description: Robert Moore, Bronte's hero, is a Yorkshire mill owner determined to make Hollow's Mill a success with new machinery. Although he loves Caroline Helstone, he pursues the heiress Shirley Keeldar, a passionate and unconventional woman who would scorn to marry for mere social advantage. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, a time of hunger, unemployment, social unrest, and Luddite riots, "Shirley" affirms the value of feeling and imagination in a world that seeks to deny them. Caroline Helstone personifies the dilemmas of Victorian women, while in Shirley, Bronte draws a portrait of her free-spirited sister Emily.
language: English
title: Shirley
titlecomplete: Shirley
characters: Robert Moore, Caroline Helstone, Louis Moore, Shirley Keeldar
genres: Romance, British Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Literature, 19th Century, Historical, Classics, Fiction, Literature, Victorian
ratings_count: 34043
places: Yorkshire, England, England, United Kingdom
publisher: Penguin Audio