Shirley

Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars — a period of bad harvests Luddite riots and economic unrest — Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.