Elizabeth Gaskell Paperback – 31 Jan. 2013

Some very readable but not all.jg

Bought as a present for my wife who writes north and south fan fiction. She loves it.

I decided to read and reread 19th century novels as I’d become sick of trawling for affordable contemporary novels that are worthwhile. I’d previously read Mary Barton and North and South, so I already knew Gaskell could convey the lives of both middle and working class Northeners with sympathy and conviction. Cranford has a southern village setting. I loved its gentle description of women’s lives and kindness in the face of adversity: the rehabilitation of the “old maid” decades before Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple! Wives and Daughters was engrossing, only just short of being finished due to Gaskell’s death, and the desired conclusion is clear. I was unprepared for Sylvia’s Lovers, an almost shockingly moving and vivid account of obsessive love and misunderstanding set in Whitby in the late 18th century days of whaling and the press gang. I read Ruth last as I knew it was about illegitimacy and thought it might be a painful read. To an extent it was, but written with so much human sympathy and compassion. The issue is handled with more sensitivity than in the more famous Tess of the D’Urbevilles. All her novels moved me and the characters stayed with me for days. She has an unsurpassed compassion and empathy for people across divides of gender, class, geography, profession. So why is she less remembered and rated than others, such as the more famous Brontes? I can only assume it’s due to her profound Christian faith. Dilemmas of faith and right action exercise her characters and animate her plots. A major theme is the difficulty and necessity of forgiveness (especially in Mary Barton and Ruth). I liked this even if it did make many recent novels and dramas seem shallow and lacking in moral values. But it might not be to everyone’s taste.

Infected (kindle goes to the silhouette page)but I still like it.Annoying number of wrong words and random odd letters(h for b,sate for sat etc)that somehow get more obvious and annoying the longer you read.

Value for money

thank you

Classic and perceptive.accounts of urban and village life in 19thC England. Mrs Gaskell highlights the intractable problems of industrialisation and poverty in the rapidly-expanding urban areas, together with the domestic plight of women and the despair of men trying to provide for their families. A great (and good value) edition for the interested reader.