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A review by pgchuis
Cousin Phillis and Other Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell
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).