Scan barcode
la_pecera_de_raquel's review against another edition
3.0
Paul Manning, trabajaba bajo el mando del Sr. Holdsworth para ampliar las líneas del ferrocarril en Cheshire, en el noroeste de Inglaterra, muy cerca de donde vive la prima de su madre, en la granja “La esperanza”, por lo que va a visitarles, allí conocerá a la hija de la prima de su madre, Phillis, sobre la que gira la novela.
Contada en primera persona a través del personaje de Paul, la autora refleja la vida en la granja para los propietarios, que además es reverendo y los trabajadores de la misma, la educación de cada uno de ellos, las relaciones familiares, el avance industrial en la Inglaterra rural, el despertar al amor de una joven, su sensibilidad y la fragilidad ante la pérdida de ese primer amor, el amor no correspondido.
Es una historia de ritmo lento centrada en las hechos cotidianos de la vida diaria en una comunidad pequeña con tintes melodramáticos.
Una novela muy cortita, deliciosa para los amantes de “la Gaskell”, las novelas victorianas, costumbristas y muy british.
Contada en primera persona a través del personaje de Paul, la autora refleja la vida en la granja para los propietarios, que además es reverendo y los trabajadores de la misma, la educación de cada uno de ellos, las relaciones familiares, el avance industrial en la Inglaterra rural, el despertar al amor de una joven, su sensibilidad y la fragilidad ante la pérdida de ese primer amor, el amor no correspondido.
Es una historia de ritmo lento centrada en las hechos cotidianos de la vida diaria en una comunidad pequeña con tintes melodramáticos.
Una novela muy cortita, deliciosa para los amantes de “la Gaskell”, las novelas victorianas, costumbristas y muy british.
willowy's review against another edition
5.0
I found this story in [b:Cranford & Selected Short Stories|830122|Cranford & Selected Short Stories|Elizabeth Gaskell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348206212s/830122.jpg|10288885] by Elizabeth Gaskell that belongs to my sister. I read the blurb on the back of the book which said "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..." and thought I would give it a chance. I have heard many times before, what a boring writer Elizabeth Gaskell was, but from the moment I started "Cousin Phillis" I was not bored once.
"Cousin Phillis" is a story of family, work, religion, and love told by Paul Manning, as he recounts the tale to us. In the first of the story, Paul is a but a young man of seventeen, out on his for the first time in his life. He is an engineer and he is good friends with his boss, Edward Holdsworth, a worldly fellow with good looks and charm. While in Heathbridge, Paul is made to go and see about a second cousin of his mother's, Mrs. Holman, whom she has never met before. The kindly family immediately take to young Paul and asks him back. Thus begins the story.
I found all of the characters to be very charming and found the Holman's way of life to be very interesting. The book is a very easy read and I almost read the whole thing in one night, but had to stop for it was getting late. A must read!
"Cousin Phillis" is a story of family, work, religion, and love told by Paul Manning, as he recounts the tale to us. In the first of the story, Paul is a but a young man of seventeen, out on his for the first time in his life. He is an engineer and he is good friends with his boss, Edward Holdsworth, a worldly fellow with good looks and charm. While in Heathbridge, Paul is made to go and see about a second cousin of his mother's, Mrs. Holman, whom she has never met before. The kindly family immediately take to young Paul and asks him back. Thus begins the story.
I found all of the characters to be very charming and found the Holman's way of life to be very interesting. The book is a very easy read and I almost read the whole thing in one night, but had to stop for it was getting late. A must read!
mattyswytla's review against another edition
3.0
It's a nice little story, but nothing extraordinary for Gaskell. She offers us great characterisation and sensibility, but the story is simple enough that I can't give it a higher rating since it did not surprise or delight in any significant way.
dnielsen's review against another edition
5.0
Gaskell's novella is more of a character sketch of Paul and Cousin Phillis than a narrative itself. The defly portrayed lives of the two young people depict the complex feelings of love, family, and maturation.
pgchuis's review against another edition
3.0
I'm only giving this three stars for "Cousin Phillis"; I didn't enjoy the other stories at all.
"Cousin Phillis" has a likeable young narrator, Paul, who introduces his boss to his cousin and her family. Phillis falls for his boss, who intends to ask her to marry him on his return from two years' employment in Canada. While there he marries some one else and Phillis contracts "brain fever" as a result. Despite the slim plot, the depiction of Phillis' father (a dissenting minister) and his "Job's comforter" fellow ministers is well done. Mr Holdsworth (he who goes to Canada) is also a sympathetic character and I hoped at one point that the story was going to be about whether Phillis and her parents (with their serious and earnest faith) would see him as an acceptable husband, but that was not explored. I suppose part of Gaskell's "point" is about the way Phillis' parents have brought her up to be completely clueless about romance/men/marriage, but it is a bit tragic the way Victorian heroines always have such severe health crises when thwarted in love, rather than reminding themselves that there are plenty more fish in the sea.
"The Manchester Marriage" (again a slim plot) concerns a woman whose husband is lost at sea, but then escapes captivity by "savages" years later and returns to find her (in all innocence) happily remarried. This set up a really interesting dilemma, but he goes off and kills himself without her being any the wiser and the whole thing was a complete anti-climax.
"Half a Life Time Ago" was a sad story about a woman who chooses to keep a promise to her dying mother to care for her handicapped brother and thus loses her fiancé (who turns out to be a drunk anyway). The ending stretches belief in coincidence too far, although I love the last sentence: "And so it fell out that the latter days of Susan Dixon's life were better than the former". (As an aside, although I am sure it is very historically accurate, it is jarring to find a heroine who has lost all her teeth!)
"My French Master" was about an emigre from Normandy who escapes to England and teaches French to support himself. He fails to regain his estate after the restoration of the monarchy, marries a servant and makes the best of life in England. However due to an extraordinarily coincidental series of marriages, his family estate is restored to his daughter and he dies back at his ancestral home.
"Morton Hall" was a series of linked superstitious stories which required copious explanatory notes to understand and was my least favourite. Here too, by marrying the current (usurper) owner of the estate, the ousted old family was restored to its former home.
"Lizzie Leigh" concerned a servant girl who had a baby out of wedlock and was thus shut out of decent society. Her mother goes in search of her a couple of years later and her sons allow her to roam Manchester every evening looking for Lizzie (which seemed unfeeling and odd of them to me). By a series of extraordinary coincidences, the baby turns out to be being fostered by the woman the elder son loves. In another extraordinary cluster of events, the child falls down the stairs and is killed just as Lizzie is leaving money at the door for it. Lizzie and her family are reunited, the elder son marries and it all ends happily (except for the dead baby).
"Cousin Phillis" has a likeable young narrator, Paul, who introduces his boss to his cousin and her family. Phillis falls for his boss, who intends to ask her to marry him on his return from two years' employment in Canada. While there he marries some one else and Phillis contracts "brain fever" as a result. Despite the slim plot, the depiction of Phillis' father (a dissenting minister) and his "Job's comforter" fellow ministers is well done. Mr Holdsworth (he who goes to Canada) is also a sympathetic character and I hoped at one point that the story was going to be about whether Phillis and her parents (with their serious and earnest faith) would see him as an acceptable husband, but that was not explored. I suppose part of Gaskell's "point" is about the way Phillis' parents have brought her up to be completely clueless about romance/men/marriage, but it is a bit tragic the way Victorian heroines always have such severe health crises when thwarted in love, rather than reminding themselves that there are plenty more fish in the sea.
"The Manchester Marriage" (again a slim plot) concerns a woman whose husband is lost at sea, but then escapes captivity by "savages" years later and returns to find her (in all innocence) happily remarried. This set up a really interesting dilemma, but he goes off and kills himself without her being any the wiser and the whole thing was a complete anti-climax.
"Half a Life Time Ago" was a sad story about a woman who chooses to keep a promise to her dying mother to care for her handicapped brother and thus loses her fiancé (who turns out to be a drunk anyway). The ending stretches belief in coincidence too far, although I love the last sentence: "And so it fell out that the latter days of Susan Dixon's life were better than the former". (As an aside, although I am sure it is very historically accurate, it is jarring to find a heroine who has lost all her teeth!)
"My French Master" was about an emigre from Normandy who escapes to England and teaches French to support himself. He fails to regain his estate after the restoration of the monarchy, marries a servant and makes the best of life in England. However due to an extraordinarily coincidental series of marriages, his family estate is restored to his daughter and he dies back at his ancestral home.
"Morton Hall" was a series of linked superstitious stories which required copious explanatory notes to understand and was my least favourite. Here too, by marrying the current (usurper) owner of the estate, the ousted old family was restored to its former home.
"Lizzie Leigh" concerned a servant girl who had a baby out of wedlock and was thus shut out of decent society. Her mother goes in search of her a couple of years later and her sons allow her to roam Manchester every evening looking for Lizzie (which seemed unfeeling and odd of them to me). By a series of extraordinary coincidences, the baby turns out to be being fostered by the woman the elder son loves. In another extraordinary cluster of events, the child falls down the stairs and is killed just as Lizzie is leaving money at the door for it. Lizzie and her family are reunited, the elder son marries and it all ends happily (except for the dead baby).
More...