Shirley, A Tale.

First edition. 3 vols. 8vos. Vol. 1: Pp. iv, 303, [1, publisher's imprint]. Vol. 2: Pp. iv, 308. Vol. 3: Pp. iv, 317, [1, publisher's advert]. Contemporary reddish-brown half calf over marbled boards; four raised spine bands, edged in gilt rule. No half titles, as issued; with the first page of publisher's advertisements to rear of vol. 3, announcing the third edition of Jane Eyre. Lacks 16pp. publisher's catalogue to rear of vol. 1, and the subsequent leaf of press notices in the publisher's adverts to rear of vol. 3.

Spines mellowed to brown, board edges and corners lightly rubbed with some loss of colour, hinges starting in a couple of places; occasional foxing and spotting, mainly to prelims., p.273/4 of vol. 1 sustaining an irregular 1" internal tear (not affecting readability). A solid, very good set overall.

Charlotte Brontë's second published novel, following Jane Eyre two years earlier, and released on October 26, 1849. Author's stab at the "factory novel" sub-genre, popularized by Frances Trollope and Elizabeth Gaskell, and set during the Luddite uprisings of 1812–13 in West Yorkshire. Both "revolutionary", pitting workers against mill owners and "Brontë's most feminist novel", according to her biographer Lyndall Gordon, Shirley is a sweeping social chronicle of two contrasting heroines and their struggle against an all too dominant patriarchal society. With the title character modelled on Charlotte's spirited sister – and Wuthering Heights author – Emily Brontë, the novel's popularity led to Shirley being embraced as a distinctive woman's name, from its heretofore antecedent as a man's moniker.

[Sadleir 348; Smith, p.112; Parrish, p.93.]