The State and Shirley Keeldar

Abstract

In a review which has assumed notoriety in the canon of Brontë criticism, G.H. Lewes condemned Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley for its ‘random’ construction, its overarching ‘coarseness’, its peculiarly masculine tone, and its lingering preference for describing the ‘habits and manners of Yorkshire’ rather than the proper ‘principles of human nature’ and ‘good taste’ (Allott, 1974, pp. 160–70).¹ Its notoriety is perhaps based as much on Charlotte’s horrified response, ‘God deliver me from my friends!’ (Gaskell, 1997, pp. 339).² Charlotte, it should be noted, rated Shirley as equivalent in quality to Jane Eyre or anything else she had previously written.³ But Lewes was not alone in his temper; a ‘feeble effort’, according to the Westminster Review (Allott, 1974, pp. 158–9).⁴ Charles Kingsley famously expressed himself so ‘disgusted’ with the opening passages on the bickering curates that he refused to read on (Allott, 1974, p. 343).⁵ The reviewer in the Daily News expressed a like concern regarding ‘vulgar’ depictions of the clergy (Allott, 1974, p. 117).⁶ Charlotte’s defence, typically, was grounded in a claim to experience. Such a species of curate existed. She had encountered some at Haworth, finding their manner so disagreeable ‘that my temper lost its balance, and I pronounced a few sentences sharply’ (Smith, 2007, p. 61). We will revisit the bickering curates in due course.