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Book Review
Feb. 21st, 2007 05:54 pmSylvia's Lovers
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Gaskell's not the most famous of nineteenth century writers, but I think she deserves to be better known. She has a knack for commenting on larger social issues from within a highly intimate and personalized context. In this book, she examines the effects of war and military service on civilians in a northern whaling town, with particular attention to the impact of naval impressment. Throughout the narrative, Gaskell concentrates on the lives and feelings of ordinary people, not the sweep of history.
Sylvia's Lovers is a very wrenching story. The Napoleonic wars and the press gangs bring Sylvia nothing but tragedy, indirectly leading to her father's death and cruelly separating her from both the men who love her.
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Gaskell's not the most famous of nineteenth century writers, but I think she deserves to be better known. She has a knack for commenting on larger social issues from within a highly intimate and personalized context. In this book, she examines the effects of war and military service on civilians in a northern whaling town, with particular attention to the impact of naval impressment. Throughout the narrative, Gaskell concentrates on the lives and feelings of ordinary people, not the sweep of history.
Sylvia's Lovers is a very wrenching story. The Napoleonic wars and the press gangs bring Sylvia nothing but tragedy, indirectly leading to her father's death and cruelly separating her from both the men who love her.
