Author: Elizabeth C. Gaskell
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
Publication Date: 2006 (1853)
Pages: 543
Format: Paperback
Genre: Classic Fiction
Source: Gift
The sheer variety and accomplishment of Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter fiction is amazing. This new volume contains six of her finest stories that have been selected specifically to demonstrate this, and to trace the development of her art. As diverse in setting as in subject matter, these tales move from the gentle comedy of life in a small English country town in Dr Harrison's Confessions, to atmospheric horror in far north-west Wales with The Doom of the Griffiths. The story of Cousin Phillis, her masterly tale of love and loss, is a subtle, complex and perceptive analysis of changes in English national life during an industrial age, while the gripping Lois the Witch recreates the terrors of the Salem witchcraft trials in seventeenth-century New England, as Gaskell shrewdly shows the numerous roots of this furious outbreak of delusion. Whimsically modified fairy tales are set in a French chateau, while an engaging love story poetically evokes peasant life in wine-growing Germany. (Goodreads Synopsis)
Cranford and Other Stories is a delightful collection of Gaskell's shorter works. Having seen the TV series of Cranford, it was lovely to revisit those characters. I also enjoyed the other short stories, especially Dr Harrison's Confessions and Cousin Phillis. If you've already read Gaskell's novels, such as North and South, you won't be disappointed to add this book to your collection. If you are new to Gaskell, these short stories make an excellent introduction to her writing.
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