SOURCE: "Private and Social Themes in Shirley" in Brontë Society Transactions, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1958, pp. 203-19.

In this address to the Brontë Society, Briggs explores Shirley's social theme—the Luddite uprisings—an element of the novel that is often overlooked.

I consider it a great honour to address the Brontë Society. The Transactions of the Society reveal the variety of approaches to the work of the Brontës and the continuing relevance and freshness of their creative achievement. There are still new things to say and new ways of saying them. The sense of honour, however, is mixed with some trepidation. I am not a "Brontë expert," and among the vast mass of books and articles about the Brontës there are many which I have not read. I suppose that my best qualification for giving this lecture is a birth qualification—always a point on which Yorkshire folk...