FACTOID #53: If you thought Antarctica was inhospitable, think again - its land area is only ninety-eight percent ice. Reassuringly, the other 2% is categorised as "barren rock".
Shirley is a social novel by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1849. Its popularity led to "Shirley" becoming a woman's name. (In the novel, Shirley's father gave her the name he had intended to give a son.) Charlotte Brontë (IPA: ) (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) was an English novelist and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become enduring classics of English literature. ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The social novel is a genre of novel that originated in the early Victorian era in England. ... Charlotte Brontë (IPA: ) (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) was an English novelist and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become enduring classics of English literature. ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–1812, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The four central characters are studies in contrast: brothers Robert Moore (an industrialist whose mill is idle because of the war) and Louis Moore (a private tutor to a family's children); and their two loves Caroline Helstone, timid and uncertain, and Shirley Keeldar, heiress to a fortune. The Keeldar family home in Shirley is called Fieldhead; Charlotte Bronte based Fieldhead on an Elizabethan Manor House called Oakwell Hall. 1811 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... For the overture by Tchaikovsky, see 1812 Overture; For the wars, see War of 1812 (USA - United Kingdom) or Patriotic War of 1812 (France - Russia) For the Siberia Airlines plane crashed over the Black Sea on October 4, 2001, see Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 1812 was a leap year starting... Combatants Allies: Austria[1] Portugal Prussia[1] Russia[2] Spain[3] Sweden United Kingdom[4] Ottoman Empire[5] French Empire Holland Kingdom of Italy Kingdom of Naples Duchy of Warsaw Bavaria[6] Saxony[7] Denmark [8] Commanders Archduke Charles Prince Schwarzenberg Karl Mack von Leiberich Gebhard von Blücher Karl... Combatants United States Britain Canadian militia Eastern Woodland Indians Commanders James Madison Henry Dearborn Jacob Brown Winfield Scott Andrew Jackson George Prevost Isaac Brock†Tecumseh†Strength •U.S. Regular Army: 35,800 •Rangers: 3,049 •Militia: 458,463* •US Navy & US Marines: (at start of war): •Frigates:6 •Other vessels... Oakwell Hall Located in the village of Birstall, West Yorkshire. ...
The novel has only been filmed once to date, in 1922. The silent adaptation was done by A. V. Bramble and Carlotta Breese starred as the title-character Shirley.
Shirley is Brontë's 'condition of England' novel, but structurally it falls into two parts: while the first half is an examination of the humanitarian consequences of technological advances, in the second half a love story emerges and social preoccupations dwindle away.
Shirley was at the time of the novel a man's name, and although she is not masculine in appearance, Shirley does appear to represent the masculine principle.
Shirley rescues Caroline from loneliness, and on the point of death Caroline is saved by her mother Mrs Pryor, while Mrs Pryor also offers Caroline the possibility of a future home.
Shirley seems to be agreed upon as a portrait of Emily.
I feel that Charlotte, writing much of Shirley as Emily was rapidly dying and then finishing it after her death, took the story in a direction that it would not otherwise have taken.
Shirley is a good novel though it is not as entertaining in my view as Jane Eyre or Villette.
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