Shirley (Modern Library) [Hardcover]

Charlotte Bronte (Author)

Book Description

Series: Modern Library | Publication Date: September 23, 1997

Following the tremendous popular success of Jane Eyre, which earned her lifelong notoriety as a moral revolutionary, Charlotte Brontë vowed to write a sweeping social chronicle that focused on "something real and unromantic as Monday morning." Set in the industrializing England of the Napoleonic wars and Luddite revolts of 1811-12, Shirley (1849) is the story of two contrasting heroines. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, who is trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of
a Yorkshire rectory and whose bare life
symbolizes the plight of single women in the nineteenth century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.      
    A work that combines social commentary with the more private preoccupations of Jane Eyre, Shirley demonstrates the full range of Brontë's literary talent. "Shirley is a revolutionary novel," wrote Brontë biographer Lyndall Gordon. "Shirley follows Jane Eyre as a new exemplar--but so much a forerunner of the feminist of the later twentieth century that it is hard to believe in her actual existence in 1811-12. She is a theoretic possibility: what a woman might be if she combined independence and means of her own with intellect. Charlotte Brontë imagined a new form of power, equal to that of men, in a confident young woman [whose] extraordinary freedom has accustomed her to think for herself....Shirley [is] Brontë's most feminist novel."


The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Modern Library of the World's
Best Books

"When Charlotte Bronte removed her heroines from the home, she loosened the constrictions that bound a woman to her stove and cradle, and launched an inquiry into the nature of feminine experience that was to change the course of modern fiction."

--Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

About the Author

Charlotte Bronte (1816-55) is perhaps the most admired of the Bronte sisters. Jane Eyre is her greatest and most loved novel. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (September 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679602755
• ISBN-13: 978-0679602750
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,075,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Phenomenal, Complicated Novel, April 23, 2002

By 

mp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shirley (Penguin English Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Charlotte Brontė's 1849 novel "Shirley" really delivers on the already realized potential of her first novel, "Jane Eyre." Though the novel is named for the character Shirley Keeldar, the novel really has no one set protagonist - the duties are mostly shared in the relationship between the fiesty and wealthy Shirley, and the lovelorn Caroline Helstone. Set against a backdrop of social and economic unrest, as the swelling ranks of the unemployed react against increasing mechanization of mill production, "Shirley" takes in a broad range of national and international issues. Even when the personal and romantic narratives seem to dominate the novel, Brontė does an extraordinary job of keeping the questions of social discontent present to the reader.

"Shirley" opens on a view of Briarfield, a small mill community in Yorkshire, where the labourers are restless and hungry. The mill owners, Robert Moore and Hiram Yorke, are anxious with reports of murderous actions against mechanizing mill owners elsewhere, and suffering under governmentally restricted trade. The gentry are disaffected with the mill owners, and more concerned with England's continuing conflicts with Napoleon overseas. The main concerns of the novel revolve around all of these conflicts - conflicts of interest, conflicts between classes, and the wider conflicts of nations. Brontė's social vision seems to ask throughout the novel if any of the normal sorts of personal problems even matter in the face of the sufferings of the masses.

Briarfield's leading citizen is Reverend Helstone; he along with a motley mix of curates accurately represents the microcosmic problem that affects the macrocosm of England in the time of the novel, 1811-12. Helstone is rigidly hierarchical in his mindset, and suffers from a peculiar affliction as a religious man - a total lack of sympathetic attachment to the community he ministers to. His niece, Caroline, who stands to inherit no fortune, is singular also, in that her social standing coupled with her lack of money places her in an awkward position with regard to her potential love interest, Robert Moore. With the advent of the wealthy and independent Shirley, who attracts the affections and avarice, respectively, of Caroline and Robert, new avenues of personal tension enter the already conflicted society of Briarfield.

Gender troubles are rife in the novel - from Shirley's adoption of the tone and stance of a masculine inheritor, a military captain, and a protector of Caroline; to the rabid misogyny of Reverend Helstone, Martin Yorke, and the curate Malone, among others; and the wild invectives against marriage from a variety of sources - Brontė shows that regardless of intranational or international disputes, the seeds of discord are plentiful within the domestic spaces of potentially every English home. Brontė examines the lack and need for strong maternal presence, emphasizing the fact that Shirley's parents are dead, and Caroline has never known her own mother, except as the butt of foul rumours. The gender-fueled critique in "Shirley" extends even to the characters' notions of the divine - the male religious authorities are contrasted with the oracular and ancient image of the feminine sibyl.

"Shirley" may, in the end, be the name chosen for the novel, not because she is its main character, but because she symbolizes and embodies the social, political, gender, and ecological complexities and conundrums present throughout the novel. For a 600-page novel, "Shirley" is an incredibly quick and compelling read. Certainly, it deserves a wider readership and pays a close attention with fuel for consideration and thoughtful discussion.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be put off by the first chapters, December 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Shirley (Penguin English Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

While I loved this book, there were some things I didn't like, but none that mean it doesn't deserve five stars. This is my favourite Charlotte Bronte book. i believe there is too much focus on Jane Eyre, or perhaps even Villette. There are a few coincidences in this story, especially one, which I can't mention without giving away part of the story. However these are common in CB, Villette being overun with them, and Jane Eyre ending up on the doorstep of her long lost cousins. Shirley is more believable. Another comment it the long speeches the characters often make. Apart from these though, this is one of my most loved books. It has been neglected, I feel, by the fact that the first 50 pages are very difficult to read, after that though, the story becomes apparent, and it's worth it. Something strange is that the heroine of the title doesn't appear, and is not mentioned until page 200, although she fairly dominates the rest of the book. Perhaps 'Shirley and Caroline' would have been a more appropriate title

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most poignant of the Bronte sisters' books, July 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shirley (Penguin English Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Despite Charlotte Bronte's disclaimer that the reader will find this book "a dinner of bitter herbs" it is nonetheless a must-read classic of 19th century litterature. Many themes combine in this book; the expansion of industrialism and the dissapearance of the English countryside; the place of women in society; feminine loyalty and friendship; the conflicts of love and work, evangelism and tradition. It is perhaps the most uneven and at the same time the most interesting of the Bronte books.

While it lacks the symmetrically designed shape of Jane Eyre or the clear-eyed study of obsession of Villette, it lets the imaginative reader glimpse the Bronte sisters themselves between the lines. The characters of Shirley and Caroline are based on Emily and Anne Bronte, both of whose deaths occurred during the writing of the novel. It is a tribute to sisterly love and a fantasy that lashes back at grief. Some may find the ending a romantic cop-out, but this cannot detract from the many good qualities of this fascinating novel