Product Description

Elizabeth Gaskell’s only historical novel, Sylvia’s Lovers, is set in 1790 in the seaside town of Monkshaven (Whitby) where press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service in the Napoleonic wars. One of their victims is whaling harpooner, 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. With its themes of suffering, unrequited love, and the clash between desire and duty, Sylvia’s Lovers is one of the most powerfully moving of all Gaskell’s novels, reputedly described by its author as ‘the saddest story I ever wrote’.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42627 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

About the Author
Elizabeth Gaskell wrote much social and realist fiction during the nineteenth century, having attracted the attention of Dickens when she wrote for his journal Household Works Shirley Foster is a Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Sheffield. She has published widely, notably on Victorian women's fiction, Edith Wharton and female travel literature. Shirley Foster is a Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Sheffield. She has published widely, notably on Victorian women's fiction, Edith Wharton and female travel literature.

Customer Reviews

A tragic tale of doomed lovers
This historical novel, set in Whitby at the end of the 18th century but written in the middle of the 19th century, could be seen as Mrs Gaskell's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', featuring as it does characters whose lives are torn apart by misunderstandings and fate. Sylvia loves Charley Kinraid but instead marries her cousin Philip, believing Kinraid to have been taken by a press gang or lost at sea. But she can never love Philip in the way she does Kinraid and when she discovers it was Philip's duplicity that led her to believe Kinraid was dead she cannot forgive him. Philip then abandons her to fight in the war against the French in Aden, later to return disfigured and destitute, living in abject poverty until fate finally reveals his presence to Sylvia only when he is mortally wounded. Only then does she find it in her heart to forgive him, having already been forsaken by the faithless Kinraid.

my favourite ever book (and i've read lots of them!!)
this is a true classic in every sense....beautiful characters, tragedy and joy, elation and despair...it is emotional rollercoaster in book and i highly recommend it. Don't let the size put you off, it is brilliant throughout

Really Touching
This was the first Gaskell book I read and I was not disappointed. Gaskell has written in such a way you can't help but feel Sylvia's emotions. Even when we're certain she's acting in a way we would not advise, as readers we're made to sympathise with Sylvia. I honestly have to say though, had I been a character in this novel and found out Phillip's deception, I would have put a bullet through his heart, love is supposedly selfless, Phillip's love is selfish, I can only fault Gaskell by making Phillip the `hero'. He just came across as whiny and irritating to me.