Shirley is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontė. It was Brontė's second published novel after Jane Eyre (originally published under Brontė's pseudonym Currer Bell). The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 18111812, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against a backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry. (Summary by wikipedia)