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wandererzarina's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
perjacxis's review against another edition
3.0
I thought I would love this collection, but unfortunately, it was a mixed bag for me. My favourites were The Old Nurse’s Story, The Poor Clare and Lois the Witch.
nebje's review against another edition
3.0
Muy interesante lectura. La mayoría de cuentos no me han dicho mucho, pero alguno me ha gustado mucho. Mis favoritos: "La bruja Lois" y "La dama gris".
Es un acercamiento muy interesante a la narrativa gótica porque hay mucha variedad en los relatos.
Es un acercamiento muy interesante a la narrativa gótica porque hay mucha variedad en los relatos.
cathleenruby's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
magratajostiernos's review against another edition
3.0
Me gustó muchísimo 'Curioso, de ser cierto' y 'La mujer gris'.
'La burja Lois' también me resultó interesante, pero los demás no me han dado mucho más...
'La burja Lois' también me resultó interesante, pero los demás no me han dado mucho más...
joanaad46's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
salicat's review against another edition
4.0
Dickens once called her his 'darling Scheherazade,' so of course I had to check out Elizabeth Gaskell's "Gothic Tales." Overshadowed in today's literature classes by her contemporaries George Eliot and the Bronte sisters, Gaskell was a popular author in her time. This brilliant collection shows the reason. Reading the title, I was expecting, "I see dead people" stuff layered with poetic nineteenth-century language. The first story, "The Old Nurse's Tale," does deal with that- a creepy little girl haunting the moors (Cathy Earnshaw, anyone?).
But the tales are 'Gothic' in that they deal with the dark side of human nature more than the supernatural. Gaskell with her intense, beautiful prose, explores the themes of oppression, hatred, and general human cruelty in this collection. At times, the reading gets a bit weighed down with her liberal use of local dialects and, for the stories taking place in the 17th and 18th centuries, I kept getting a headache weeding through the 'thees' and 'thous.' But that's minor compared to the impact these tales had on me- Summary of my favorites as follows:
Lois the Witch- this is the most disturbing and powerful of the stories- taking place in Salem during witch-hunt time, the story follows the main character as she's accused of withcraft in a town that's teeming with Puritan zealotism and sexual repression, the two things that give rise to the witchcraft hysteria. In a way, I was saddened to realize that this story still resonates today, as every generation has its own witch hunts.
The Poor Clare- This story does have a bit more of a supernatural feel to it- a doppelganger shows up as a result of a curse (go to Wikipedia to look up the word). Interesting stuff. The story had to do more with the theme of sin and salvation, and extreme ascetism as a cure for bad deeds. I can't say I necessarily agree with that remedy, but hey, Gaskell was a minister's wife.
The Grey Woman- Taking place around the French Revolution, the story follows Anna, the German daughter of a miller, when she marries, as she calls him, "a beautiful and effeminate Frenchman." This one turns into a truly terrifying tale when we find out the Frenchman's secret and his danger to Anna. I think this tale is one that especially captures marriage of earlier centuries as essential traps for women.
The Doom of the Griffiths- Can a curse peter down through the generations? I took this one as Gaskell's take on the story of Oedipus and various Greek tragedies.
If you can brave through the sometimes heavy-handed language, I think this collection of tales is one that must be on everyone's "Classic Lit" bookshelf.
But the tales are 'Gothic' in that they deal with the dark side of human nature more than the supernatural. Gaskell with her intense, beautiful prose, explores the themes of oppression, hatred, and general human cruelty in this collection. At times, the reading gets a bit weighed down with her liberal use of local dialects and, for the stories taking place in the 17th and 18th centuries, I kept getting a headache weeding through the 'thees' and 'thous.' But that's minor compared to the impact these tales had on me- Summary of my favorites as follows:
Lois the Witch- this is the most disturbing and powerful of the stories- taking place in Salem during witch-hunt time, the story follows the main character as she's accused of withcraft in a town that's teeming with Puritan zealotism and sexual repression, the two things that give rise to the witchcraft hysteria. In a way, I was saddened to realize that this story still resonates today, as every generation has its own witch hunts.
The Poor Clare- This story does have a bit more of a supernatural feel to it- a doppelganger shows up as a result of a curse (go to Wikipedia to look up the word). Interesting stuff. The story had to do more with the theme of sin and salvation, and extreme ascetism as a cure for bad deeds. I can't say I necessarily agree with that remedy, but hey, Gaskell was a minister's wife.
The Grey Woman- Taking place around the French Revolution, the story follows Anna, the German daughter of a miller, when she marries, as she calls him, "a beautiful and effeminate Frenchman." This one turns into a truly terrifying tale when we find out the Frenchman's secret and his danger to Anna. I think this tale is one that especially captures marriage of earlier centuries as essential traps for women.
The Doom of the Griffiths- Can a curse peter down through the generations? I took this one as Gaskell's take on the story of Oedipus and various Greek tragedies.
If you can brave through the sometimes heavy-handed language, I think this collection of tales is one that must be on everyone's "Classic Lit" bookshelf.
aaronreadabook's review against another edition
3.0
Many of these stories aren't what you would associate with the word gothic, some are just sad or odd. There were enough enjoyable ones in here to keep me going though. I quite like Gaskell's writing style so I'm keen to try some of her novels.
charlotekerstenauthor's review against another edition
So What’s It About?
Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell is primarily known for her biography of her close friend Charlotte Brontë as well as her novels, the majority of which are female-led and feature examinations of industrialization and class inequality. She also wrote a number of ghost stories and stories in the Gothic tradition, and several of these are gathered in this collection.
What I Thought
Disappearances -no shade, Mrs. Gaskell, but I have absolutely no idea what this was supposed to be. It’s just a haphazard collection of stories and snippets of stories about people going missing. It’s a cool enough premise but there’s no Victorian Dyatlov Pass in this collection – the stories are incredibly brief and not very interesting or juicy at all.
The Old Nurse’s Story – I read this one for last year’s Spookening as it was a part of The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women. It held up this year – old women with regrets and vicious secrets, icy moors, organs playing in the night and a haunted little girl. This collection has a recurring theme of abusive, violent men and the first one makes his appearance here in the form of the ghosts’ murderer, their proud and cruel father and grandfather.
The Squire’s Story- a robber buys a house, gets married and then inexplicably confesses to one of his robberies that ended in a murder. I think this one could have been really good if it had delved into the murderer’s guilty psyche a la Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist, but as it was actually executed that didn’t happen at all so the story fell flat to me.
The Poor Clare – this story involves a witch’s curse, lost love and a young woman’s ghostly doppleganger that everyone says is soooooooo evil but really just seems to like playing pranks and trying to have sex. I guess by Victorian standards is was pretty evil for an unmarried young woman (or female-presenting ghostly doppleganger) to want that… I used to read basically nothing but Victorian literature but I’ve been away from it for a while and this story’s love interest was a reminder of just how utterly boring, spineless and lifeless female characters can be in Victorian lit. It was pretty unbearable.
The Doom of the Griffiths – here we have a family curse, a deeply and annoyingly self-pitying main character, lots and lots of telling rather than showing and another child killed by a vengeful grandfather.
Lois the Witch – I read this book after The Year of the Witching so I already had Puritans on the brain. Gaskell does a great job of depicting colonial New England’s sexual repression, stringent piety and overwhelming emphasis on morality and purity. She also does an excellent job of depicting the hypocrisy, paranoia and panic that lay at the heart of witch hunting. As a final note, Gaskell made some interesting statements about the injustice of what British settlers did to indigenous people in the U.S…while also unfortunately calling the indigenous servant in this story a savage.
The Crooked Branch – a man with doting parents goes wrong and manipulates said doting parents out of all their money before robbing them and breaking their hearts. Did I mention that a lot of stories in this collection were really, really depressing?
Curious, If True – this one features classic fairy tale characters hilariously reinterpreted. It was really fun but also had the worst ending of the bunch because it was so incredibly abrupt.
The Grey Woman – a young woman trapped in an abusive marriage learns a deadly secret about her husband and runs for her life with her beloved nurse. Because of the novel I’m writing I’ve been reading a lot about Victorian conceptualizations of marital abuse and it was actually quite progressive of Gaskell to write a story where a man’s emotional (rather than just physical) abuse was denounced and the woman was portrayed as being in the right for abandoning him. In addition, it was somewhat rare for an abused woman to get anything remotely resembling a happy ending in fiction instead of dying tragically, so the fact that she survives in this story and remarries a kind man was quite progressive too. Her terror endures, however, and I wouldn’t say that the ending of her story is truly happy. Gaskell does a great job of depicting her isolation, fear, helplessness and desperation.
Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell is primarily known for her biography of her close friend Charlotte Brontë as well as her novels, the majority of which are female-led and feature examinations of industrialization and class inequality. She also wrote a number of ghost stories and stories in the Gothic tradition, and several of these are gathered in this collection.
What I Thought
Disappearances -no shade, Mrs. Gaskell, but I have absolutely no idea what this was supposed to be. It’s just a haphazard collection of stories and snippets of stories about people going missing. It’s a cool enough premise but there’s no Victorian Dyatlov Pass in this collection – the stories are incredibly brief and not very interesting or juicy at all.
The Old Nurse’s Story – I read this one for last year’s Spookening as it was a part of The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women. It held up this year – old women with regrets and vicious secrets, icy moors, organs playing in the night and a haunted little girl. This collection has a recurring theme of abusive, violent men and the first one makes his appearance here in the form of the ghosts’ murderer, their proud and cruel father and grandfather.
The Squire’s Story- a robber buys a house, gets married and then inexplicably confesses to one of his robberies that ended in a murder. I think this one could have been really good if it had delved into the murderer’s guilty psyche a la Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist, but as it was actually executed that didn’t happen at all so the story fell flat to me.
The Poor Clare – this story involves a witch’s curse, lost love and a young woman’s ghostly doppleganger that everyone says is soooooooo evil but really just seems to like playing pranks and trying to have sex. I guess by Victorian standards is was pretty evil for an unmarried young woman (or female-presenting ghostly doppleganger) to want that… I used to read basically nothing but Victorian literature but I’ve been away from it for a while and this story’s love interest was a reminder of just how utterly boring, spineless and lifeless female characters can be in Victorian lit. It was pretty unbearable.
The Doom of the Griffiths – here we have a family curse, a deeply and annoyingly self-pitying main character, lots and lots of telling rather than showing and another child killed by a vengeful grandfather.
Lois the Witch – I read this book after The Year of the Witching so I already had Puritans on the brain. Gaskell does a great job of depicting colonial New England’s sexual repression, stringent piety and overwhelming emphasis on morality and purity. She also does an excellent job of depicting the hypocrisy, paranoia and panic that lay at the heart of witch hunting. As a final note, Gaskell made some interesting statements about the injustice of what British settlers did to indigenous people in the U.S…while also unfortunately calling the indigenous servant in this story a savage.
The Crooked Branch – a man with doting parents goes wrong and manipulates said doting parents out of all their money before robbing them and breaking their hearts. Did I mention that a lot of stories in this collection were really, really depressing?
Curious, If True – this one features classic fairy tale characters hilariously reinterpreted. It was really fun but also had the worst ending of the bunch because it was so incredibly abrupt.
The Grey Woman – a young woman trapped in an abusive marriage learns a deadly secret about her husband and runs for her life with her beloved nurse. Because of the novel I’m writing I’ve been reading a lot about Victorian conceptualizations of marital abuse and it was actually quite progressive of Gaskell to write a story where a man’s emotional (rather than just physical) abuse was denounced and the woman was portrayed as being in the right for abandoning him. In addition, it was somewhat rare for an abused woman to get anything remotely resembling a happy ending in fiction instead of dying tragically, so the fact that she survives in this story and remarries a kind man was quite progressive too. Her terror endures, however, and I wouldn’t say that the ending of her story is truly happy. Gaskell does a great job of depicting her isolation, fear, helplessness and desperation.