A review by mariafernandagama
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë

3.0

As much as I enjoy Charlotte's writing at all times and deeply admire her talent to put words together and her fantastic way of thinking, I'm sad to admit this is a bit all over the place. It's like she mashed up some four or five ideas for different novels to create this one. Shirley, the character that lends the book its title, is not the main character and only appears a quarter of the way in. I get that she's the best character, she is inspiring and passionate, but she's just not the main character. Caroline is. And she herself only appears after a lot of nonsense about some curates nobody cares about (not even Charlotte, although she seems to remember they exist in the last few pages). I feel this is the draft version of what could have been an amazing book. But still, her writing is tough to beat. So even though the plot may get very tiresome sometimes, it's always pleasant.