"The Moorland Cottage and Other Stories

by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Suzanne Lewis

"I believe the art of telling a story is born with some people, and these have it to perfection". Elizabeth Gaskell was a consummate storyteller, and in this selection of one short novel and eight stories she encompasses an extraordinary range of narrative voices, settings, and genres. She herself acknowledged, "you know I can tell stories better than any other way of expressing myself". Her work shows her compulsion to express herself on the many subjects relevant to her experience as a Victorian and Mancunian, a Unitarian, a social observer and a woman. Above all, however, she writes about love. Love is the common thread which runs through the stories collected here. Gaskell recognizes that it can give rise to selfishness as well as self-sacrifice, unhappiness as well as joy. Writing with passion and shrewdness, irony and sympathy, she explores these paradoxes through humour, pathos, tragedy, the extraordinary, and the everyday.

• ISBN10: 0192823213
• ISBN13: 9780192823212
• Publish Date: 1 August 1995
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 November 2002
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Imprint: Oxford Paperbacks
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 348
• Language: English

Reviews

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

The Moorland Cottage is the chronicle of brother and sister Edward and Maggie Browne. Edward is a bit of an ass but yet Maggie still follows him around like a lost puppy filling his every request. This is until she meets Frank Buxton and her attentions begin to drift elsewhere.

The story plays out like the fairy tale Cinderella, but once Maggie has claimed her glass slipper, the reader is only halfway through the short novel. What could happen to this seeming perfect union? Her irresponsible, co-dependent brother of course. Thus Maggie is forced to choose between the two men she loves, her brother and her fiance.

I'm embarrassed to say I was watching an Oprah Show recently that dealt with broken families due to tragedy. The two sisters that were on, knew what was happening was wrong but still felt an obligation to protect their older brothers. This may be a poor example but I feel that this is where Maggie Browne falls as well, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I was quite mistaken to think this would end neat and "happily ever after" but instead turned into a seafaring adventure and reminded me of the Titanic. The Moorland Cottage is an unexpected gem going from Jane Austen to Robert Louis Stevenson in a second. Elizabeth Gaskell will not disappoint.