Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore has introduced labour saving machinery to his Yorkshire mill arousing a ferment of unemployment & discontent among his workers Robert considers marriage to the wealthy & independent Shirley Keeldar to solve his financial woes yet his heart lies with his cousin Caroline who bored & desperate lives as a dependent in her uncle's home with no prospect of a career Shirley meanwhile is in love with Robert's brother an impoverished tutor
- a match opposed by her family As industrial unrest builds to a potentially fatal pitch can the four be reconciled? Set during the Napoleonic wars at a time of national economic struggles Shirley (1849) is an unsentimental yet passionate depiction of conflict between classes sexes & generations