Shirley is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Bront . It was Bront 's second published novel after Jane Eyre. The novel is set in Yorkshire during the time of the Luddite unrest-a labor movement that began in 1811-1812 in an effort to protect the interests of the working class-the novel consists of two narrative strands woven together, one involving the struggles of workers against mill owners, and the other involving the romantic entanglements of the two heroines.