Shirley by Charlotte BrontĂ« (best books to read for teens .TXT) đ
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Shirley, published in 1849, was Charlotte BrontĂ«âs second novel after Jane Eyre. Published under her pseudonym of âCurrer Bell,â it differs in several respects from that earlier work. It is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator, rather than the first-person of Jane Eyre, and incorporates the themes of industrial change and the plight of unemployed workers. It also features strong pleas for the recognition of womenâs intellect and right to their independence of thought and action.
Set in the West Riding of Yorkshire during the Napoleonic period of the early 19th Century, the novel describes the confrontations between textile manufacturers and organized groups of workers protesting the introduction of mechanical looms. Three characters stand out: Robert Moore, a mill-owner determined to introduce modern methods despite sometimes violent opposition; his young cousin Caroline Helstone, who falls deeply in love with Robert; and Shirley Keeldar, a rich heiress who comes to live in the estate of Fieldhead, on whose land Robertâs mill stands. Robertâs business is in trouble, not so much because of the protests of the workers but because of a government decree which prevents him selling his finished cloth overseas during the duration of the war with Napoleon. He receives a loan from Miss Keeldar, and her interest in him seems to be becoming a romantic one, much to the distress of Caroline, who pines away for lack of any sign of affection from Robert.
Shirley Keeldar is a remarkable female character for the time: strong, very independent-minded, dismissive of much of the standard rules of society, and determined to decide on her own future. Interestingly, up to this point, the name âShirleyâ was almost entirely a male name; Shirleyâs parents had hoped for a boy. Such was the success of BrontĂ«âs novel, however, that it became increasingly popular as a female name and is now almost exclusively so.
Although never as popular or successful as the more classically romantic Jane Eyre, Shirley is nevertheless now highly regarded by critics.
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- Author: Charlotte Brontë
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Mr. Moore allowed his pupil a moment to contend with and master his emotion. He then demanded, âWhat else did she say?â
âWhen I had signified my full consent to the conditions of her will, she told me I was a generous boy, and she was proud of me. âAnd now,â she added, âin case anything should happen, you will know what to say to Malice when she comes whispering hard things in your ear, insinuating that Shirley has wronged you, that she did not love you. You will know that I did love you, Harry; that no sister could have loved you betterâ âmy own treasure.â Mr. Moore, sir, when I remember her voice, and recall her look, my heart beats as if it would break its strings. She may go to heaven before meâ âif God commands it, she must; but the rest of my lifeâ âand my life will not be long, I am glad of that nowâ âshall be a straight, quick, thoughtful journey in the path her step has pressed. I thought to enter the vault of the Keeldars before her. Should it be otherwise, lay my coffin by Shirleyâs side.â
Moore answered him with a weighty calm, that offered a strange contrast to the boyâs perturbed enthusiasm.
âYou are wrong, both of youâ âyou harm each other. If youth once falls under the influence of a shadowy terror, it imagines there will never be full sunlight again; its first calamity it fancies will last a lifetime. What more did she say? Anything more?â
âWe settled one or two family points between ourselves.â
âI should rather like to know whatâ ââ
âBut, Mr. Moore, you smile. I could not smile to see Shirley in such a mood.â
âMy boy, I am neither nervous, nor poetic, nor inexperienced. I see things as they are; you donât as yet. Tell me these family points.â
âOnly, sir, she asked me whether I considered myself most of a Keeldar or a Sympson; and I answered I was Keeldar to the core of the heart and to the marrow of the bones. She said she was glad of it; for, besides her, I was the only Keeldar left in England. And then we agreed on some matters.â
âWell?â
âWell, sir, that if I lived to inherit my fatherâs estate, and her house, I was to take the name of Keeldar, and to make Fieldhead my residence. Henry Shirley Keeldar I said I would be called; and I will. Her name and her manor house are ages old, and Sympson and Sympson Grove are of yesterday.â
âCome, you are neither of you going to heaven yet. I have the best hopes of you both, with your proud distinctionsâ âa pair of half-fledged eaglets. Now, what is your inference from all you have told me? Put it into words.â
âThat Shirley thinks she is going to die.â
âShe referred to her health?â
âNot once; but I assure you she is wasting. Her hands are grown quite thin, and so is her cheek.â
âDoes she ever complain to your mother or sisters?â
âNever. She laughs at them when they question her. Mr. Moore, she is a strange being, so fair and girlishâ ânot a manlike woman at all, not an Amazon, and yet lifting her head above both help and sympathy.â
âDo you know where she is now, Henry? Is she in the house, or riding out?â
âSurely not out, sir. It rains fast.â
âTrue; which, however, is no guarantee that she is not at this moment cantering over Rushedge. Of late she has never permitted weather to be a hindrance to her rides.â
âYou remember, Mr. Moore, how wet and stormy it was last Wednesdayâ âso wild, indeed, that she would not permit ZoĂ« to be saddled? Yet the blast she thought too tempestuous for her mare she herself faced on foot; that afternoon she walked nearly as far as Nunnely. I asked her, when she came in, if she was not afraid of taking cold. âNot I,â she said. âIt would be too much good luck for me. I donât know, Harry, but the best thing that could happen to me would be to take a good cold and fever, and so pass off like other Christians.â She is reckless, you see, sir.â
âReckless indeed! Go and find out where she is, and if you can get an opportunity of speaking to her without attracting attention, request her to come here a minute.â
âYes, sir.â
He snatched his crutch, and started up to go.
âHarry!â
He returned.
âDo not deliver the message formally. Word it as, in former days, you would have worded an ordinary summons to the schoolroom.â
âI see, sir. She will be more likely to obey.â
âAnd, Harryâ ââ
âSir?â
âI will call you when I want you. Till then, you are dispensed from lessons.â
He departed. Mr. Moore, left alone, rose from his desk.
âI can be very cool and very supercilious with Henry,â he said. âI can seem to make light of his apprehensions, and look down du haut de ma grandeur on his youthful ardour. To him I can speak as if, in my eyes, they were both children. Let me see if I can keep up the same role with her. I have known the moment when I seemed about to forget it, when Confusion and Submission seemed about to crush me with their soft tyranny, when my tongue faltered, and I have almost let the mantle drop, and stood in her presence, not masterâ ânoâ âbut something else. I trust I shall never so play the fool. It
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