Surely

I'm slowly making my way through the collected works of the Bronte women. So far, Jane Eyre is still the best, and Wuthering Heights still the worst, in my estimation. Wuthering Heights, however, is maybe only a little darker than The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which chronicles a horrible and abusive marriage. The main difference is the Tenant has sympathetic characters, and I don't want to slap every single character in the book (just a couple of them). (Aside: I realize that these are many books by three different authoresses, but I can never remember which sister wrote which books, so I just don't bother separating them).

Last night I finished Shirley (by Charlotte, for those of you who care about that kind of thing). At its centre it's the story of the courtship of two couples, but it's also about the limited options for women in days past, as well as the Napoleonic wars and Luddite riots in England (Big shout-out to the Luddites! I am descended from the Luddites, as my father is one).

One really interesting fact is that, when she wrote this book in 1849, C. Bronte was the first person to use "Shirley" as both a first and feminine name. Up until then, it was only a surname. How cool is that? Think of someone you know named Shirley - she has Charlotte Bronte to thank for her name.

And, perhaps most importantly, we have Charlotte Bronte to thank for this:


(the "altogether" is just bonus).