With an essay by Helene Moglen.
'Alas, Experience! No other mentor has so wasted and frozen a face as yours: none
wears a robe so black, none bears a rod so heavy ...'
Struggling
manufacturer Robert Moore has introduced labour saving machinery to his Yorkshire mill,
arousing a ferment of unemployment and discontent among his workers. Robert considers
marriage to the wealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar to solve his financial woes, yet his
heart lies with his cousin Caroline, who, bored and desperate, lives as a dependent in her
uncle's home with no prospect of a career. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Robert's
brother, an impoverished tutor - a match opposed by her family. As industrial unrest builds
to a potentially fatal pitch, can the four be reconciled?
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the
eighteenth century and the first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
