SOURCE: "The Genesis of Hunger, According to Shirley," in Feminist Studies, Vol. 3, Nos. 3-4, Spring-Summer, 1976, pp. 5-21.

In the following excerpt, Gubar dismisses those critics who claim that Shirley lacks unity, and praises the novel as a revolutionary text.

Charlotte Brontë's second published novel, Shirley, begins with three clergymen at table: complaining that the roast beef is tough and the beer flat, they nevertheless swallow enormous quantities of both, calling for "More bread!" and ordering their landlady to "Cut it, woman."¹ They also consume all her vegetables, cheese and spice cake. Is it merely a scene of local color, part of the wrong-headed impulse that led Brontë to write an historical novel set during England's war-time depression of 1811-1812? Is it just one example of the multiple ways in which the wide-ranging omniscient point of view allowed her to digress with irrelevant characters and vulgar dialogue included...