Do you anticipate sentiment, and poetry, and reverie? Do you expect passion, and stimulus, and melodrama? Calm your expectations; reduce them to a lowly standard. Something real, cool, and solid lies before you; something unromantic as Monday morning, when all who have work wake with the consciousness that they must rise and betake themselves thereto.
I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to decide to read Shirley. I have read all of the other novels by the Brontë sisters (Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as a teenager and Agnes Grey, Villette, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and The Professor in more recent years) but for some reason haven’t felt motivated to read Shirley – until a few weeks ago when, looking at the remaining titles on my Classics Club list, I decided I couldn’t leave it to languish unread on my shelf any longer.
Shirley (published in 1849) is set in Briarfield, a small Yorkshire community in which a mill is the major employer. The year is 1811 and England’s economy is suffering from the effects of the Napoleonic Wars. Robert Moore, owner of the mill, is struggling financially and, as the novel opens, he is preparing to take delivery of some new machinery which will enable him to lay off some of his employees. Needless to say, the millworkers are enraged by this and set out to destroy the machines; uprisings like these would take place all over the country and become known as the Luddite Riots.
Against this political and social backdrop, the stories of two very different young women are played out. One is the local clergyman’s niece, Caroline Helstone, a quiet girl of eighteen. Caroline is in love with Robert Moore but he is reluctant to return her feelings due to her lack of money and position. The other is the title character, Shirley Keeldar, a beautiful young heiress. Shirley is a strong and spirited person with independent wealth – and although Caroline likes her very much, she becomes convinced that her new friend is going to marry Robert.
The title of the novel is Shirley, but this is as much Caroline’s story as Shirley’s (in fact, Shirley herself doesn’t appear until Chapter Eleven). I found them both interesting characters; there are many differences in personality, situation and outlook on life, but as the two become close friends we see a bond developing between them as they discover shared values and interests. They are described in the novel as ‘a graceful pencil sketch compared with a vivid painting’. After finishing the book I learned that Charlotte Brontë is thought to have based the character of Caroline on her sister Anne, and Shirley on Emily (she would lose both of her sisters to tuberculosis during the writing of the novel).
Another interesting fact about Shirley is that before the book was published, Shirley was usually a male name rather than a female one:
…she had no Christian name but Shirley: her parents, who had wished to have a son, finding that, after eight years of marriage, Providence had granted them only a daughter, bestowed on her the same masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a boy they had been blessed.
I can’t say that I loved this book – maybe because, as Brontë hinted in the opening lines (quoted at the beginning of this post) it lacked passion and I never felt that I had been truly drawn into the stories of Shirley and Caroline the way I had been drawn into Jane Eyre’s or Lucy Snowe’s. This was a slow read for me and at times quite a dry one, but I did find a lot to like and appreciate, from the relationships between the main characters to the historical background. Even though this hasn’t become a favourite, I’m pleased to have now read all of the Brontë sisters’ novels.
She Reads Novels 
I found reading this book very pleasant but I agree it lacks the passion of other Bronte novels. I thought Shirley was an interesting character to read about however it was Caroline who I got really attached to. I still have Agnes Grey, Villette, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and The Professor on my Classics Club list! I managed to skip all these and read Shirley first because it was chosen for me in one of the Spin events.
I found Caroline easier to connect with too, although I thought they were both interesting characters. I hope you enjoy the rest of the Bronte novels. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my favourite of the ones you still have to read.
That is the one I would really like to read next 🙂
Being the completist I am, I get a sense of happiness when someone I know finishes all the books by one author, or as in this case, a family of authors. Well done! I just finished a slog of a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln and I am so weary of the 1800s and so glad I have lived in the 20th and 21st centuries. But one of these days I will return to the Brontes. I liked learning about the Luddite Riots and that Shirley was originally a male name.
I like reading about the 1800s but certainly wouldn’t have wanted to live through them!
I’m reading this now, and while I see parallels to Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, it lacks their power. .. i reminds me a lot of North and South too. I think I would find Shirley very tiresome in real life, I don’t trust her!
Yes, this book does share some of the same themes and ideas as North and South. And I don’t think I would like Shirley in real life either – I would probably get on much better with Caroline!
I’d really like to read Shirley, actually (I’ve heard that Shirley as a heroine has a sort of proto-feminist steeliness to her which I’d be interested in reading about). I also think it could serve well as a “gateway book” to Elizabeth Gaskell’s work – which might explain why it reminds Laura so much of North and South!
I think you might like Shirley (both the book and the character). I hadn’t thought of this book as a gateway to Gaskell, but yes, it certainly could be!
Yeah, Shirley’s got some great one-liners. She asks one man, “do you seriously think all the wisdom in the world is lodged in male skulls?” (and yes the guy to whom she was speaking seriously does think that, lol)
Charlotte Bronte did write some absolute badasses – I’m delighted that Shirley is another 🙂
I’ve only read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. This one rather appeals because of the political sound of the background – I always enjoy a more or less contemporaneous view of historical events.
Yes, so do I. It gives a very different perspective than a book about the same events written two hundred years later.
I have actually read this twice but remember it less well than other Bronte novels. I remember it being less dramatic or passionate than Jane Eyre or Villette certainly.
I’m not sure if I’ll want to read this one again, though I’m glad I’ve read it once, if only for completion.
Good for you for reading all the Bronte novels. That’s awesome!
It has taken a long time – I think I was about thirteen when I first read Wuthering Heights – but I’m pleased I’ve finally read them all!
I was hoping to enjoy this novel as much as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but my bookmark is still sitting in my copy of Shirley – at Chapter 3. I found this novel very hard to get into which surprised me as the Napoleonic War period is one of my favourites. It’s not abandoned, I’ve just decided to change my approach and get the audiobook.
I found it difficult to get into too, but it does improve later on, especially after Shirley comes into the story. I think there’s a reason why this book is less popular than Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, though!