Shirley Review

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte is a Victorian classic telling the story of two women, Caroline and Shirley, in a country mill town during the Napoleonic war.



I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars. I loved this book. The writing style is wonderful. It does slow me down a bit and require extra focus, but it is absolutely lovely to read. My only problem with the writing is that there are sections of dialogue that are in French (apparently enough of Charlotte’s reading audience understood French for her to do that), but I don’t know French. I found the process of looking up a translation (there wasn’t one in my e-book) pulled me out of the story a bit and majorly slowed down my reading. However, that was only in the first few chapters and it was so worth the effort.

The characters are very well done. I felt invested in them faster than I expected to. They are interesting and endearing and flawed. I found myself eager to know their stories and to see what was going to happen next.

This book was also a fascinating look at the roles and expectations of woman in the early Victorian era. I loved that we got to see many perspectives of the topic: young rich and poor women, matrons and spinsters, as well as many of the male perspectives.

Bronte also gave interesting insight into the effect of the war on trade, both the trade masters and the lower-class workers, as well as the beginnings of industrialization coming at the same time.

This was an absolutely wonderful and captivating read. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to pick it up (especially since Jane Eyre was the first classic I ever read and loved).