Bronte's other more personal novels such as Jane Eyre.
It is particularly interesting as a literary piece because there is some evidence that the two principle female characters are based on Charlotte's two sisters Anne and Emily and as such give the reader some insight into what these two authors were like as individuals, at least from their sister's point of view.
We find Caroline Helstone (modelled on Anne) a shy and retiring individual whilst Shirley Keeldar (modelled on Emily) a confident, self possessed and fiery personality. What is both an interesting and sad fact is that the description of Caroline's illness was written around the time of Anne Bronte's death.
I will not pretend that this is an easy book to read but it is worth the effort.
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Really enjoyed reading your opinion as I have never heard of this novel by the Brontes. I will definitely search it out. Have you visited Haworth in Yorkshire. The Bronte's home is fascinating. Anne's clothes, in particular, are very very tiny and her feet were childlike if her shoes are anything to go by. The house is amazing - actually set in a graveyard (well almost - it is at the end of the garden) and the moors are behind it. This is almost an opinion in itself, but thanks for the opinion anyway. Ann
17/5/08 'You expected bread, and you have got a stone; break your teeth on it, and don't ... more
shriek...you will have learned the great lesson how to endure without a sob.' Shirley is Charlotte Bronte's only historical novel and her most topical one.
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