Sylvia's Lovers (Everyman Gaskell)

by ElizabethGaskell (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.25

  Set on the whaling port of Monkshaven, the plot of Sylvia's Lovers unravels the unscrupulous activities of press-gangs. Sylvia's lover is carried off by a press-gang, but writes to her, promising constancy. Unfortunately, the letter is entrusted to Sylvia's cousin, Philip, who keeps it from her in order to marry her himself. Years later Charley returns, and Philip's treachery is discovered, withdisastrous consequences.

• Used

  Paperback
  1973

  $4.33

• New

  Paperback
  1996

  $14.07

  Elizabeth Gaskell's only historical novel, Sylvia's Lovers , is set in 1790 in the seaside town of Monkshaven (Whitby) where press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service in the Napoleonic wars. One of their victims is whaling harpooner, Charley Kinraid, whose charm and vivacity have captured the heart of Sylvia Robson. But Sylvia's devoted cousin, Philip Hepburn, hopes to marry her himself and, in order to win her, deliberately withholds crucial information with devastating consequences. With its themes of suffering, unrequited love, and the clash between desire and duty, Sylvia's Lovers is one of the most powerfully moving of all Gaskell's novels, reputedly described by its author as 'the saddest story I ever wrote'.