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A review by lgpiper
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
3.0
I had a weird obsession that led me to read this book. Once I'd finished, I realized I'd been barking up the wrong tree, so to speak. More about that later.
Once upon a time, there were three sisters (well, and a brother) who wrote novels during the Victorian era. The most famous was Emily, who wrote Wuthering Heights, a not-much-fun book because every single character in the book is an asshole (well, except the housekeeper). The second sister (in fame, but eldest of the three), Charlotte, wrote Jane Eyre, a much beloved book, and three others, of which Shirley is one of them. The third sister, Anne, wrote two books that no one ever reads (well, except that I did). So, one day I said to myself, I bet I can make myself completely unique if I can say that I've kicked a Nobel laureate in the shins (one Dudley Herschbach) and have read all seven books written by the three Brontë sisters. This book, then is the culmination of that endeavor. It is also, by far, the longest of the seven books.
The story is somewhat interesting, although the book's excessive blather gets a bit tedious at times. I guess that in Victorian times, no one else had anything to do, so that reading endless pages of blather gave them something to do. It probably is a better thing to do that endless scrolling through one's social media threads. But, I digress, yet again.
We begin with a nice young woman Caroline Helstone. She's the niece of a local vicar, Matthewson Hellstone. She goes to the nearby house of her cousin, Robert Moore, to be tutored by his sister, Hortense. She develops "feelings" for Robert, who runs a local cloth mill. The mill is in a spot of trouble because the Napoleonic wars have cut off "supply chains", to use the modern parlance.
A young woman, Shirley Keeldar, inherits and moves into a local estate. Robert's mill is on the estate, so Shirley is, in essence, Robert's landlord. Shirley and Caroline become best buddies, but there is some friction because Caroline worries that Robert might have more feelings for Shirley than for her. This, of course, causes Caroline to go into decline with an extended fit of the vapors, or whatever it was young women had back in the day.
Shirley has a companion, Mrs. Pryor, who ends up being much more than that, as we learn later on. Also, a somewhat related family come for an extended visit, and they have a tutor for their son, Henry. Said tutor just happens to be Robert Moore's brother, Nicholas. It also turns out that Nicholas was, for a time, tutor to Shirley.
Well, as you can see, it's all rather convoluted. The proper people pair up appropriately in the end and all live happily ever after...or something like that.
As an afterword, in retrospect, I realize that I needn't have read all seven books written by the Brontë sisters. I've read all ten books written by Margaret Piper [Chalmers], and there's much less likelihood that someone has ever kicked a Nobel laureate in the shins and read all ten of Margaret Piper [Chalmers]'s books.
I should also mention that this book is better than 3*, and should have a + appended, but, for some reason, one can't do that on GoodReads. Why not?
Once upon a time, there were three sisters (well, and a brother) who wrote novels during the Victorian era. The most famous was Emily, who wrote Wuthering Heights, a not-much-fun book because every single character in the book is an asshole (well, except the housekeeper). The second sister (in fame, but eldest of the three), Charlotte, wrote Jane Eyre, a much beloved book, and three others, of which Shirley is one of them. The third sister, Anne, wrote two books that no one ever reads (well, except that I did). So, one day I said to myself, I bet I can make myself completely unique if I can say that I've kicked a Nobel laureate in the shins (one Dudley Herschbach) and have read all seven books written by the three Brontë sisters. This book, then is the culmination of that endeavor. It is also, by far, the longest of the seven books.
The story is somewhat interesting, although the book's excessive blather gets a bit tedious at times. I guess that in Victorian times, no one else had anything to do, so that reading endless pages of blather gave them something to do. It probably is a better thing to do that endless scrolling through one's social media threads. But, I digress, yet again.
We begin with a nice young woman Caroline Helstone. She's the niece of a local vicar, Matthewson Hellstone. She goes to the nearby house of her cousin, Robert Moore, to be tutored by his sister, Hortense. She develops "feelings" for Robert, who runs a local cloth mill. The mill is in a spot of trouble because the Napoleonic wars have cut off "supply chains", to use the modern parlance.
A young woman, Shirley Keeldar, inherits and moves into a local estate. Robert's mill is on the estate, so Shirley is, in essence, Robert's landlord. Shirley and Caroline become best buddies, but there is some friction because Caroline worries that Robert might have more feelings for Shirley than for her. This, of course, causes Caroline to go into decline with an extended fit of the vapors, or whatever it was young women had back in the day.
Shirley has a companion, Mrs. Pryor, who ends up being much more than that, as we learn later on. Also, a somewhat related family come for an extended visit, and they have a tutor for their son, Henry. Said tutor just happens to be Robert Moore's brother, Nicholas. It also turns out that Nicholas was, for a time, tutor to Shirley.
Well, as you can see, it's all rather convoluted. The proper people pair up appropriately in the end and all live happily ever after...or something like that.
As an afterword, in retrospect, I realize that I needn't have read all seven books written by the Brontë sisters. I've read all ten books written by Margaret Piper [Chalmers], and there's much less likelihood that someone has ever kicked a Nobel laureate in the shins and read all ten of Margaret Piper [Chalmers]'s books.
I should also mention that this book is better than 3*, and should have a + appended, but, for some reason, one can't do that on GoodReads. Why not?