Sort of a Gothic novel, but of the most genteel variety. Ellinor Wilkins is a much-doted-upon daughter of a middle-class attorney. She has a routinely pleasant life, a burgeoning romantic relationship with the local apprentice curate, friends and servants who care for her, and THEN. Something awful happens which requires her to compromise her moral judgment. Even though there are no outward effects to her actions, her life is basically derailed. Her mental anguish makes her sick; it keeps her from enjoying the company she once kept, and makes her feel she doesn't deserve the life she had planned for herself.There's not much of the thriller about it; there's no mystery beyond "will she be found out?" and even with that, it seems the stakes get lower over time. Also, there's obviously a strong religious/moral streak running through the proceedings, which is pretty common for literature of the time. It makes for a bleak read; more so than some of the campier Gothic works, or Gaskell's own, much sunnier, Wives and Daughters. But the characters are well-drawn, and Gaskell does a particularly good job writing over the passage of time. And it's short, and it's in the public domain (i.e. free all over the web) so not at all a bad choice for passing the time with a Victorian novel.
It kills me to give any Gaskell work a low rating. I would give it a 4 for characters.... but all the character int the world doesn't forgive or wipe away the bloated, maudlin beginning. The book is half over before anything resembling plot happens. How bloated is the beginning? How about, the story starts with the birth of the GRANDFATHER of the main character. So you have to go through the life of the Grandfather, the father, and then finally, the main character is 15 before the story starts to get going, and the main plot point doesn't happen until she's 17. Gaskell is my favorite author - if she wasn't, I would have put this down and picked up a gothic romance.
