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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... Read Full Overview

'He's spoilt my life, - he's spoilt it for as long as iver I live on this earth'

The compelling story of an ordinary girl's tragic passion for a man who disappears, Sylvia's Lovers (1863) is Elizabeth Gaskell's last completed novel. Set in a fictional... Read Full Overview

On the north-eastern shores of England there is a town called Monkshaven, containing at the present day about fifteen thousand inhabitants. There were, however, but half the number at the end of the last century, and it was at that period that the events narrated in the following... Read Full Overview

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Sylvia's Lovers is a Victorian romance novel described by the author as "the saddest story I ever wrote". The story begins in the 1790s in the fictional coastal town of Monkshaven against the background of the practice of impressments during the early phases of the Napoleonic... Read Full Overview

Sylvia's Lovers (1863) is a novel written by Elizabeth Gaskell, which she called "the saddest story I ever wrote".

Sylvia's Lovers (1863) is a novel written by Elizabeth Gaskell, which she called "the saddest story I ever wrote".

The novel begins in the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven (modeled on Whitby, England) against the background of the practice of impressment... Read Full Overview

A very powerfully moving novel of a young woman caught between the attractions of two very different men, Sylvia's Lovers is set in the 1790s in an English seaside town. England is at war with France, and press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service. One of their... Read Full Overview

A very powerfully moving novel of a young woman caught between the attractions of two very different men, Sylvia's Lovers is set in the 1790s in an English seaside town. England is at war with France, and press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service. One of their... Read Full Overview

A very powerfully moving novel of a young woman caught between the attractions of two very different men, Sylvia's Lovers is set in the 1790s in an English seaside town. England is at war with France, and press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service. One of their... Read Full Overview

Sylvia's Lovers is set during the French Revolutionary Wars in the remote whaling-port of Monkshaven in Yorkshire where the sea dominates the lives of the inhabitants. The people of Monkshaven hate the French, but they live in greater and more immediate fear of the callous press-gang,... Read Full Overview

" Monkshaven, qu'il vous faudrait chercher sur la c te nord-est d'Angleterre, au bord de la Dee, justement l'endroit o cette rivi re tombe dans l'Oc an germanique, - compte aujourd'hui quinze mille habitants, mais n'en avait pas la moiti la fin du dernier si cle, poque... Read Full Overview

The compelling story of an ordinary girl's tragic passion for a man who disappears, Sylvia's Lovers (1863) is Elizabeth Gaskell's last completed novel. Set in a fictional Whitby at the end of the eighteenth century, the novel is a modern revenge tragedy in which well-intentioned... Read Full Overview

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely... Read Full Overview