Like a lot of people my introduction Charlotte Brontë was Jane Eyre, which blew me away. Having read it I resolved to read more of her works. Since then I've read "The Professor" which I wouldn't recommend (It was her first novel and not published until after her death, with good reason), given this I was a little hesitant picking up Shirley since it's quite a long novel. It is though a definite improvement on "The Professor", it does not however come close to Jane Eyre.

The titular character doesn't appear until over 100 pages into the book, and it's not clear if the protagonist is Caroline or Shirley really. It is a nice read though, the novels feels very different at various stages of the story giving you the feeling of not knowing where it is going next. The characters are nicely written and easy to picture, even minor characters get a thorough viewing, which I enjoy but I can imagine will seem like a waste of time to others, but I like Dickens who does that constantly... I still have a few Charlotte Brontë novels left and I'm still looking forward to reading them.