Margaret Smith – författare

'I am only just returned to a sense of the real world about me, for I have been reading Villette, a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre.' George Eliot Lucy Snowe, in flight from an unhappy past, leaves England and finds work as a teacher in Madame Beck's school in 'Villette'. Strongly drawn to the fiery autocratic schoolmaster Monsieur Paul Emanuel, Lucy is compelled by Madame Beck's jealous interference to assert her right to love and be loved. Based in part on Charlotte Brontë's experience in Brussels ten years earlier, Villette (1853) is a cogent and dramatic exploration of a woman's response to the challenge of a constricting social environment. Its deployment of imagery comparable in power to that of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and its use of comedy–ironic or exuberant–in the service of an ultimately sombre vision, make Villette especially appealing to the modern reader. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

'Dangerous as lucifer matches.'That was how Arthur Nicholls, Charlotte Brontë's husband for the last nine months of her life, described her letters. Full of acute observations, pithy character sketches, and passionate convictions, the letters are our most direct source of information about the lives of the Brontës and our closest approach to the author of Jane Eyre. In them Charlotte writes of life at Haworth Parsonage, her experiences at a Belgian school, and her intense feelings for the Belgian schoolteacher, M. Heger. She endures the agony of the death of her siblings, and enjoys the success as a writer that brings her into contact with the London literary scene. Vivid and intimate, her letters give fresh insight into the novels, and into the development of her distinct literary style. Margaret Smith's fine edition includes invaluable notes on Brontë's correspondents, and Janet Gezari contributes a new introduction that relates the letters to both Brontë's life and her creative accomplishment. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

"Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!"Throughout the hardships of her childhood - spent with a severe aunt and abusive cousin, and later at the austere Lowood charity school - Jane Eyre clings to a sense of self-worth, despite of her treatment from those close to her. At the age of eighteen, sick of her narrow existence, she seeks work as a governess. The monotony of Jane's new life at Thornfield Hall is broken up by the arrival of her peculiar and changeful employer, Mr Rochester. Routine at the mansion is further disrupted by mysterious incidents that draw the pair closer together but which, once explained, threaten Jane's happiness and integrity. A flagship of Victorian fiction, Jane Eyre draws the reader in by the vigour of Jane's voice and the novel's forceful depiction of childhood injustice, of the restraints placed upon women, and the complexities of both faith and passion. The emotional charge of Jane's story is as strong today as it was more than 150 years ago, as she seeks dignity and freedom on her own terms. In this new edition, Juliette Atkinson explores the power of narrative voice and looks at the striking physicality of the novel, which is both shocking and romantic.

The Professor (1845-6), written before Jane Eyre, challenged contemporary expectations of the novel by its brevity, realism, and insistence on a working career both before and after marriage for its hero and heroine. Strikingly up to date for its period, the action begins against a background of the fight for better factory conditions in the 1830s, and finishes in the early 1840s with the spread of liberal ideas which led to the continental revolutions of 1848.This edition is based directly on the author's fair copy manuscript, and also includes `Emma', Charlotte Brontë's last, unfinished attempt to write a novel after Villette. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This final volume of Charlotte Brontë''s letters covers the period from 1852, when she eventually completed Villette, to March 1855, when she died at the early age of 38. Published in January 1853, Villette reflects experiences and moods conveyed with sharp immediacy in the correspondence of the preceding years. In December 1852 one of her most dramatic letters described the crucial event in her private life: Arthur Nicholls''s proposal of marriage, when, ''shaking from head to foot'' he made her feel ''what it costs a man to declare affection where he doubts response.'' Mr Brontë''s furious opposition to the match was not overcome until 1854, the year of Charlotte''s marriage on 29 June. In the all too few months before her death, she came to love and trust Nicholls, her ''dear boy'' and her ''tenderest nurse'' during her final illness.The letters in this volume include on the one hand Charlotte''s brief curt note to George Smith on his engagement to Elizabeth Blakeway, and on the other a newly discovered letter describing with cheerful briskness Charlotte''s purchase of her own wedding trousseau. Complete texts of letters previously published inaccurately or in part provide valuable insight into her other friendships. Those to Elizabeth Gaskell in particular have an important bearing on our interpretation and assessment of her Life of Charlotte, published early in 1857; and the inclusion of Harriet Martineau''s angry comments on the Life (''Hallucination!'' [Friendship] was never attained.'') enhances our understanding of Charlotte''s break with Martineau after her review of Villette. The redating of a letter has shown that the long estrangement between Charlotte and her oldest friend, Ellen Nussey, caused by Ellen''s hostility to the idea of Charlotte''s marriage with Nicholls, lasted without a break from July 1853 until late February 1854. The volume includes some of the touching notes from Charlotte''s bereaved husband and father, written in response to condolences on her death. Mrs Gaskell''s graphic account of her visit to Haworth in 1853 forms one of the appendices; others provide the texts of fragmentary letters, identify known forgeries, and list addenda and corrigenda for volumes 1 and 2.

These letters give an insight into the life of a writer whose novels continue to be bestsellers. They reveal much about Charlotte Brontë''s personal life, her family relationships, and the society in which she lived. Many of her early letters are written with vigour, vivacity, and an engaging aptitude for self-mockery. In contrast, her letters to her ''master'', the Belgian schoolteacher Constantin Heger, reveal her intense, obsessive longing for some response fromhim. Other letters are deeply moving, when Charlotte endures the agony of her brother''s and sisters'' untimely deaths. We learn also of the progress of her writing, including the astonishing success of Jane Eyre, and of her contacts with her publishers, including the young George Smith; and we recognizein her letters the life-experiences which are transmuted into the art of her novels. Contemporary society is brilliantly described in her letters from London, when she writes of her encounters with famous writers and with critics of her novels. We hear too of her visits to art galleries, operas, and the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace. Dramatic letters written in December 1852 convey the ''turbulence of feeling'' in the Haworth curate Arthur Nicholls''s proposal of marriage to herand in Mr Brontë''s violent reaction to it; and we subsequently hear of her secret correspondence with her suitor, her father''s eventual consent, and her tragically brief happy marriage, cut short by her death in March 1855.

A scholarly edition of a novel by Charlotte Brontë. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

''I am only just returned to a sense of the real world about me, for I have been reading Villette, a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre.''George EliotLucy Snowe, in flight from an unhappy past, leaves England and finds work as a teacher in Madame Beck''s school in ''Villette''. Strongly drawn to the fiery autocratic schoolmaster Monsieur Paul Emanuel, Lucy is compelled by Madame Beck''s jealous interference to assert her right to love and be loved.Based in part on Charlotte Brontë''s experience in Brussels ten years earlier, Villette (1853) is a cogent and dramatic exploration of a woman''s response to the challenge of a constricting social environment. Its deployment of imagery comparable in power to that of Emily Brontë''s Wuthering Heights, and its use of comedy–ironic or exuberant–in the service of an ultimately sombre vision, make Villette especially appealing to the modern reader.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

A scholarly edition of a novel by Charlotte Brontë. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

''I am only just returned to a sense of the real world about me, for I have been reading Villette, a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre.''George EliotLucy Snowe, in flight from an unhappy past, leaves England and finds work as a teacher in Madame Beck''s school in ''Villette''. Strongly drawn to the fiery autocratic schoolmaster Monsieur Paul Emanuel, Lucy is compelled by Madame Beck''s jealous interference to assert her right to love and be loved.Based in part on Charlotte Brontë''s experience in Brussels ten years earlier, Villette (1853) is a cogent and dramatic exploration of a woman''s response to the challenge of a constricting social environment. Its deployment of imagery comparable in power to that of Emily Brontë''s Wuthering Heights, and its use of comedy–ironic or exuberant–in the service of an ultimately sombre vision, make Villette especially appealing to the modern reader.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

''Dangerous as lucifer matches.'' That was how Arthur Nicholls, Charlotte Brontë''s husband for the last nine months of her life, described her letters. Full of acute observations, pithy character sketches, and passionate convictions, the letters are our most direct source of information about the lives of the Brontës and our closest approach to the author of Jane Eyre. In them Charlotte writes of life at Haworth Parsonage, her experiences at a Belgian school, and her intense feelings for the Belgian schoolteacher, M. Heger. She endures the agony of the death of her siblings, and enjoys the success as a writer that brings her into contact with the London literary scene. Vivid and intimate, her letters give fresh insight into the novels, and into the development of her distinct literary style. Margaret Smith''s fine edition includes invaluable notes on Brontë''s correspondents, and Janet Gezari contributes a new introduction that relates the letters to both Brontë''s life and her creative accomplishment. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

''Dangerous as lucifer matches.'' That was how Arthur Nicholls, Charlotte Brontë''s husband for the last nine months of her life, described her letters. Full of acute observations, pithy character sketches, and passionate convictions, the letters are our most direct source of information about the lives of the Brontës and our closest approach to the author of Jane Eyre. In them Charlotte writes of life at Haworth Parsonage, her experiences at a Belgian school, and her intense feelings for the Belgian schoolteacher, M. Heger. She endures the agony of the death of her siblings, and enjoys the success as a writer that brings her into contact with the London literary scene. Vivid and intimate, her letters give fresh insight into the novels, and into the development of her distinct literary style. Margaret Smith''s fine edition includes invaluable notes on Brontë''s correspondents, and Janet Gezari contributes a new introduction that relates the letters to both Brontë''s life and her creative accomplishment. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

"Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!" Throughout the hardships of her childhood - spent with a severe aunt and abusive cousin, and later at the austere Lowood charity school - Jane Eyre clings to a sense of self-worth, despite of her treatment from those close to her. At the age of eighteen, sick of her narrow existence, she seeks work as a governess. The monotony of Jane''s new life at Thornfield Hall is broken up by the arrival of her peculiar and changeful employer, Mr Rochester. Routine at the mansion is further disrupted by mysterious incidents that draw the pair closer together but which, once explained, threaten Jane''s happiness and integrity. A flagship of Victorian fiction, Jane Eyre draws the reader in by the vigour of Jane''s voice and the novel''s forceful depiction of childhood injustice, of the restraints placed upon women, and the complexities of both faith and passion. The emotional charge of Jane''s story is as strong today as it was more than 150 years ago, as she seeks dignity and freedom on her own terms. In this new edition, Juliette Atkinson explores the power of narrative voice and looks at the striking physicality of the novel, which is both shocking and romantic.

"Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!" Throughout the hardships of her childhood - spent with a severe aunt and abusive cousin, and later at the austere Lowood charity school - Jane Eyre clings to a sense of self-worth, despite of her treatment from those close to her. At the age of eighteen, sick of her narrow existence, she seeks work as a governess. The monotony of Jane''s new life at Thornfield Hall is broken up by the arrival of her peculiar and changeful employer, Mr Rochester. Routine at the mansion is further disrupted by mysterious incidents that draw the pair closer together but which, once explained, threaten Jane''s happiness and integrity. A flagship of Victorian fiction, Jane Eyre draws the reader in by the vigour of Jane''s voice and the novel''s forceful depiction of childhood injustice, of the restraints placed upon women, and the complexities of both faith and passion. The emotional charge of Jane''s story is as strong today as it was more than 150 years ago, as she seeks dignity and freedom on her own terms. In this new edition, Juliette Atkinson explores the power of narrative voice and looks at the striking physicality of the novel, which is both shocking and romantic.

This special edition of The Oxford Companion to the Brontës commemorates the bicentenary of Emily Brontë''s birth in July 1818 and provides comprehensive and detailed information about the lives, works, and reputations of the Brontës - the three sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, their father, and their brother Branwell.Expanded entries surveying the Brontës'' lives and works are supplemented by entries on friends and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings and paintings; on historical events such as Chartism, the Peterloo Massacre, and the Ashantee Wars; on exploration, slavery, and religion. Selected entries on the characters and places in the Brontë juvenilia provide a glimpse into their early imaginativeworlds, and entries on film, ballet, and musicals indicate the extent to which their works have inspired others. A new foreword to the text has been also penned by Claire Harman, award-winning writer and literary critic, and recent biographer of Charlotte Brontë.This is a unique and authoritative reference book for the research student and the general reader. The A-Z format, extensive cross-referencing, classified contents, chronologies, illustrations, and maps, both facilitate quick reference and encourage further exploration. This Companion is not only invaluable for quick searches, but a delight to browse, and an inspiration to further reading.

For the first time a major novel by Charlotte Brontë appears in an edition based directly on the author''s manuscript. Like her other mature work, The Professor owes much to her relationship with M. Heger, her Brussels schoolmaster. The first of her full-length novels, it is of special interest since it was written comparatively soon after her experiences in Brussels in the early 1840s, but not published until 1857, after her death. A fullintroduction gives an account of its composition, analyses the manuscript, and describes the circumstances of its eventual publication, in an inaccurate form, under the editorship of A. B. Nicholls.Appendices include an unused `Preface'' - one of Charlotte Brontë''s attempts to `recast'' the novel - and a list of substantive variants between the manuscript and the first edition. Her last fragmentary novel, `Emma'', begun after Villette, is now transcribed directly from the author''s rough draft, instead of from the polished and revised text produced by Nicholls, George Smith, and Thackeray for the Cornhill Magazine in 1860.The volume contains full indexes to Biblical and literary allusions in Charlotte Brontë''s four major novels, thus giving a fascinating guide to the nature and extent of her reading. The editors also make use of continuing research by providing a list of additions and corrections to all previous volumes in the Clarendon Brontë series.

A scholarly edition of a novel by Charlotte Brontë. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Margaret Smith was the winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for her work on the Clarendon Edition of the Brontës work

Margaret Smith, winner of the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for her work on the Brontës

A scholarly edition of a novel by Charlotte Brontë. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

A scholarly edition of Villette by Charlotte Brontë. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

For the first time a major novel by Charlotte Brontë appears in an edition based directly on the author's manuscript. Like her other mature work, The Professor owes much to her relationship with M. Heger, her Brussels schoolmaster. The first of her full-length novels, it is of special interest since it was written comparatively soon after her experiences in Brussels in the early 1840s, but not published until 1857, after her death. A full introduction gives an account of its composition, analyses the manuscript, and describes the circumstances of its eventual publication, in an inaccurate form, under the editorship of A. B. Nicholls.Appendices include an unused `Preface' - one of Charlotte Brontë's attempts to `recast' the novel - and a list of substantive variants between the manuscript and the first edition. Her last fragmentary novel, `Emma', begun after Villette, is now transcribed directly from the author's rough draft, instead of from the polished and revised text produced by Nicholls, George Smith, and Thackeray for the Cornhill Magazine in 1860.The volume contains full indexes to Biblical and literary allusions in Charlotte Brontë's four major novels, thus giving a fascinating guide to the nature and extent of her reading. The editors also make use of continuing research by providing a list of additions and corrections to all previous volumes in the Clarendon Brontë series.

`Browning really comes back to life in the marvellous third volume of the new Oxford Browning', wrote John Bayley, choosing it as one of his Books of the Year for 1988. While Volume III included six of the eight Bells and Pomegranates pamphlets, the present volume completes the series and includes the most remarkable of all, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. Here we find `Pictor Ignotus', `The Lost Leader', `The Bishop orders his Tomb', `The Laboratory', `The Boy and the Angel', and the first part of `Saul'. Also included are Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day and the essay on Shelley.As the Times Literary Supplement reviewer of the earlier volumes commented, `readers of a poet like this need all the help they can get; and Jack and Smith have provided it in abundance.' Each poem is fully annotated, and accompanied by a detailed introduction which provides information on the chronology of composition and on Browning's sources.

`Men don't seem to understand making letters a vehicle of communication - they always seem to think us uncautious. I'm sure I don't think I have said anything rash - however you must burn it when read.' Despite the request, Charlotte Brontë's lifelong friend Ellen Nussey probably burnt very little of her correspondence, and in this edition, based as far as possible on original manuscripts, many confidential and outspoken letters are published in full for the first time.The present volume includes letters from Charlotte's childhood (the first written to her father in September 1829), and takes the reader up to the publication and review of Jane Eyre (1847). Early editions depended largely on bowdlerized or inaccurate copies, and even the much improved Shakespeare Head edition of 1932 suffered from limited access to manuscripts, owing to the nefarious activities of T. J. Wise. Since 1932 many more manuscripts have become available, and the present edition includes new letters, previously unpublished passages censored by Ellen Nussey or Mrs Gaskell, and full annotation. As well as Charlotte's own letters, a handful of important letters by friends and family relating to her or illuminating her correspondence are included, along with extracts from the diaries of Emily and Anne Brontë, Ellen Nussey, and Charlotte's rejected suitor Henry Nussey. The full Introduction includes an illuminating account of the early publication history of the letters, and biographical material on the main correspondents. Of particular interest in the notes to this volume are the extensive quotations from early reviews of Jane Eyre.

In this volume we share Charlotte Brontë's experience for four crucial years. The success of Jane Eyre and the strange power of Wuthering Heights made the 'brothers Bell' the 'universal theme of conversation'; but privately the family endured the deaths of Branwell Brontë in September and Emily in December 1848, followed by Anne's in May 1849. Haunted by the fear that she also would succumb, Charlotte found salvation in writing Shirley, published in October 1849, and comfort in her friendship and correspondence with Ellen Nussey, with her publishers–especially George Smith–with Mrs Gaskell, and (for a time) Harriet Martineau. She may also have received a proposal of marriage from Smith, Edler's manager, James Taylor.

This final volume of Charlotte Brontë's letters covers the period from 1852, when she eventually completed Villette, to March 1855, when she died at the early age of 38. Published in January 1853, Villette reflects experiences and moods conveyed with sharp immediacy in the correspondence of the preceding years. In December 1852 one of her most dramatic letters described the crucial event in her private life: Arthur Nicholls's proposal of marriage, when, 'shaking from head to foot' he made her feel 'what it costs a man to declare affection where he doubts response.' Mr Brontë's furious opposition to the match was not overcome until 1854, the year of Charlotte's marriage on 29 June. In the all too few months before her death, she came to love and trust Nicholls, her 'dear boy' and her 'tenderest nurse' during her final illness.The letters in this volume include on the one hand Charlotte's brief curt note to George Smith on his engagement to Elizabeth Blakeway, and on the other a newly discovered letter describing with cheerful briskness Charlotte's purchase of her own wedding trousseau. Complete texts of letters previously published inaccurately or in part provide valuable insight into her other friendships. Those to Elizabeth Gaskell in particular have an important bearing on our interpretation and assessment of her Life of Charlotte, published early in 1857; and the inclusion of Harriet Martineau's angry comments on the Life ('Hallucination!' [Friendship] was never attained.') enhances our understanding of Charlotte's break with Martineau after her review of Villette. The redating of a letter has shown that the long estrangement between Charlotte and her oldest friend, Ellen Nussey, caused by Ellen's hostility to the idea of Charlotte's marriage with Nicholls, lasted without a break from July 1853 until late February 1854. The volume includes some of the touching notes from Charlotte's bereaved husband and father, written in response to condolences on her death. Mrs Gaskell's graphic account of her visit to Haworth in 1853 forms one of the appendices; others provide the texts of fragmentary letters, identify known forgeries, and list addenda and corrigenda for volumes 1 and 2.

This special edition of The Oxford Companion to the Brontës commemorates the bicentenary of Emily Brontë's birth in July 1818 and provides comprehensive and detailed information about the lives, works, and reputations of the Brontës - the three sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, their father, and their brother Branwell.Expanded entries surveying the Brontës' lives and works are supplemented by entries on friends and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings and paintings; on historical events such as Chartism, the Peterloo Massacre, and the Ashantee Wars; on exploration, slavery, and religion. Selected entries on the characters and places in the Brontë juvenilia provide a glimpse into their early imaginative worlds, and entries on film, ballet, and musicals indicate the extent to which their works have inspired others. A new foreword to the text has been also penned by Claire Harman, award-winning writer and literary critic, and recent biographer of Charlotte Brontë.This is a unique and authoritative reference book for the research student and the general reader. The A-Z format, extensive cross-referencing, classified contents, chronologies, illustrations, and maps, both facilitate quick reference and encourage further exploration. This Companion is not only invaluable for quick searches, but a delight to browse, and an inspiration to further reading.

These letters give an insight into the life of a writer whose novels continue to be bestsellers. They reveal much about Charlotte Brontë's personal life, her family relationships, and the society in which she lived. Many of her early letters are written with vigour, vivacity, and an engaging aptitude for self-mockery. In contrast, her letters to her 'master', the Belgian schoolteacher Constantin Heger, reveal her intense, obsessive longing for some response from him. Other letters are deeply moving, when Charlotte endures the agony of her brother's and sisters' untimely deaths. We learn also of the progress of her writing, including the astonishing success of Jane Eyre, and of her contacts with her publishers, including the young George Smith; and we recognize in her letters the life-experiences which are transmuted into the art of her novels. Contemporary society is brilliantly described in her letters from London, when she writes of her encounters with famous writers and with critics of her novels. We hear too of her visits to art galleries, operas, and the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace. Dramatic letters written in December 1852 convey the 'turbulence of feeling' in the Haworth curate Arthur Nicholls's proposal of marriage to her and in Mr Brontë's violent reaction to it; and we subsequently hear of her secret correspondence with her suitor, her father's eventual consent, and her tragically brief happy marriage, cut short by her death in March 1855.

'You expected bread, and you have got a stone; break your teeth on it, and don't shriek...you will have learned the great lesson how to endure without a sob.'Shirley is Charlotte Brontë's only historical novel and her most topical one. Written at a time of social unrest, it is set during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, when economic hardship led to riots in the woollen district of Yorkshire. A mill-owner, Robert Moore, is determined to introduce new machinery despite fierce opposition from his workers; he ignores their suffering, and puts his own life at risk. Robert sees marriage to the wealthy Shirley Keeldar as the solution to his difficulties, but he loves his cousin Caroline. She suffers misery and frustration, and Shirley has her own ideas about the man she will choose to marry. The friendship between the two women, and the contrast between their situations, is at the heart of this compelling novel, which is suffused with Brontë's deep yearning for an earlier time. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.