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Some of Charlotte Brontë's best characters are drawn from depictions of her sisters. The deceased sisters, Elizabeth and Marie, were the basis of Helen Burns. By all accounts Marie was a precociously adult child but that is perhaps because accounts of Girls were not then informed by the experience of teachers of mixed classes in Primary schools, which experience suggest that most girls mature in personality and character well in advance of Boys and I had a pupil who was almost amphibian in her ability to adjust to the adult and children's world with amazing facility and tact. The Brontë world has been seen principally through the prism of Charlotte, because she was the sole survivor of the family, [except for her father] In the account of the Biography by Mrs Gaskell ,We get glimpses of the other sisters and through other sources, but 'Shirley' was in progress when she lost in rapid succession Branwell, Emily and Anne. I am surprised it has not been commented upon that Caroline Helstone and Shirley Kielder bear a close resemblance to Anne and Emily respectively and the relationship which the her two sisters had which was very close, so much so that Charlotte seems to have felt excluded and envious The introduction to the Oxford Classics edition of 'Shirley' does not rate it as her 'best book' placing 'Villette' at the top, however 'Villette' is a bleak book ,a account of insufferable loneliness of spirit on account of unrequited love, [and without elaborating, I remark that the reviewer knows the experience all too well] To me 'Shirley' contains some of Charlotte's best writing, and there are passages which are compelling and, as with Helen Burns, these passages seem to be drawn from experience, vividly recaptured. Emily Brontë is best know as a novelist, the author of 'Wuthering Heights' but she was, to my mind a better poet, and an heroic, if angular figure. One finds out things about Emily in the most unexpected places she was an accomplished musician, taught Music in Brussels,, and was proficient enough to play Beethoven piano sonatas. Something of her spirit and her stoicism and her passion, [those seldom come together] appears in 'Shirley' who is a vivid character, who, like many women of the age, had suppress her adventurous streak but emerges in this work. Perhaps Charlotte has the greatest difficulty in understanding Anne, and she confides as much to Mrs.Gaskell because Caroline Helstone reflects Charlottes view of Anne as a rather shy and reticient too thepoint of timidity. Ostensibly this is Charlotte's therapy for the loss of Emily and Anne and it is set in the period of the Luddite Riots rather than the period of social and industrial unrest which was concurrent with the death of her siblings; what it reveals rather more the Tory Sentiments of the Brontë/s than a contribution to the 'Condition of England' novels to which Mrs. Gaskell, George Eliot and Disraeli contributed .This is, for me the best Brontë Novel, second only to 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' by Anne. The special pleading is not for the workers or the poor, but for 'The spirit of Woman' resisting the subordination to a male orthodoxy, Social Orthodoxy of the Gentry. In that respect 'Shirley' is less introspective than 'Villette', and less absurd than 'Jane Eyre' : some of the dialogue and debate passages are as vivid as those in 'Pride and Prejudice',, and the same theme; a Husband fit for a modern woman, never mind the wealth, never mind the rank, a woman and a man in an equal partnership, here some of the writing is compelling witty,and passionate. Wordsworth Editions are very suitable for upper Secondary students commencing Literature Studies. The introductions provide a context of the Author and the work without a forbidding 'critical apparatus', but where necessary, explanatory notes in addition to which one can afford to purchase Wordsworth editions for whole literature course. Elegant, ,handsome paper backs. For the experimental and curious reader this edition is just right and I recommend the edition and the novel, which for me reveals as much about the Brontë girls, their times and ethos than many a biography Read full review
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Quite a difficult book tp get to grips with. You have to read it very carefully in order to fully understand the author's meaning of words and phrases. I will persevere with it, as the author describes the period very well, and the social history of the time when the Factory System existed and times were hard for society.
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It's a classic and any difficulty in reading it is my own.
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ok.
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