Fiction  |  The Bronte Sisters  |  Shirley
Cover of Shirley

Shirley

The Bronte Sisters

Summary

Shirley was written throughout one of the darkest periods of Charlotte Brontë's life. She was completing it during the time when her brother Branwell died in September of 1848. She lost her sisters Emily and Anne too, before the end of the next summer. The novel is set in the north of England, specifically Yorkshire, in the later years of the Napoleonic Wars and the time of the Luddite riots which were caused by the introduction of new machines that replaced human labour. Robert Gerard Moore, a mill owner, decides despite the mood of the time to buy the latest labour-saving devices. His workers threaten to destroy the mill and eventually to take his life. To improve his lot, Robert attempts to marry the heiress Shirley Keeldar who believes she loves him. Bronte introduces a true love interest in Robert's cousin Caroline Helstone and out of the murky social conflicts and poverty we reach something of a resolution. Shirley is characteristic of the 1840s and 1850s trend of the social class conflict novel (with Dickens and Disraeli) and also tackles the issue of the need for useful employment for women

Table of contents

More by The Bronte Sisters

Other Fiction classics