Product Description

Elizabeth Gaskell’s chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. ‘Disappearances’, inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; ‘Lois the Witch’, a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as ‘The Poor Clare’, where an evil doppelgänger is formed by a woman’s bitter curse, or mischievous like ‘Curious, if True’, a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the stories in this volume form a stark contrast to the social realism of Gaskell’s novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103001 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65) wrote her first novel, MARY BARTON, in 1848 as a distraction from her sorrow at the death of her only son in infancy. It won the attention of Dickens and was followed by 5 other full-length novels as well as numerous short stories and novellas. Laura Kranzler has written on Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf and has published a novel.

Customer Reviews

A different side to Mrs Gaskell
For anyone interested in seeing a different side to the writer who produced 'Cranford' and 'Wives and Daughters' I would heartily recommend this collection of stories which show a darker side to her imagination. They range from straightforward hauntings to ancient curses and witch hunts in 17th century Salem. There is even a pastiche of fairy tales in here.