Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) (67 page)
Read Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) Online
Authors: CHARLOTTE BRONTE,EMILY BRONTE,ANNE BRONTE,PATRICK BRONTE,ELIZABETH GASKELL
This 1849 social novel is Charlotte Brontë’s second novel, also published under pseudonym Currer Bell. The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
The novel’s popularity led to Shirley becoming a woman’s name. In the novel, Shirley Keeldar, the heroine was given the name that her father had intended to give a son. Before the publication of the novel, Shirley was an uncommon – but distinctly male – name and would have been an unusual name for a woman. Today it is regarded as a distinctly female name and an uncommon male name.
The first edition
