Cousin Phillis, Elizabeth Gaskell
Cousin Phillis, Elizabeth Gaskell
List: $11.00 | Sale: $7.70
Club: $5.50

Cousin Phillis

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Narrator: Peter Joyce

Unabridged: 4 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/12/2004


Synopsis

The tale of a rural habitation in the late 19th Century and the effect of industrialisation on the local community. Seventeen year old Phillis lives on Hope Farm with her parents Minister Ebenezer Holman and his simple wife. Her second cousin Paul Manning, at first reluctantly, comes to visit. He is the son of a rising inventor from Birmingham and is employed as a clerk to Edward Holdsworth, the managing engineer of a railway company laying a line close to the farm. When Paul introduces his new employer and friend to Phillis he little realises the traumatic effect this will have on the young girl. Elizabeth Gaskell is never judgemental and sketches a subtle portrait of an unsophisticated mode of living that once touched by irresistible forces will never be the same again.

About Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was born in London but grew up in the north of England in the village of Knutsford. In 1832, she married the Reverend William Gaskell and had four daughters and one son who died in infancy. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848 and won the attention of Charles Dickens; most of her later work was published in his journals. Among her notable works are the novels North and South and Cranford, as well as her famous biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emilio on August 17, 2021

- Il prezzo della ' modernità ' - Un bel libro, non c'è dubbio. Gaskell sa bene come narrare, rappresentare le sfumature dell'afflizione e della speranza. Scritto nel 1863-64, ci porta nella serenità della campagna inglese, dove la cosiddetta 'modernità' entra con l'espansione ferroviaria che segnò i......more

Goodreads review by La pecera de Raquel on February 11, 2020

Paul Manning, trabajaba bajo el mando del Sr. Holdsworth para ampliar las líneas del ferrocarril en Cheshire, en el noroeste de Inglaterra, muy cerca de donde vive la prima de su madre, en la granja “La esperanza”, por lo que va a visitarles, allí conocerá a la hija de la prima de su madre, Phillis,......more

Goodreads review by Rosemary on September 06, 2020

Elizabeth Gaskell skilfully explores the tensions inherent in mid-Victorian Britain in this delicately nuanced and luminously beautiful story that evocatively captures a rural world on the cusp of change. Like ‘Hard Times,’ this is a coming-of-age tale that questions the moral and social responsibil......more

Goodreads review by Wealhtheow on December 27, 2015

An older man recounts an instance in his youth when he became fast friends with a local pious family. But in introducing them to his charming boss, he inadvertently causes teenaged Phillis romantic agony. Like Gaskell's other work, this is a slow-paced tale focused on the minutia of a small communit......more