Frontispiece and title page of Charlotte Brontë's Shirley (1907). The illustration caption is: "Moore placed his hand on his cousin's shoulder, stooped, and left a kiss on her forehead." Nothing in this little domestic scene is quite as straightforward as it seems. Moore is Robert Moore, a Yorkshire mill-owner, and the young woman is Caroline Helstone, the niece and ward of the local Rector. They are only cousins insofar as her mother, from whom she has been parted since infancy, was the half-sister of Moore’s father. On Moore's part, at this stage the kiss may not be much more than a simple, affectionate gesture, but to Caroline it means a great deal, because she has already fallen in love with him. It is an anxious time, because of the Luddite protests, and there will be many hurdles in the way of their blossoming relationship.
Image acquisition and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the source, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. Click on the image to enlarge it.
Bibliography
Brontë, Charlotte. Shirley. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1907. Internet Archive. Contributed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Web. 16 January 2018.
Created 7 December 2017