Hmm... pretty slow going at first. I have to say, after spending a week and a half absorbed by Harry Potter, I'm having a hard time getting into this book! Have you gotten your copies yet?
Mine has only 509 pages, but it has small font that covers the whole page. I also found an error in my version. There are two Chapter IXs. From Chapter X on, the Chapter headings do not match the Table of Contents. Tsk, tsk.
Well, I did it. I sat down and finished Shirley this morning. I had less than 200 pages to go and said, "Enough is enough. I WILL finish this book now." And I did.
So, my overall feeling is "ehh". It does not compare favorably with "Jane Eyre" or "Villete". I found the plot to be slow moving and the writing uneven. Some events were written in detail- others skimmed over. Some characters were written about extensively and then left hanging at the end (Malone, for example). The story also moved from focusing on Caroline, to focusing on Shirley, and then moving around between various characters, including excerpts from Louis Moore's diary, and hardly mentioning Caroline at all. I would have liked more consistency. Either move throughout different characters throughout the book or stick with the character with whom you started.
And, I was not happy with the end.
****SPOILER ALERT***** While it is a happy ending, it felt as though the ending was haphazardly slapped onto the book. There is over 400 pages of Caroline being hopelessly in love with Robert while Robert seems indifferent and then suddenly he has a change of heart and they get married? Really?
Another problem I have with Bronte is her love of illness. This is also true in her other novels. Her characters fall gravely ill, on death's door, have an epiphany, and then magically recover. Sometimes it is real illness- sometimes it is mental illness dragging down their physical health. It could be that I just do not have a nervous tempermant and am not sentimental enough to understand. But, I rarely miss a meal, even in times of mental distress and I have a difficult time understanding anyone who starves themselves because they suffer from unrequited love. Or because they think they have rabies- whichever the case may be.
I did have one interchange between Caroline and Shirley that I would like to remark on. It comes during the chapter "To-morrow" and I think really illustrates what a good friendship they have. Caroline starts with "'To be sure: you could not write cleverly enough, you don't know enough; you are not learned, Shirley.' [Shirley replies] 'God knows, I can't contradict you, Cary; I'm as ignorant as a stone. There's one comfort, however, you are not much better.' They descended to breakfast."
I did like the way Bronte wrote about their friendship. It seemed like a healthy, honest friendship without the cattiness that many authors seem to write into female friendships.
In general, there was much in the book that could be considered feminist, for example Caroline's reflections on women being allowed into occupations and Shirley's discussion of the strong women in mythology. For the time period it was written, this was pretty daring. As far as the romances went, however, it still seemed pretty traditional. For example, one section noted how it is better for a woman to pine for a love who doesn't notice her than to actively attempt to be noticed. Or the fact that Caroline spent how many years in depression because Robert Moore didn't love her. Of course, this again speaks to the fact that women had little to occupy themselves. She wishes to have something to do to take her mind from him, which I think is quite sensible, but was not allowed to take up any type of work other than sewing (which does NOT occupy one's mind).
Anyway, I think I've gone on quite enough. I'll be interested in your comments. On a side note, I just started "The Nanny Diaries" as my next book and it will make a nice change because the writing is VERY different!
So I plowed through about 250 pages of Shirley this weekend, and am now within the last 100 pages. I gave up the fight at about 11:00 last night. I'm hopeful that I will finish either tonight or tomorrow.
I do have to say that I became very irritated with Caroline's "fever" - takes me back to Daisy Miller et al. I'm with you, M, the only time I miss a meal is when I'm puking. I've never had a nervous or worrisome personality, and in fact sometimes I wonder if I come accross as uncaring because I don't fret enough. I can't imagine not eating for days and days because of a man, but then again I have a job and house and tv and facebook.... And maybe at 17 I was a little more susceptable to such drama.
My favorite chapter by far was the one that "sensitive" readers were encouraged to skip.
Overall, I didn't enjoy the book. The plot moved slowly, the dialogue was often hard to follow, the political discussions were lengthy and the characters that I was most interested in (Mr Hall, Mr Sweeting, Miss Moore) were the least developed. Like M, I didn't like the changing points of view. I think I skimmed nearly the entire chapter that focused on Martin and his schemes to distract his family for Caroline's secret visit, and I found his character particularly annoying. Which, I think means Bronte hit the 15 year old personality right on the head.
Around the middle of the book I thought, "wouldn't it be funny if Mrs. Pryor, after acting such a mother to Shirley, turned out to be Caroline's mother? Ha ha, that would never happen." Lo and behold! While I think it's true to Caroline's character that she welcomed her mother back with open arms, I didn't like it. I think I would have harbored a lot of resentment to both her and everyone who knew her true identity and didn't tell me.
Robert/Caroline - meh. boy meets girl, boy does something stupid to lose girl, tragic circumstance brings them back together. Reminds me of Bruce Almighty.
Louis/Shirley - I liked the development of their relationship much more; it seemed more realistic, balanced, and two sided. I particularly liked the line from the last chapter: "In all this, Miss Keeldar partly yielded to her disposition; but a remark she made a year afterwards proved that she partly also acted on system. 'Louis,' she said, 'would never have learned to rule, if she had not ceased to govern: the incapacity of the sovereign had developed the powers of the premier.'"
Regarding the switch of emphasis from Caroline to Shirley mid-way through the book. I didn't mind it so much, as I just assumed that Caroline's life was continuing as it had already been exhasutively described. She was sick, Moore was gone, Moore was injured, she was pining. Meanwhile, Shirley's life was a little more exciting what with the mad dog and all. .. ...
Shirley, like many other books, disappointed me in the last chapter. It forever vexes me how an author can find it necessary to spend, in my case, 200 pages before even introducing the title character while then summing up a proposal and two weddings in less than 10. I'm forever wanting just a little more closure than is given. Give me a glimpse of 15 years down the road like J K Rowling did.
Also, the last chapter disappointed with 1) the sudden reappearance of Malone (who cares?!) and the other curates. I think they were valid subcharacters who served a purpose to give insight to Shirley's personality, but there was no need to bring them back for an encore. 2) the strange first person conversation with Martha. Who the heck is Martha? What is her realtion to the narrator? What is the narrator's relationship to the main characters? A good editor would have cleaned that up, I think.
You can tell that this was an early work, and there are good reasons why it is not as well known as Jane Eyre and Villette.
Now, after all this negativity, I will agree with M that the book has very strong feminist tones, and that I sympathized with Caroline very much as she longed for a profession, an ocupation, anything to take her mind off Moore. Indeed, how do you grow and move on if you can not change your situation or any of your external stimulii? I enjoyed Caroline's initial internal dailogue when she realized that she might not get married. What other options were available to her? Practically none. I also enjoyed the girls' verbal sparing with Joe Scott in chapter 18. You tell 'em, ladies! I can see that chapter being paired with "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" by Mary Wolstencrofte in many a women's lit course.
So, not as bad as Moby Dick or Remains of the Day, glad I read it, but also not staying on my shelves.
I didn't really care for this book at all. It was just too darn slow. too much description and the conversations were way to hard to follow. I learned that I could not put the book down in the middle of a chapter because I would just have to re-read it to figure out who was talking. I did not like the French that was thrown in either.
I did find some humor. In the beginning, I believe the horse's name was Murgatroyd which caused much laughter from me. Since Saturday cartoons always included "Heavens to Murgatroyd". I always thought that was just a made-up name and was surprised to see it in this book. Another quote I found amusing was "The petticoat was short, displaying well a pair of feet and ankles which left much to be desired in the article of symmetry". It struck my "mathness" as funny. And another was "Hard labor and learned professions,they say, make women masculine,course,unwomanly" as I (perhaps learned) slaved away while painting this house. I guess I am masculine, course and unwomanly. Damn women's lib.
And I must say, I learned a lot of vocabulary. Two of my favorite learned words were poltroon meaning "utter coward" and cock-a-hoop meaning "extremely and obviously pleased". Somehow, someway, I think I can work these words into conversation DAILY like "Don't be a poltroon" and "I'm quite cock-a-hoop". Say what?
I too agree with you two about the ending. After all that stuff and to spend so little on 2 weddings (that were so pined for) was ridiculous.
The other thing that bugged me was the masculine conversations. I really don't think men converse as the men in this book did. There was just too much darn romance and it was, for me, sickening. How do you FEEL just doesn't fly in a mathematical precise brain. X=2 and that't it!
The one character I DID like was Martin. He was a conniving, scheming teen and I liked him. I would rather read about him.
Caroline I didn't care for, too much pining and worrying over love. Shirley was okay in the beginning and then she got all caught up in the love thing too and I didn't care for her anymore.
Glad I read it just to say I have but not keeping it.
18 comments:
Hmm... pretty slow going at first. I have to say, after spending a week and a half absorbed by Harry Potter, I'm having a hard time getting into this book! Have you gotten your copies yet?
I have my copy and read about the first 10 pages. So far, kinda dry. I am sick of the word "curates" already.
I read the first chapter and haven't picked it up again. However, I have high hopes for tomorrow.
So I'm in chapter 4 now, and still no Shirley. . .
I'm past page 100 and still haven't met Shirley. This is starting to look like a Moby Dick...
My volume has 2 novels; I looked last night to see where Shirley ended - page 652! !!!
Mine has only 509 pages, but it has small font that covers the whole page. I also found an error in my version. There are two Chapter IXs. From Chapter X on, the Chapter headings do not match the Table of Contents. Tsk, tsk.
In my copy, Shirley appears around page 150. It is worth the wait, though, she makes the book more interesting and is my favorite character thus far.
Am very much looking forward to meeting her!
Well I am hitting paint season and fair week, so I am SLOWLY reading. I have finished chapter 3. So at least I know Shirley is out there some where.
Well, I did it. I sat down and finished Shirley this morning. I had less than 200 pages to go and said, "Enough is enough. I WILL finish this book now." And I did.
So, my overall feeling is "ehh". It does not compare favorably with "Jane Eyre" or "Villete". I found the plot to be slow moving and the writing uneven. Some events were written in detail- others skimmed over. Some characters were written about extensively and then left hanging at the end (Malone, for example). The story also moved from focusing on Caroline, to focusing on Shirley, and then moving around between various characters, including excerpts from Louis Moore's diary, and hardly mentioning Caroline at all. I would have liked more consistency. Either move throughout different characters throughout the book or stick with the character with whom you started.
And, I was not happy with the end.
****SPOILER ALERT*****
While it is a happy ending, it felt as though the ending was haphazardly slapped onto the book. There is over 400 pages of Caroline being hopelessly in love with Robert while Robert seems indifferent and then suddenly he has a change of heart and they get married? Really?
Another problem I have with Bronte is her love of illness. This is also true in her other novels. Her characters fall gravely ill, on death's door, have an epiphany, and then magically recover. Sometimes it is real illness- sometimes it is mental illness dragging down their physical health. It could be that I just do not have a nervous tempermant and am not sentimental enough to understand. But, I rarely miss a meal, even in times of mental distress and I have a difficult time understanding anyone who starves themselves because they suffer from unrequited love. Or because they think they have rabies- whichever the case may be.
I did have one interchange between Caroline and Shirley that I would like to remark on. It comes during the chapter "To-morrow" and I think really illustrates what a good friendship they have. Caroline starts with "'To be sure: you could not write cleverly enough, you don't know enough; you are not learned, Shirley.' [Shirley replies] 'God knows, I can't contradict you, Cary; I'm as ignorant as a stone. There's one comfort, however, you are not much better.' They descended to breakfast."
I did like the way Bronte wrote about their friendship. It seemed like a healthy, honest friendship without the cattiness that many authors seem to write into female friendships.
In general, there was much in the book that could be considered feminist, for example Caroline's reflections on women being allowed into occupations and Shirley's discussion of the strong women in mythology. For the time period it was written, this was pretty daring. As far as the romances went, however, it still seemed pretty traditional. For example, one section noted how it is better for a woman to pine for a love who doesn't notice her than to actively attempt to be noticed. Or the fact that Caroline spent how many years in depression because Robert Moore didn't love her. Of course, this again speaks to the fact that women had little to occupy themselves. She wishes to have something to do to take her mind from him, which I think is quite sensible, but was not allowed to take up any type of work other than sewing (which does NOT occupy one's mind).
Anyway, I think I've gone on quite enough. I'll be interested in your comments. On a side note, I just started "The Nanny Diaries" as my next book and it will make a nice change because the writing is VERY different!
I finally met Shirley on page 202. So far I'm not that impressed with her; I like Caroline's character much better.
I struggle with some of the dialogue. Yorkshire phonetic mixed with French. Fun!
You don't like Shirley! I may be biased, but I had little sympathy for Caroline's moping and whining. Shirley seemed much more proactive.
The French did get to be a bit much.
So I plowed through about 250 pages of Shirley this weekend, and am now within the last 100 pages. I gave up the fight at about 11:00 last night. I'm hopeful that I will finish either tonight or tomorrow.
I do have to say that I became very irritated with Caroline's "fever" - takes me back to Daisy Miller et al. I'm with you, M, the only time I miss a meal is when I'm puking. I've never had a nervous or worrisome personality, and in fact sometimes I wonder if I come accross as uncaring because I don't fret enough. I can't imagine not eating for days and days because of a man, but then again I have a job and house and tv and facebook.... And maybe at 17 I was a little more susceptable to such drama.
My favorite chapter by far was the one that "sensitive" readers were encouraged to skip.
Ah, c'est finis!
Overall, I didn't enjoy the book. The plot moved slowly, the dialogue was often hard to follow, the political discussions were lengthy and the characters that I was most interested in (Mr Hall, Mr Sweeting, Miss Moore) were the least developed. Like M, I didn't like the changing points of view. I think I skimmed nearly the entire chapter that focused on Martin and his schemes to distract his family for Caroline's secret visit, and I found his character particularly annoying. Which, I think means Bronte hit the 15 year old personality right on the head.
Around the middle of the book I thought, "wouldn't it be funny if Mrs. Pryor, after acting such a mother to Shirley, turned out to be Caroline's mother? Ha ha, that would never happen." Lo and behold! While I think it's true to Caroline's character that she welcomed her mother back with open arms, I didn't like it. I think I would have harbored a lot of resentment to both her and everyone who knew her true identity and didn't tell me.
Robert/Caroline - meh. boy meets girl, boy does something stupid to lose girl, tragic circumstance brings them back together. Reminds me of Bruce Almighty.
Louis/Shirley - I liked the development of their relationship much more; it seemed more realistic, balanced, and two sided. I particularly liked the line from the last chapter:
"In all this, Miss Keeldar partly yielded to her disposition; but a remark she made a year afterwards proved that she partly also acted on system. 'Louis,' she said, 'would never have learned to rule, if she had not ceased to govern: the incapacity of the sovereign had developed the powers of the premier.'"
Regarding the switch of emphasis from Caroline to Shirley mid-way through the book. I didn't mind it so much, as I just assumed that Caroline's life was continuing as it had already been exhasutively described. She was sick, Moore was gone, Moore was injured, she was pining. Meanwhile, Shirley's life was a little more exciting what with the mad dog and all. .. ...
Shirley, like many other books, disappointed me in the last chapter. It forever vexes me how an author can find it necessary to spend, in my case, 200 pages before even introducing the title character while then summing up a proposal and two weddings in less than 10. I'm forever wanting just a little more closure than is given. Give me a glimpse of 15 years down the road like J K Rowling did.
Also, the last chapter disappointed with
1) the sudden reappearance of Malone (who cares?!) and the other curates. I think they were valid subcharacters who served a purpose to give insight to Shirley's personality, but there was no need to bring them back for an encore.
2) the strange first person conversation with Martha. Who the heck is Martha? What is her realtion to the narrator? What is the narrator's relationship to the main characters? A good editor would have cleaned that up, I think.
You can tell that this was an early work, and there are good reasons why it is not as well known as Jane Eyre and Villette.
Now, after all this negativity, I will agree with M that the book has very strong feminist tones, and that I sympathized with Caroline very much as she longed for a profession, an ocupation, anything to take her mind off Moore. Indeed, how do you grow and move on if you can not change your situation or any of your external stimulii? I enjoyed Caroline's initial internal dailogue when she realized that she might not get married. What other options were available to her? Practically none. I also enjoyed the girls' verbal sparing with Joe Scott in chapter 18. You tell 'em, ladies! I can see that chapter being paired with "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" by Mary Wolstencrofte in many a women's lit course.
So, not as bad as Moby Dick or Remains of the Day, glad I read it, but also not staying on my shelves.
Joy, have you finished Shirley? Maybe you just found it so dull you gave up? :-)
I am still plugging away. I expect to finish before or during this weekend.
Okay, I FINALLY finished.
I didn't really care for this book at all. It was just too darn slow. too much description and the conversations were way to hard to follow. I learned that I could not put the book down in the middle of a chapter because I would just have to re-read it to figure out who was talking. I did not like the French that was thrown in either.
I did find some humor. In the beginning, I believe the horse's name was Murgatroyd which caused much laughter from me. Since Saturday cartoons always included "Heavens to Murgatroyd". I always thought that was just a made-up name and was surprised to see it in this book. Another quote I found amusing was "The petticoat was short, displaying well a pair of feet and ankles which left much to be desired in the article of symmetry". It struck my "mathness" as funny. And another was "Hard labor and learned professions,they say, make women masculine,course,unwomanly" as I (perhaps learned) slaved away while painting this house. I guess I am masculine, course and unwomanly. Damn women's lib.
And I must say, I learned a lot of vocabulary. Two of my favorite learned words were poltroon meaning "utter coward" and cock-a-hoop meaning "extremely and obviously pleased". Somehow, someway, I think I can work these words into conversation DAILY like "Don't be a poltroon" and "I'm quite cock-a-hoop". Say what?
I too agree with you two about the ending. After all that stuff and to spend so little on 2 weddings (that were so pined for) was ridiculous.
The other thing that bugged me was the masculine conversations. I really don't think men converse as the men in this book did. There was just too much darn romance and it was, for me, sickening. How do you FEEL just doesn't fly in a mathematical precise brain. X=2 and that't it!
The one character I DID like was Martin. He was a conniving, scheming teen and I liked him. I would rather read about him.
Caroline I didn't care for, too much pining and worrying over love. Shirley was okay in the beginning and then she got all caught up in the love thing too and I didn't care for her anymore.
Glad I read it just to say I have but not keeping it.
Post a Comment