I’m working my way through Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley right now. It’s been a week; I’m starting to get antsy.
Reading Shirley is reminding me of forcing my way through Daniel Deronda. That story doesn’t have a happy ending. I mean the story of me reading the book – taking three weeks to slog through those 700 pages has long been blamed for only managing to read 64 out of a planned 65 books that year. The actual story…I can’t remember the ending.
The funny thing about Daniel Deronda is that every time I go back and read a summary I’m like that book sounds awesome! Why didn’t I like it? But despite my love for Middlemarch (by the same author), Daniel Deronda just didn’t work for me.
And I fear that the same thing is happening with Shirley. Is Charlotte Bronte a one hit wonder? You may recall that I didn’t have a lot of love to give for Villette. With Shirley, I swear I run in and out of consciousness; I read without realizing it and that is no way to read.
It should be good. It reminds me a lot of North and South which I loved so much. But there’s no Mr. Thornton to love. Robert Moore is kind of a dick and he can’t make up his mind between lovely, sweet, thoughtful Caroline Helstone and temperamental, generous, wealthy Shirley Keeldar. I have no idea how this is going to go down – Caroline probably dies of consumption.
It took 200 pages to even meet Shirley you guys. Two hundred pages of leg work to meet the title character. Not even a whisper of her before that. It’s all Caroline. Which would be fine except that the people in Caroline’s life spend an awful lot of time talking about how feeble women and Caroline are.
The dialogue between the women is strong, I’ll give it that. I just read a delightful scene where Caroline is visiting Robert Moore’s sister who is being visited by Mrs. Yorke, the town matron. Mrs. Yorke sermonizes at Caroline about this, that and the other, being a general pain in the ass, and Caroline, soft-spoken, shy Caroline, totally gives it back to her. I’m enjoying the discussions on the place of women in society, seeing how far we have come and yet, how much is sadly similar.
But I’m still waiting for the magic. I’m still waiting to be swept up in dramatic Yorkshire.
I hope there’s a payoff waiting for me. Have you read Shirley? Is it coming?
The Paperback Princess 
I’m no Bronte fan, but would argue that “forcing your way through” a book is no way to read for the love of reading. Good luck.
You’re not wrong there! I have to see it through now.
Good luck! I hope the magic comes soon! -Tania
Funny thing – after this went up and I kept reading, I came across a pretty alright plot twist. I’m hoping that the last third is at least good.
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I’m reading Shirley now and agree with much of the above. However, there are those moments when Charlotte’s prose is like no other. Her description of nature, the moon, the evening….pure poetry. I’m about three quarters of the way through the book and am of the opinion that half of what I’ve read could have easily been cut out. The book is way too long. Villette, on the other hand, was wonderful…not as good as Jane Eyre, but up there. 🙂
You’re so right about her prose. There are few that have mastered the English language like Charlotte Bronte. But it’s way too long and so much of the story just gets lost – I just didn’t end up caring one way or another. Jane Eyre is the masterpiece, apparently the other 2 are poor imitations.
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