Shirley, Charlotte Bronte
Shirley, Charlotte Bronte
List: $70.00 | Sale: $49.00
Club: $35.00

Shirley

Author: Charlotte Bronte

Narrator: Georgina Sutton

Unabridged: 23 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 07/28/2014

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

Following the tremendous success of Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte returned to pen a novel every bit as romantic and compelling as her first, but with deeper, heartier themes as she captured the social and political currents of the newly industrialised United Kingdom of 1812. Set in a chaotic time in England, during the height of the Napoleonic Wars, Caroline Helstone’s world is turned upside down when she meets the vivacious Shirley Keeldar. Shirley becomes a beacon of light for Caroline as the two become close friends. However, Caroline is soon shocked to discover that Shirley has won the affections of Robert Moore, the impoverished mill owner whom she loves. Fully representative of Yorkshire life at the time, Bronte’s second novel is completely gripping, unrelenting and utterly wrenching in its portrayal of steadfast love.

About Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte was born on April 21, 1816, in Thornton, Yorkshire, in the north of England, the third child of the Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. In 1820 the family moved to neighboring Haworth, where Reverend Bronte was offered a lifetime curacy. The following year, Mrs. Bronte died of cancer, and her sister, Elizabeth Branwell, moved in to help raise the six children. The four eldest sisters-Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth-attended Cowan Bridge School until Maria and Elizabeth contracted what was probably tuberculosis and died within months of each other, at which point Charlotte and Emily returned home. The four remaining siblings-Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne-played on the Yorkshire moors and dreamed up fanciful, fabled worlds, creating a constant stream of tales, such as the Young Men plays and Our Fellows.

Reverend Bronte kept his children abreast of current events; among these were the 1829 parliamentary debates centering on the Catholic Question, in which the Duke of Wellington was a leading voice. Charlotte's awareness of politics filtered into her fictional creations, as in the siblings' saga The Islanders, about an imaginary world peopled with the Bronte children's real-life heroes, in which Wellington plays a central role as Charlotte's chosen character.

In 1831 and 1832, Charlotte attended Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head, and she returned there as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. After working for a couple of years as a governess, Charlotte, with her sister Emily, traveled to Brussels to study, with the goal of opening their own school, but this dream did not materialize once she returned to Haworth in 1844.

In 1846 the sisters published their collected poems under the pen names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell. That same year Charlotte finished her first novel, The Professor, but it was not accepted for publication.

However, she then began work on Jane Eyre, which was published in 1847 and met with instant success. Though some critics saw impropriety in the core of the story-the relationship between a middle-aged man and the young, naive governess who works for him-most reviewers praised the novel, helping to ensure its popularity.

Following the deaths of Branwell and Emily Bronte in 1848 and Anne in 1849, Charlotte made trips to London, where she began to move in literary circles. In 1850, she met the noted British writer Elizabeth Gaskell, with whom she formed a lasting friendship and who, at the request of Reverend Bronte, later became her biographer. Charlotte's novel Villette was published in 1853.

In 1854 Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, a curate at Haworth who worked with her father. Less than a year later, however, she fell seriously ill, perhaps with tuberculosis, and she died on March 31, 1855. At the time of her death, Charlotte Bronte was a celebrated author. The 1857 publication of her first novel, The Professor, and of Gaskell's biography of her life only heightened her renown.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Henry on April 24, 2024

In the fast changing industrializing England of 1811-12 from farming to factories, ( the beauty of the green land, clear waters and blue skies are being destroyed rapidly by dark ugly pollution ) people will have to adapt or starve, machines are taking over sounds familiar ? A bleak future for some,......more

Goodreads review by Magrat on February 08, 2017

La primera parte es muy lenta pero preciosa, la segunda frenética y maravillosa. Creo que se ha convertido en mi libro preferido de Charlotte Brontë ♥......more

Goodreads review by Katie on December 29, 2020

Such an interesting read. I love the writing and some of the dialogue is wonderful. The characterisation is fascinating too, though I still don't know how I feel about the Moore brothers!......more

Goodreads review by Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) on July 12, 2024

Charlotte Bronte's Shirley is one of the most beautiful, enriching, and satisfying novels that I've read this year. A novel borne from tragedy, Charlotte published Shirley in 1849; and while writing the novel, her brother Branwell died in 1848; followed shortly thereafter by the death of her sister......more

Goodreads review by MJ on August 26, 2016

Shirley is Charlotte’s sophomore slump. Her Kill Uncle. Her You Shall Know Our Velocity. Her Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. And so on. I don’t care how cute Mr Rochester is, this novel is a deeply vexing mess. Firstly, there are several plotlines and not one has the urge to intersect. The rebel......more