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pollyched's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
sophiemckane's review against another edition
my attention span was gone for it but will try it again
lindseysparks's review against another edition
4.0
This starts off slow and it wasn't until the narration switched to Caroline that I began to enjoy it. Caroline made me laugh, she likes learning, she avoids silly company whenever possible and she wishes she were a man so she could get a job and actually use her brain. The intro said she is modeled somewhat on Anne Bronte, which just makes me like Anne more, and makes sense considering my love for Anne's novels.
We don't meet Shirley until page 193 even though she's the title character! I enjoyed her and Caroline's friendship, and Shirley's ability to not take crap from anyone. When one character tries to pressure her into giving a bigger donation, she goes off on him and kicks him off her property. She also refused to be told who to marry or to appreciate being asked. She is perfectly content to stay single unless she falls in love. When her uncle questions her, she says she denies his right to the answer to his questions. She and Caroline also laugh at the idea of women having to hold the same opinions as their husbands. Overall, it's a very feminist novel except one scene where Shirley talks about wanting a husband who can master her, although I felt like she meant someone who can hold his own with her, but she still said "be her master" at one point. I know it was 1848 when she wrote this, but Anne's heroines wouldn't say such a thing. But Shirley and Caroline also talk about how they are wasted on domestic pursuits and not being able to use their brains to do more than keep house and raise children.
There was also a great scene where Caroline explains that her uncle likes shallow women who care only about their looks because it proves him right in his opinion that women are inferior, just toys to be played with.
The novel is also about the Luddites and although I appreciated her treatment of the mill owner I felt like those scenes tended to be less well developed. The novel is set about 40 years earlier and it seemed like she wanted to throw in a lot of details but didn't really blend it with the rest of the story and Robert just doesn't come alive like some of the other characters, even though I liked him.
I just reread Jane Eyre recently and had more problems with it this time. I am surprised that I actually liked Shirley more.
We don't meet Shirley until page 193 even though she's the title character! I enjoyed her and Caroline's friendship, and Shirley's ability to not take crap from anyone. When one character tries to pressure her into giving a bigger donation, she goes off on him and kicks him off her property. She also refused to be told who to marry or to appreciate being asked. She is perfectly content to stay single unless she falls in love. When her uncle questions her, she says she denies his right to the answer to his questions. She and Caroline also laugh at the idea of women having to hold the same opinions as their husbands. Overall, it's a very feminist novel except one scene where Shirley talks about wanting a husband who can master her, although I felt like she meant someone who can hold his own with her, but she still said "be her master" at one point. I know it was 1848 when she wrote this, but Anne's heroines wouldn't say such a thing. But Shirley and Caroline also talk about how they are wasted on domestic pursuits and not being able to use their brains to do more than keep house and raise children.
There was also a great scene where Caroline explains that her uncle likes shallow women who care only about their looks because it proves him right in his opinion that women are inferior, just toys to be played with.
The novel is also about the Luddites and although I appreciated her treatment of the mill owner I felt like those scenes tended to be less well developed. The novel is set about 40 years earlier and it seemed like she wanted to throw in a lot of details but didn't really blend it with the rest of the story and Robert just doesn't come alive like some of the other characters, even though I liked him.
I just reread Jane Eyre recently and had more problems with it this time. I am surprised that I actually liked Shirley more.
avareighenns's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
it reads very much like a classic literary work, but it is good and even fun. a reader with a good imagination will enjoy it!
colorfulleo92's review against another edition
5.0
Gha i couldn't stop, I gulped up the last part of the book way to fast. It was just so intriguing and fascinating. I loved the well formed characters and the beautiful writing. Even if the book was slow and not much happening I didn't get bored. This is a book you should take in slowly to get fully emersed in the story, however I flew through it. I love the fact that Charlotte Bronte talks to the reader through the page time to time. It feelt very engaging. I enjoyed this far more then Jane Eyre
balletbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
I did like the ironic voice of the narrator, but there seems to be too many lines of plot. It got a bit labyrinthine and the outcomes aren't very surprising. But I did like it.
ratgirlreads's review against another edition
Having loved Jane Eyre, I had high hopes for Shirley. Unfortunately, the book did not quite live up to them. Partly this may simply be the genre, which is not to my taste—when I pick up a Brontë novel, I do so for the nineteenth century atmosphere and the intelligent social commentary, but at bottom they are also romance novels, and Shirley is certainly that. With some heavyhanded editing, it might have been passable, but Charlotte seemed intent on wandering: passages such as the long chapters detailing the unpleasant habits and personalities of the young curates, without any eye towards commenting on the office or the people generally selected for it, when those characters have but a tangential relationship to the plot centering on Caroline, Shirley, and the Moores, made the novel interminable. Her references to the established Church and the various dissenters seemed inconclusive and meandering, and thus nothing but an irritatingly extensive aside from the plot.
Then, there is the character of Shirley herself. Independent, intelligent, capable, she seems an ideal feminist heroine, but when she marries Louis Moore, she does so because she feels him not to be her equal but her “master,” and all of her good points then seem merely to exist to justify the long-held belief that all women just need a man to keep control of them.
The book has its enjoyable points. The children of the Yorke family—who play a minute role in the novel, but showse personalities and future fates Brontë insists on detailing at some length—and the effect of the adult Yorkes’ parenting style on their relationships seem interesting (and might have made a better nook than Caroline’s and Shirley’s long-drawn-out romances). The broad historical perspective on the poor, working classes and the manufactureres during the Napoleonic wars is interesting. But overall, the book is unnecessarily ponderous and fails to live up to the progressive ideals one hopes for from Charlotte Brontë.
andy02l's review against another edition
3.0
Serían más unas 3.8 estrellas, me gustó el libro pero hubo momentos en que me aburrió y sentí que no avanzaba, los personajes de Shirley y Caroline me gustaron bastante y como se enfocó más en ellas. Hubo momentos en que las reflexiones de Charlotte me gustaron pero otras donde me torturaron.
jsisco's review against another edition
4.0
Unfortunately not nearly as popular as Jane Eyre. While it is not Charlotte's best work, it is still a great novel, nonetheless. In addition, this book singelhandedly changed the name Shirley from a masculine Christian name to a feminine.
Deserves at least one read by any true student of literature, especially of the Victorian ilk.
Deserves at least one read by any true student of literature, especially of the Victorian ilk.
musicdeepdive's review against another edition
4.0
There is a reveal midway through the book that I have complicated feelings about, but the strengths of the two female protagonists (especially the titular Shirley) carry this book into being a pretty darn good entry into Charlotte's oeuvre, if not the best thing you'll ever read.