A was powerfully moving novel of a young woman caught between the attractions of two very different men, Sylvia s Lovers is set in the 1790s in an English seaside town. England is at war with France, and press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service. One of their victims is a whaling harpooner named Charley Kinraid, whose charm and vivacity have captured the heart of Sylvia Robson. But Sylvia s devoted cousin, Philip Hepburn, hopes to marry her himself and, in order to win her, deliberately withholds crucial information with devastating consequences.

The introduction discusses...

Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of her close friend Charlotte Bronte was published in 1857 to immediate popular acclaim, and remains the most significant study of the enigmatic author who gave Jane Eyre the subtitle An Autobiography. It recounts Charlotte Bronte's life from her isolated childhood, through her years as a writer who had 'foreseen the single life' for herself, to her marriage at thirty-eight and death less than a year later. The resulting work - the first full-length biography of a woman novelist by a woman novelist - explored the nature of Charlotte's genius and almost...

Elizabeth Gaskell's portrait of kindness, compassion, and hope
Cranford depicts the lives and preoccupations of the inhabitants of a small village - their petty snobberies, appetite for gossip, and loyal support for each other in times of need This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty, But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries, tragic accidents, and the reapparance of long-lost relatives. to Lady...

Mary Gaskell's North and South examines the nature of social authority and obedience and provides an insightful description of the role of middle class women in nineteenth century society. Through the story of Margaret Hale, a southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skillfully explores issues of class and gender, as Margaret's sympathy for the town mill workers conflicts with her growing attraction to the mill owner, John Thornton. This new and revised expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate....

With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

'In the great mirror opposite I saw myself, and right behind, another wicked fearful self, so like me my soul seemed to quiver within me, as though not knowing to which similitude of body it belonged'.

Elizabeth Gaskell is better known today for her pioneering social novels such as Mary Barton (1848) but she also wrote some fascinating tales of the supernatural and the macabre, which are collected here in this volume. The real charm of this dark anthology is its variety. Unlike so many writers of this kind...

As with all of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels Wives and Daughters explores the limits of class and love. When Molly Gibson's father suddenly remarries Molly's life changes forever. Molly's stepmother and step siblings are all good caring people, but they harbor secrets.

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Mary Barton is the pretty daughter of a factory worker who finds herself dreaming of a better life when the mill-owner s charming son, Henry, starts to court her. She rejects her childhood friend Jem s affections in the hope of marrying Henry and escaping from the hard and bitter life that is the fate of the workers, who are resentfully dependent on the callous mill-owners for their livelihoods. But when Henry is shot dead in the street Jem becomes the prime suspect and Mary finds her loyalties tested to the limit."

Three of Elizabeth Gaskell s best-loved novels" Cranford," "Mr Harrison's Confessions, "and" My Lady Ludlow"are combined in this witty and poignant look at the market town of Cranford. The railway is pushing its way relentlessly towards thevillage from Manchester, bringing fears of migrant workers and the breakdown of law and order. The arrival of handsome young Doctor Harrison causes yet further agitation, not just because of his revolutionary methods, but also because of his effect on the hearts of the village s ladies. Meanwhile Miss Matty Jenkyns nurses her own heart following her forced...

Set in a provincial town in the early nineteenth century, Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell's last novel, is a subtle representation of historical change explored in human terms.