Shirley (Wordsworth Classics)

Nice book. Good quality.

Great book but unfortunately not so great product... The book seemed worn out and cover was folded. While buying a book I expect a shiny cover too

I received 2 books 'Shirley' ordered through Amazon. The one was from Amazon (itself it seemed), the other from Rarewaves.(which seems to have come from England. The first did not have numbered pages, except for the last chapter pgs 1-26/the print job had unusual spaces all through it & the books cost around $33. The second was a beautiful paperback copy, good print, compact & complete and cost about $13. I will keep the second & find a place for the lst. Not sure why the discrepancies, but was really worth the review. The stars above is for the lst/it would be full stars for the 2nd. I do, however, find most items from Amazon satisfactory. Thank you.

Tempistiche di spedizione e consegna come previste, pacco imballato perfettamente. Non so dire nulla del libro, se non che è effettivamente in inglese come descritto, perché non era per me e non l'ho mai letto, ma la persona che mi ha chiesto di acquistarlo è rimasta soddisfatta.

Though Charlotte Bronte wrote this novel in the mid-1800’s, it reflects on a time in British history when women could inherit property and wealth, but could not vote. Emerging femininist theory is prevalent in her thinking throughout, and sometimes the narrative seems to dip. Upon reflection, I realized that the deaths of her brother (most probably from addiction) and her two sisters had to have an impact on Charlotte as a writer. In this, as with much of the story line(s), I found the splendid Introduction by Sally Minogue very useful with one notable exception: she claims that the plight of the desperate working man doesn’t capture the reader’s attention. It captured mine. As is common these days, I had my DNA tested and via ancestry, I learned of an ancestor, Timothy Kershaw (1785-1853) who lived at the precise time Bronte describes. Further, he was born, married, and had his first 4 children in Halifax where he worked at mills as a dyer. The Luddites—-central to Bronte’s narrative—-were a group of workers named after a legendary but perhaps mythological character who spearheaded the movement. They protested against the industrialization of the cloth industry and they were determined to sabotage the emerging technologies. Thus, in “Shirley,” there is an attack on Hollow’s Mill which was most likely based on a real attack on Cartwright’s Mill in 1812; the Luddites met and planned their strategies in the Crispin Inn in Halifax. And, known for her remarkable insight into the lives of women, this novel also equally explores the lives of men: men with wealth and status and power, and men who are born lowly workers and have little opportunity to change their status. At the same time, the War of 1812 had fully engaged the British and the Americans in contests over tariffs and the high seas, sometimes referred to as “the second war of independence” for America. The notion of emigration to America is raised in this novel, as are notions of a generous and charitable ruling class and an emerging middle class. The Chartist movement had emerged in England as well and rights proposed included voting rights for all men regardless of wealth and property, and removing the property requirement for serving as a Member of Parliament. (Women’s rights and the abolition of slavery loom large in Britain’s future.). As for the Chartists, Bronte seems to lump those folks with people who took issue with the church of England. They, and the Luddites, are all “dissenters,” what Americans might call revolutionaries or rebels, and at some level, patriots moving a society to a higher moral order. Oddly, before anorexia nervosa even had a name before we had the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, one of Bronte’s characters seems to be starving herself—which is remedied by love, not only love by a newly discovered maternal influence, but love of a potential partner. And, a woman of wealth (in fact, Shirley, the character for whom this novel is named) turns her fortune and her mill over to a husband who now has a new found purpose more satisfying than being her tutor. This is a novel for folks who can sustain the Victorian language and wandering (I can with work) and it isn’t for everyone. It is also for anyone with heavy Yorkshire ancestry (like me) and for the loss of fairies because, of course, they like to inhabit pristine woodlands and not emerging industrialized centers and they seemed to clear out when mill operations chugged along and the textile industry was king. Timothy Kershaw actually moved to Leeds in about 1818 and he continued to work as a dyer.

I find it years better than "North & South". Deeper, more clever, more sophisticated, in other words: Charlotte Brontë. I have read all her works and her sisters', some of them several times. It is quite a scandal that it has never been adapted for the screen!! With "Jane Eyre" being adapted every five years. I can see Andrew Davies write a wonderful screenplay for it and Susanna White being director. The question is: What are they waiting for?? Are they scared they might not do it justice? It sure takes more than adapting "North & South".

Good story. Worthwhile reading.