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No Thoroughfare is a stage play and novel by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, both released in December 1867. In 1867 Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated to produce a stage play titled No Thoroughfare: A Drama: In Five Acts. The two had previously collaborated on the play The Frozen Deep. This was the last stage production to be associated with Dickens, who died in June 1870. The play opened at the Adelphi Theatre on 26 December 1867. The novel No Thoroughfare was also first published in 1867, in the Christmas number of Dickens's periodical All The Year Round. There are thematic parallels with other books from Dickens's mature writings, including Little Dorrit (1857) and especially Our Mutual Friend (1865).The publication of the story in All The Year Round represents an early example of commercial merchandising, promoting the story to those who were aware of the stage play, and the play to those who had read the book. The chapters of the book are referred to as 'acts', and match the acts of the play.In the book Collins assisted in Act 1 and Act 4; Collins scripted most of the stage play with Dickens's assistance. (wikipedia.org)

My Lady's Money is a social comedy about theft. A bank note is stolen from Lady Lydiard, and the wrong person is suspected. In order to discover the real thief, Robert Moody, who is in love with Lady Lydiard's adopted daughter Isabel, engages a sloppy investigator, Old Sharon. The novel blends detective fiction with social comedy. BIOWilliam Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). The last has been called the first modern English detective novel. Born to a London painter, William Collins, and his wife, the family moved to Italy when Collins was twelve, living there and in France for two years, so that he learned Italian and French. He worked at first as a tea merchant. On publishing his first novel, Antonina, in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some Collins works appeared first in Dickens's journals Household Words and All the Year Round. The two also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins reached financial stability and an international following in the 1860s from his best-known works, but began to suffer from gout. He took opium for the pain, but became addicted to it. His health and his writing quality declined in the 1870s and 1880s. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage: he later split his time between widow Caroline Graves, with whom he had lived most of his adult life, treating her daughter as his, and the younger Martha Rudd, by whom he had three children. Collins's works were classified at the time as "sensation novels", a genre seen nowadays as the precursor to detective and suspense fiction. He also wrote penetratingly on the plight of women and on the social and domestic issues of his time. For example, his 1854 Hide and Seek contained one of the first portrayals of a deaf character in English literature. As did many writers of his time, Collins first published most of his novels as serials in magazines such as Dickens's All the Year Round, and was known as a master of the form, creating just the right degree of suspense to keep his audience reading from week to week. ...Collins died at 82 Wimpole Street, following a paralytic stroke. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, West London. His headstone describes him as the author of The Woman in White. (wikipedia.org)

This is a charming and very readable novel written in the mid 19th century by a contemporary of Charles Darwin. Written around the time of Voltaire's Candide and Flaubert's A Sentimental Education, this novel also mixes the adventure and unexpected turns of a picaresque work with the protagonist being from a mildly upper class lineage. Like those others, A Rogue's Life trades on the main character's one foot in the noble's world and one foot in the workingman/adventurer's world to shed light on the inconsistencies and moral hazards that appear when those two spheres meet. A Rogue's Life also includes a 'lifelong' love story as well, although this one, fortunately, rewards the reader heaps more than the other works mentioned. ... (Avel Rudenko)

Rafael Sabatini (29 April 1875 - 13 February 1950) was an Italian-English writer of romance and adventure novels.Rafael Sabatini was born in Iesi, Italy, to an English mother, Anna Trafford, and Italian father, Vincenzo Sabatini. His parents were opera singers who then became teachers.After a brief stint in the business world, Sabatini went to work as a writer. He wrote short stories in the 1890s, and his first novel came out in 1902. In 1905, he married Ruth Goad Dixon, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant. It took Sabatini roughly a quarter of a century of hard work before he attained success with Scaramouche in 1921. The novel, an historical romance set during the French Revolution, became an international bestseller. It was followed by the equally successful Captain Blood (1922). All of his earlier books were rushed into reprints, the most popular of which was The Sea Hawk (1915). Sabatini was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year and maintained a great deal of popularity with the reading public through the decades that followed.Several of his novels were adapted into films during the silent era, and the first three of these books were made into notable films in the sound era, in 1940, 1952, and 1935 respectively. His third novel Bardelys the Magnificent was made into a famous 1926 "lost" film of the same title, directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert, and long viewable only in a fragment excerpted in Vidor's silent comedy Show People (1928). A few intact reels have recently been discovered in Europe. The fully restored version premièred on TCM on 11 January 2010.Two silent adaptations of Sabatini novels which do survive intact are Rex Ingram's Scaramouche (1923) starring Ramón Novarro, and The Sea Hawk (1924) directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Milton Sills. The 1940 film The Sea Hawk, with Errol Flynn, is not a remake but a wholly new story which just used the title. A silent version of Captain Blood (1924), starring J. Warren Kerrigan, is partly lost, surviving only in an incomplete copy in the Library of Congress. The Black Swan (1942) was filmed starring Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara. (wikipedia.org)

The Tavern Knight is a 1904 historical adventure novel written by the British-Italian writer Rafael Sabatini. It is set during the English Civil Wars. In 1920, it was turned into a film, The Tavern Knight, directed by Maurice Elvey made by Britain's largest studio of the silent era, Stoll Pictures. A proposed silent version by Warner Brothers was to star John Barrymore in 1927 but instead the Manon Lescaut story was substituted under the title When a Man Loves. (wikipedia.org)

Caron la Boulaye is an avid student of Rousseau's Discourses who earns his living as a secretary for the Marquise de Bellecour. In this subservient position, he ill-advisedly falls in love with his master's daughter, Mademoiselle Suzanne de Bellecour, who true to her class, spurns his love. Not content with that, her father, on learning of this presumption, attacks poor Caron with a horsewhip, the only acceptable way to deal with such an upstart. Within a day, Caron further witnesses the arrogance and inhumanity of his erstwhile master as the Marquis demands his droit de seigneur of a young newlywed friend. La Boulaye rashly and unsuccessfully intervenes thus marking himself as one to be reckoned with. Set against the stirrings of the French Revolution, Sabatini spins his story giving us an unsparing look at aristocratic infamy as well as aristocratic honor. There are heroes and villains on both sides and both are presented as natural outcomes of their ancestry; sometimes trapped by it and other times released from it. Suzanne's evolution provides the case in point. Citizen Robespierre plays a small but critical role. Delightful. (Pushpa Rao)

The Shame of Motley is a swashbuckler romance first published in 1908, set in Italy at the turn of the 16th/17th century. The main character, Lazzaro Biancomonte, is of noble birth but now reduced to the role of a court fool. His redemption comes in his part in an adventure involving the Madonna Paola, with whom he becomes besotted. This is fine, my only issue with this is that she is so stupid at times that it beggars belief, but then again love is blind isn't it? This great plus in my eyes is featuring Cesare Borgia as a good guy, that is just amazing. A really enjoyable swashbuckler in the end, fans of Sabatini will be impressed. (Robert Hepple)

A selection of short works in which Sabatini writes as different protagonists out for a night on the town. Using his talent for imagery, his wordsmithing and his wry sense of humor, it makes these books a window into the past.

Nathaniel Gould (21 December 1857 - 25 July 1919), commonly known as Nat Gould, was a British novelist. Gould was born at Manchester, Lancashire, the only surviving child of Nathaniel Gould, a tea merchant, and his wife Mary, née Wright. Both parents came from Derbyshire yeomen families. The boy was indulgently brought up and well educated. His father died just before he was to have left school, and Gould tried first his father's tea trade and then farming at Bradbourne with his uncles. Gould became a good horseman but a poor farmer. In 1877, in reply to an advertisement, he was given a position on the Newark Advertiser gaining a good all-round knowledge of press work. After a few years he became restless, and in 1884 sailed for Australia, where he became a reporter on the Brisbane Telegraph in its shipping, commercial and racing departments. In 1887 after disagreements with the Telegraph management, Gould went to Sydney and worked on the Referee as "Verax", its horse-racing editor. Later Gould worked for the Sunday Times, and Evening News. Then followed 18 months at Bathurst as the editor of the Bathurst Times during which time he wrote his first novel, With the Tide, which appeared as a serial in the Referee. He returned to Sydney and the Referee and wrote another six other novels for the same paper. In 1891 his first novel, With the Tide, was published in book form in England under the title of The Double Event and was an immediate success; it sold over 100,000 copies in its first ten years and was still in print in 1919. It was dramatized in Australia and had a long run in 1893. In 1895 Gould returned to England; he had been 11 years in Australia and he felt that his experiences had made a man of him.Gould was a modest man who did not take himself or his work too seriously. His advice to emerging writers was to 'write about men and things you have met and seen; take your characters from the busy world, and your scenes from Nature'. But within its limits his work was very good. He told a simple story exceedingly well in an unaffected way. Many of his books were concerned with horse racing, and no great originality of plot was to be expected, but they were written with such flair and genuine interest that their countless readers took up each book as it was published, confident in their belief that here was another rattling good story. (wikipedia.org)

Bardelys the Magnificent is a 1906 historical adventure novel by the Italian-born British writer Rafael Sabatini. It is set in France during the reign of Louis XIII.In 1926 the story was adapted into a film version Bardelys the Magnificent by the Hollywood studio MGM, with John Gilbert playing the title role. (wikipedia.org)

Nathaniel Gould (21 December 1857 - 25 July 1919), commonly known as Nat Gould, was a British novelist. Gould was born at Manchester, Lancashire, the only surviving child of Nathaniel Gould, a tea merchant, and his wife Mary, née Wright. Both parents came from Derbyshire yeomen families. The boy was indulgently brought up and well educated. His father died just before he was to have left school, and Gould tried first his father's tea trade and then farming at Bradbourne with his uncles. Gould became a good horseman but a poor farmer. In 1877, in reply to an advertisement, he was given a position on the Newark Advertiser gaining a good all-round knowledge of press work. After a few years he became restless, and in 1884 sailed for Australia, where he became a reporter on the Brisbane Telegraph in its shipping, commercial and racing departments. In 1887 after disagreements with the Telegraph management, Gould went to Sydney and worked on the Referee as "Verax", its horse-racing editor. Later Gould worked for the Sunday Times, and Evening News. Then followed 18 months at Bathurst as the editor of the Bathurst Times during which time he wrote his first novel, With the Tide, which appeared as a serial in the Referee. He returned to Sydney and the Referee and wrote another six other novels for the same paper. In 1891 his first novel, With the Tide, was published in book form in England under the title of The Double Event and was an immediate success; it sold over 100,000 copies in its first ten years and was still in print in 1919. It was dramatized in Australia and had a long run in 1893. In 1895 Gould returned to England; he had been 11 years in Australia and he felt that his experiences had made a man of him.Gould was a modest man who did not take himself or his work too seriously. His advice to emerging writers was to 'write about men and things you have met and seen; take your characters from the busy world, and your scenes from Nature'. But within its limits his work was very good. He told a simple story exceedingly well in an unaffected way. Many of his books were concerned with horse racing, and no great originality of plot was to be expected, but they were written with such flair and genuine interest that their countless readers took up each book as it was published, confident in their belief that here was another rattling good story. (wikipedia.org)

The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a novel by the French author Gustave Flaubert published in 1874. Flaubert spent his whole adult life working fitfully on the book. In 1845, at age 24, Flaubert visited the Balbi Palace in Genoa, and was inspired by a painting of the same title, then attributed to Bruegel the Elder. (wikipedia.org)

"A Simple Heart", or Un coeur simple in French, is a story about a servant girl named Felicité. After her one and only love Théodore purportedly marries a well-to-do woman to avoid conscription, Felicité quits the farm where she works and heads for Pont-l'Évèque, where she picks up work in a widow's house as a servant. She is very loyal, and easily lends her affections to the two children of her mistress, Mme Aubain. She gives entirely to others; although many take advantage of her, she is unaffected.She has no husband, no children, and no property, and is reliant on her mistress to keep her; she is uneducated; her death is virtually unnoticed. Despite her life being seemingly pointless, she has within her the power to love, which she does even when she does not receive it in return. She also carries within her a yearning, a majestic quasi-religious sensibility which finds its apotheosis in the deification, as she dies, of her pet parrot who floats above her deathbed masquerading as the Holy Ghost. She lives a simple, unexamined life.Flaubert's challenge was to create the main protagonist as someone very different from the satirical characters appearing in his previous novels such as Madame Bovary. (wikipedia.org)

The Red House Mystery is a "locked room" whodunnit by A. A. Milne, published in 1922. It was Milne's only mystery novel. The setting is an English country house, where Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party consisting of a widow and her marriageable daughter, a retired major, a wilful actress, and Bill Beverley, a young man about town. Mark's long-lost brother Robert, the black sheep of the family, arrives from Australia and shortly thereafter is found dead, shot through the head. Mark Ablett has disappeared, so Tony Gillingham, a stranger who has just arrived to call on his friend Bill, decides to investigate. Gillingham plays Sherlock Holmes to his younger counterpart's Doctor Watson; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound. (wikipedia.org)

The Sunny Side is a collection of short stories and essays by A. A. Milne. Though Milne is best known for his classic children's books, he also wrote extensively for adults, most notably in Punch, to which he was a contributor and later Assistant Editor. The Sunny Side collects his columns for Punch, which include poems, essays and short stories, from 1912 to 1920. (wikipedia.org)CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION I ORANGES AND LEMONS II MEN OF LETTERS III SUMMER DAYS IV WAR-TIME V HOME NOTES VI A FEW GUESTS VII AND OTHERS

A.A. Milne, in full Alan Alexander Milne, (born January 18, 1882, London, England-died January 31, 1956, Hartfield, Sussex), English humorist, the originator of the immensely popular stories of Christopher Robin and his toy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.Milne's father ran a private school, where one of the boy's teachers was a young H.G. Wells. Milne went on to attend Westminster School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, the latter on a mathematics scholarship. While at Cambridge, he edited and wrote for Granta magazine (then called The Granta, for Cambridge's other river). He took a degree in mathematics in 1903 and thereafter moved to London to make a living as a freelance writer. In 1906 he joined the staff of Punch (where he worked until 1914), writing humorous verse and whimsical essays. He was married in 1913, and in 1915, though a pacifist, he joined the service during World War I as a signalling officer. He served briefly in France, but he became ill and was sent home. He was discharged in 1919.When he was not rehired by Punch, Milne turned his attention to playwriting. He achieved considerable success with a series of light comedies, including Mr. Pim Passes By (1921) and Michael and Mary (1930). Milne also wrote one memorable detective novel, The Red House Mystery (1922), and a children's play, Make-Believe (1918), before stumbling upon his true literary métier with some verses written for his son, Christopher Robin. These grew into the collections When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927). These remain classics of light verse for children.Despite Milne's success as a playwright, only these verses and his two sets of stories about the adventures of Christopher Robin and his toy animals-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Owl, and Eeyore-as told in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) endured into the 21st century. Illustrations by Ernest Shepard added to their considerable charm. In 1929 Milne adapted another children's classic, The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall. A decade later he wrote his autobiography, It's Too Late Now. (britannica.com)

Written in 1917, Milne's introduction begins "This is an odd book". Ostensibly a typical fairytale, it tells the story of the war between the kingdoms of Euralia and Barodia and the political shenanigans which take place in Euralia in the king's absence, all supposedly rewritten by Milne from the writings of the fictional historian "Roger Scurvilegs".Milne created the story to contain believable, three-dimensional characters, rather than the stereotypes which will satisfy children. Hence the book introduces us to a princess who is far from helpless; a prince who, whilst handsome, is also pompous and vain; an enchantment which is almost entirely humorous; a villain who is not entirely villainous and receives no real comeuppance; a good king who is not always good; an evil king who is not always evil, and so on. The result is a book which children may not enjoy as much as adults.The book was written by Milne partly for his wife, upon whom the character of the Countess Belvane was partially based. (wikipedia.org)

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION MAKE-BELIEVE MR. PIM PASSES BY THE CAMBERLEY TRIANGLE THE ROMANTIC AGE THE STEPMOTHER

Some of this delightful book was over my four year old's head - though he still listened because it was Pooh and Tigger and Eeyore! - but my husband and I loved it even more. It has so much heart in it - more than the first book, I'd say. The humor is a little more complex and therefore delightful to grown ups than in #1. (Alyssa Bohon)

CONTENTSThe Manchester Marriage By Elizabeth GaskellA Mere InterludeBy Thomas HardyA Faithful Heart By George Moore The Solid Gold Reef Company, LimitedBy Walter Besant The Tree of Knowledge By Henry James

Nathaniel Gould (21 December 1857 - 25 July 1919), commonly known as Nat Gould, was a British novelist. Gould was born at Manchester, Lancashire, the only surviving child of Nathaniel Gould, a tea merchant, and his wife Mary, née Wright. Both parents came from Derbyshire yeomen families. The boy was indulgently brought up and well educated. His father died just before he was to have left school, and Gould tried first his father's tea trade and then farming at Bradbourne with his uncles. Gould became a good horseman but a poor farmer. In 1877, in reply to an advertisement, he was given a position on the Newark Advertiser gaining a good all-round knowledge of press work. After a few years he became restless, and in 1884 sailed for Australia, where he became a reporter on the Brisbane Telegraph in its shipping, commercial and racing departments. In 1887 after disagreements with the Telegraph management, Gould went to Sydney and worked on the Referee as "Verax", its horse-racing editor. Later Gould worked for the Sunday Times, and Evening News. Then followed 18 months at Bathurst as the editor of the Bathurst Times during which time he wrote his first novel, With the Tide, which appeared as a serial in the Referee. He returned to Sydney and the Referee and wrote another six other novels for the same paper. In 1891 his first novel, With the Tide, was published in book form in England under the title of The Double Event and was an immediate success; it sold over 100,000 copies in its first ten years and was still in print in 1919. It was dramatized in Australia and had a long run in 1893. In 1895 Gould returned to England; he had been 11 years in Australia and he felt that his experiences had made a man of him.Gould was a modest man who did not take himself or his work too seriously. His advice to emerging writers was to 'write about men and things you have met and seen; take your characters from the busy world, and your scenes from Nature'. But within its limits his work was very good. He told a simple story exceedingly well in an unaffected way. Many of his books were concerned with horse racing, and no great originality of plot was to be expected, but they were written with such flair and genuine interest that their countless readers took up each book as it was published, confident in their belief that here was another rattling good story. (wikipedia.org)

Not That It Matters is a collection of essays that a appeared in a variety of newspapers at the beginning of the last century, sort of an upper class, mild mannered Dave Barry of the 20's. Many were charming and generally humorous in gentle, whimsical way, as you might expect from the author of Winnie the Pooh. Some were a bit dated such as the essay about the perfect walking stick or the one about pipe smoking and there is some use of some now un-politically correct language; but others felt just as current now as they must have been then, such as the essay titled "Intellectual Snobbery" about the shame one feels about reading popular fiction as opposed to the classics or the one titled "My Library", about the eternal quandary of how to best arrange one's books. (Ruthiella)

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION WURTZEL-FLUMMERY THE LUCKY ONE THE BOY COMES HOME BELINDA THE RED FEATHERS A.A. Milne, in full Alan Alexander Milne, (born January 18, 1882, London, England-died January 31, 1956, Hartfield, Sussex), English humorist, the originator of the immensely popular stories of Christopher Robin and his toy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.Milne's father ran a private school, where one of the boy's teachers was a young H.G. Wells. Milne went on to attend Westminster School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, the latter on a mathematics scholarship. While at Cambridge, he edited and wrote for Granta magazine (then called The Granta, for Cambridge's other river). He took a degree in mathematics in 1903 and thereafter moved to London to make a living as a freelance writer. In 1906 he joined the staff of Punch (where he worked until 1914), writing humorous verse and whimsical essays. He was married in 1913, and in 1915, though a pacifist, he joined the service during World War I as a signalling officer. He served briefly in France, but he became ill and was sent home. He was discharged in 1919.When he was not rehired by Punch, Milne turned his attention to playwriting. He achieved considerable success with a series of light comedies, including Mr. Pim Passes By (1921) and Michael and Mary (1930). Milne also wrote one memorable detective novel, The Red House Mystery (1922), and a children's play, Make-Believe (1918), before stumbling upon his true literary métier with some verses written for his son, Christopher Robin. These grew into the collections When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927). These remain classics of light verse for children.Despite Milne's success as a playwright, only these verses and his two sets of stories about the adventures of Christopher Robin and his toy animals-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Owl, and Eeyore-as told in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) endured into the 21st century. Illustrations by Ernest Shepard added to their considerable charm. In 1929 Milne adapted another children's classic, The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall. A decade later he wrote his autobiography, It's Too Late Now. (britannica.com)

CONTENTSThe Grey Woman Curious if True Six Weeks at Heppenheim Libbie Marsh's Three Eras Christmas Storms and Sunshine Hand and Heart Bessy's Troubles at Home Disappearances

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC.Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers. (wikipedia.org)

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC.Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers. (wikipedia.org)

My Lady Ludlow is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It appeared in the magazine Household Words in 1858, and was republished in Round the Sofa in 1859, with framing passages added at the start and end.It recounts the daily lives of the widowed Countess of Ludlow of Hanbury and the spinster Miss Galindo, whose father was a Baronet, and their caring for other single women and girls. It is also concerned with Lady Ludlow's man of business, Mr Horner, and a poacher's son named Harry Gregson whose education he provides for. With Cranford, The Last Generation in England and Mr. Harrison's Confessions, My Lady Ludlow was adapted for television in 2007 as Cranford, with Francesca Annis as the eponymous character, with Alex Etel as Harry Gregson and Emma Fielding as Laurentia Galindo. Mr Horner's name was changed to Mr Carter, and was played by Philip Glenister. The character of Lord Septimus, the Countess' seventh child, is mentioned in the first series as he is in the novel. The book, however, was extended in the first episode of the second series Return to Cranford, featuring the death of Lady Ludlow from bone cancer, and Lord Septimus' return from Italy to claim his estate, where his ne'er-do-well personality is revealed. In the episode, Lord Septimus was portrayed by Rory Kinnear, with Annis, Etel and Fielding reprising their roles. (wikipedia.org)

CONTENTSThe Old Nurse's Story The Poor Clare Lois the Witch The Grey WomanCurious, if TrueElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC.Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers. (wikipedia.org)

A Dark Night's Work is an 1863 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published serially in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round. The word "dark" was added to the original title by Dickens against Gaskell's wishes. Dickens felt that the altered title would be more striking. The story centers on a country lawyer, Edward Wilkins, and his daughter Ellinor. Edward has an artistic and literary personality, unsuited to his social position as the son of a successful lawyer who takes over his father's practice in the provincial town of Hamley. His legal representation of the local gentry and nobility leads him to try fitting into their social circles, only to be mocked and treated with derision. He develops a drinking problem and spends more money than he can afford to in his attempts to be an equal to his clients. His bad habits lead to problems in his business, and Edward is forced to take on a junior partner named Mr. Dunster.At the same time, Ellinor becomes engaged to a young upcoming country gentleman named Ralph Corbet. Corbet initiates the engagement partly through love of Ellinor and partly because of a promise of money from Edward. Edward continues to drink and overspend, leading to a confrontation with Mr. Dunster. In the heat of the argument, Edward strikes Mr. Dunster, killing him. Ellinor and a family servant named Dixon help Edward to bury the body in their flower garden.Ellinor soon tells Ralph that a possible disgrace hangs over her. Ralph questions Edward about this, and Edward insults him in a drunken tirade. Ralph dissolves his engagement to Ellinor because of this, and because he regrets forming an engagement to someone who offers no opportunity of helping him advance in society. He later marries into the nobility and becomes a judge. Edward drinks himself to death and Ellinor moves to a distant town, East Chester, after the Wilkins's home Ford Bank is rented out in order to provide Ellinor with a living. Dixon remains as a servant to watch over the home and property where the body is buried. The secret goes unknown for about 15 years until the body is dug up during the construction of a railroad. Dixon is arrested for the murder and later convicted by Ralph, who acts as the judge in the case. Ellinor then tells Ralph the truth, and Dixon is pardoned. She returns to East Chester and marries a local clergyman, Canon Livingstone, who she had known in her youth, and has two children with him. (wikipedia.org)