Shirley (novel) Shirley (novel) Shirley, A Tale is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë. It was Brontë's second published novel after "Jane Eyre" (originally published under Brontë's 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 is set against a backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry. The novel's popularity led to Shirley's becoming a woman's name. The title character was given the name that her father had intended to give a son. Before the
Jane Eyre (2006 miniseries) one of many ill-treatments she is accused of being bad blood and in an attempt to get rid of her, Jane is sent to Lowood School by Mrs Reed. Like Gateshead Hall, Lowood School is a cold institution. Jane’s only friend at school, Helen Burns, dies and Jane is left alone once again. Resolving to become independent, she takes on the profession of a governess. At the age of eighteen, she is able to secure a position as governess to a girl at Thornfield Hall. Here Jane learns that her pupil, a French girl named Adele, is the ward of