Jane Eyre, Vilette, and The Professor all have one as their protagonist. Shirley will certainly be surprising to those used to associating Brontë’s work with governesses and teachers. Looking back, I ask myself: Why can’t both those things be true? And it turns out that they are. Although I cannot particularly explain my reaction, I was baffled and a little skeptical that the book could be about how a guy runs his mill and the resulting social unrest and yet have a secret romantic Brontë gem buried inside. So I didn’t pick Shirley up again until 2014, on the recommendation of a professor who assured me it is the most romantic of Charlotte Brontë’s works. Several years ago I began Shirley and didn’t make it past the first chapter I found it slow, and the characters were obsessed with a mill and labor relations, which didn’t seem typical of Brontë’s work. But will Caroline lose Robert to her new friend? Review Caroline is sinking into depression when Shirley Keldar, a wealthy and independent landowner, returns to her estate and befriends Caroline. Young Caroline Helstone is in love with her cousin Robert Moore, but he is too busy attempting to publicly defend his decision to replace workers with more efficient machines in his Yorkshire mill to notice her affections.
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