[close] Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economic struggles, Shirley is an unsentimental yet passionate depiction of conflict among classes, sexes, and generations. Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore considers marriage to the wealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar, yet his heart lies with his cousin Caroline. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Roberts […]
Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield Hall, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a […]
“Villette! Villette! Have you read it?” exclaimed George Eliot when Charlotte Bront?®s final novel appeared in 1853. “It is still a more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power.” Arguably Bront?®s most refined and deeply felt work, Villette draws on her profound loneliness following the deaths of her three […]