It is a great thing for a lad when he is first turned into the independence of lodgings. I do not think I ever was so satisfied and proud in my life as when, at seventeen, I sate down in a little three-cornered room above a pastry-cook's shop in the county town of Eltham. My father had left me that afternoon, after delivering himself of a few plain precepts, strongly expressed, for my guidance in the new course of life on which I was entering.

A Dark Night's Work is an 1863 novella by Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published serially in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round. The word "dark" was added to the original title by Dickens against Gaskell's wishes. Dickens felt that the altered title would be more striking.

Margaret Hale is unhappy when she is forced to leave her beloved Hampshire rectory home and settle in an industrial town in the north of England. Her situation is not helped by the frosty relationship she has with John Thornton, the master of a local mill. However, after a while Margaret becomes involved with the lives of some of the workers at the mill and after a brief stay in London, she realises that her heart now belongs to the north.

Here is a collection of five spooky Victorian stories by Elizabeth Gaskell. Included are 'The Old Nurse's Story, ' 'The Poor Clare, ' 'Lois the Witch, ' 'The Grey Woman, ' and 'Curious, if Tr

Ruth is a young orphan girl working in a respectable sweatshop for the overworked Mrs Mason. She is selected to go to a ball to repair torn dresses. At the ball she meets the aristocratic Henry Bellingham, a rake figure who is instantly attracted to her. They meet again by chance and form a secret friendship; on an outing together they are spotted by Mrs Mason who, fearing for her shop's reputation, dismisses Ruth.

Wilkie Collins was an English writer best known for writing mystery novels. Collins was also a good friend of Charles Dickens and often collaborated with him on plays and short stories. Some of Collins' classics include The Moonstone, Armadale, and No Name, and A House to Let is a collection of short stories written by Collins, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Adelaide Ann Procter.

The story centers on a country lawyer, Edward Wilkins, and his daughter Ellinor. Edward has an artistic and literary personality, unsuited to his social position as the son of a successful lawyer who takes over his father's practice in the provincial town of Hamley. His legal representation of the local gentry and nobility leads him to try fitting into their social circles, only to be mocked and treated with derision. He develops a drinking problem and spends more money than he can afford to in his attempts to be an equal to his clients. His bad habits lead to problems in his business, and...