Book Review: Shirley

[osprey_archer]

I finally finished Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley! There’s a good book in the middle of it, but unfortunately it’s surrounded on both sides by two significantly less good books, which makes getting started and getting to the end rather a slog.

Reading it right on the heels of Jane Eyre, I noticed a similarity in structure: you have the somewhat slower first section, the middle section where the book catches fire around a single central relationship, and then again a slower third section wherein that central relationship is torn asunder. However, although (IMO) the middle section is the best part of Jane Eyre, it’s highly readable all the way through (if only for “OMG St. John have you considered falling into the fire?” reasons in certain parts), whereas the beginning of Shirley in particular is so boring. So so so boring. I gave up the first time I tried to read this book because the beginning was so incredibly dull.

The story picks up when Caroline Helstone appears on the scene, but it doesn’t really catch fire till she meets her best friend Shirley Keeldar, and then we get a number of chapters of marvelous friendship. And then they simply never appear on the page together again.

There is no rupture to their friendship. It’s just that Bronte has abruptly remembered that she still hasn’t sent up Shirley’s endgame romance, so suddenly that takes over. We even learn secondhand near the end that Shirley and Caroline just had a sleepover where they exchanged heartfelt confidences… but we don’t get to see it! Maddening.

Shirley’s romance also feels oddly cut off at the end. She and her suitor get engaged, but after the initial rush of excitement, Shirley starts to behave like a caged bird. The chapter ends with an excerpt from her fiance’s diary, which concludes, “She breathed a murmur, inarticulate yet expressive; darted, or melted, from my arms—and I lost her.”

Smash cut to the wedding. Well, okay, not directly to the wedding; first we smash cut to the fates of the three extremely boring curates we first met at the beginning of the book. Then Caroline’s beloved proposes to her. THEN smash cut to the double wedding. How did Shirley overcome her doubts about giving up her independence to marry? We’ll never know!

Shirley Keeldar is evidently based on Emily Bronte, which is FASCINATING to me, because the more recent interpretations of Emily that I’m familiar with tend to portray her as a cranky gremlin with no social skills. This is not Charlotte’s vision of her sister at all. Shirley, an Emily Bronte to whom Charlotte has gifted the health and wealth Emily lacked, is a vivacious, witty tomboy who charms everyone who knows her.

I’m planning to round out my Bronte project with some biographical reading about the Brontes, starting with Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Bronte and Daphne Du Maurier’s The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte, and then finishing up with least one more recent biography. (Any recs?) I’ll be curious to compare all the different versions of Emily.

First, however: onward to Villette!

Comments

[skygiants]

VILLETTE VILLETTE VILLETTE

[asakiyume]

Shirley, an Emily Bronte to whom Charlotte has gifted the health and wealth Emily lacked, is a vivacious, witty tomboy who charms everyone who knows her.
--Now that is an extremely touching demonstration of sibling love <3 --and maybe she WAS vivacious, witty, and charming.

(also I laughed at "cranky gremlin with no social skills")

[leaina]

There are two Brontë-adjacent books you might be interested in: The Brontësaurus by John Sutherland (short encyclopedia-style musings on the Brontës' life and works); and The Glass Town Game by Catherynne Valente, a novel in which the Brontë children get to visit their imaginary world and have adventures(!).

I'll be very interested to find out what you think of either of these - I found the Valente especially delightful.

[troisoiseaux]

Shirley Keeldar is evidently based on Emily Bronte, which is FASCINATING to me, because the more recent interpretations of Emily that I’m familiar with tend to portray her as a cranky gremlin with no social skills. This is not Charlotte’s vision of her sister at all. Shirley, an Emily Bronte to whom Charlotte has gifted the health and wealth Emily lacked, is a vivacious, witty tomboy who charms everyone who knows her.

Awww.

I have tried to read Villette but never gotten very far... maybe your posts will be the push I finally need!

[ethelmay]

Recommend Juliet Barker's book on the Brontës. IIRC (and it has been decades) the du Maurier is essentially fiction. Gaskell is of course central, but also the source of a lot of persistent myths.

[lokifan]

The Brontësaurus by John Sutherland (short encyclopedia-style musings on the Brontës' life and works)

What an INCREDIBLE title!

[lokifan]

Aw, what a gift for your sibling. The structure there sounds so weird and fascinating. Very much seems like an immature Jane Eyre, tbh, including how it doesn't really work out what to do with Shirley's ambivalence around marriage & loss of independence.

[ethelmay]

Just heard of this recent (and of course expensive) book that may be interesting in the context of Jane-Eyre-as-changeling-etc. https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821425640/the-brontes-and-the-fairy-tale/

[osprey_archer]

The only problem with Villette is that I'm reading it much faster than Shirley because I like it so much. Will not have as many posts to discuss it!

[osprey_archer]

Oooh, that looks interesting! I'll have to see if the university library has it.

[osprey_archer]

It was written after Jane Eyre, but the composition was interrupted when all of Charlotte's remaining siblings died, which may account for the oddity of the pacing. And I'll be curious when I read the biography to find out if she came up with the idea for Shirley the character after Emily died.

[osprey_archer]

I'll be curious to see how the various biographies present Emily! Cranky goblin or witty charmer?

[osprey_archer]

I LOVE Villette so I may or may not manage to influence you in this direction! (Like Shirley, it starts out with a couple of chapters that are quite different than the rest of the book.)

[osprey_archer]

The Brontësaurus is an AMAZING title.

I bounced hard off the one Valente I tried, so I probably won't read The Glass Town Game, but you never know.

[qian]

And then they simply never appear on the page together again.

Shirley is so annoying in this regard!!! It's like the manga Nana where you're most invested in the friendship between the two Nanas, but then they are separated for chapters and chapters and chapters while a bunch of unimportant shit happens.

Very excited to read your thoughts on Villette! I love it so much.

[osprey_archer]

Shirley and Caroline are just bopping along hanging out having a good time, and then BAM Caroline gets sick and we never see them together again. Louis is simply not an acceptable substitute!

[leaina]

I bounced hard off the one Valente I tried, so I probably won't read The Glass Town Game, but you never know.

I hear you, but you might want to take a look at the beginning anyway - this one is written for kids, so it's not quite her usual style.

[lokifan]

Oh, interesting!

[ethelmay]

IIRC (again it's been a long time since I read it) there's a long exchange between Shirley and Caroline where it doesn't say which one is talking, and Caroline gets some of the more radical lines, but if you weren't careful you might think Shirley said them. I remember reading it putting a thumb on each paragraph change and muttering "Shirley...Caroline...Shirley...Caroline..."