Gothic tales / Elizabeth Gaskell ; edited with an introduction and notes by Laura Kranzler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Kranzler, Laura.

Series:

Penguin classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gothic literature--Great Britain.

Gothic literature.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Fiction.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xxxvi, 366 pages ; 20 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Penguin, 2000.

Summary:

"The curse -- the curse!" I looked up in terror. In the great mirror opposite I saw myself, and right behind, another wicked, fearful self'

An encounter with the supernatural in an everyday setting accentuates its strangeness; a truth used to eerie effect in Gaskell's Gothic tales. A portrait turned to the wall, a hidden manuscript, a mysterious child that lives on the freezing moors, a doppelganger formed by a woman's bitter curse: all of these things hint at male tyranny and woman as avenging angel -- or devil.

Gaskell was fascinated by the dualities in women's lives and the way in which fact and fiction merge. 'Disappearances', a mix of gossip, legend and fact, relates stories of mysterious vanishings, 'Lois the Witch', a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to communal hysteria and persecution, while 'The Grey Woman' explores a common Gothic theme, the way in which the ghosts of the past always return to haunt us.

Contents:

Disappearances

The old nurse's story

The squire's story

The Poor Clare

The doom of the Griffiths

Lois the witch

The crooked branch

Curious, if true

The grey woman.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

014043741X

OCLC:

45437166