My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories

by Elizabeth Gaskell, Edgar Wright (Editor)

Six stories deal with a rural British community, local legends, the supernatural, and intolerance

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, 19th Century, Victorian, British Literature, Ebooks, Literature

488 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1859

About the author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.

AKA:
Елізабет Гаскелл (Ukrainian)

Reviews

[Darryl Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous collection of truly moving short stories, plus the novella My Lady Ludlow. Gaskell demonstrates such maturity and craft in these stories, which range from domestic realism to the sensational to sacrifice to history to comedy. A highly satisfying and diverse collection.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection contains eight stories: "My Lady Ludlow", "An Accursed Race", "The Doom of the Griffiths", "Half a Lifetime Ago", "The Poor Clare", "The Half-brothers", "Mr. Harrison's Confessions", and "The Manchester Marriage". The stories show Gaskell's versatility, ranging in style from the humorous, Cranford-esque "My Lady Ludlow" and "Mr. Harrison's Confessions" and the melodrama of "The Doom of the Griffiths" to the chilling Gothic tale of "The Poor Clare" and the sociological essay, "An Accursed Race". Perhaps the best of a good collection is "Half a Lifetime Ago", the moving story of Susan Dixon, who sacrifices her lover for her family and is redeemed by new love years later.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contained, Round the Sofa (Mrs. Gaskell’s introduction to the evening that prompted the stories being told in the book), My Lady Ludlow, An Accursed Race, The Doom of the Griffiths (Which I read before), Half a lifetime ago, The Poor Clare, The Half Brothers, Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (Which I’ve also read) and The Manchester Marriage. My Lady Ludlow I was really looking forward to as I really enjoyed her parts in the BBC adaptation of Cranford. The tale itself was the most different from the dramatisation, but I really liked it, at one part there was a tale, within a tale within a tale but still very enjoyable. I know I should not have liked the main character as she was full of snobbery, elitism and old fashioned ideas but I just couldn’t help it. She was interesting and intelligent and sad. I enjoyed the story about the doomed lovers in the French Revolution and liked to see how everything progressed and ended. It was an interesting tale full of a lot of tragedy and honesty. The Accursed Race was an odd little piece about a race of people hideously persecuted in Europe until they all had died out. Half a lifetime ago was quite sweet but the characters didn’t appeal to me as much as in some stories. I felt sorry for the main character whose fiancé was unable to put up with her disabled brother, and ended up abandoning her. She seemed to show a lot of strength, but apart from looking after her brother saw much of the personality drained out of her. I thought the ending was very sweet and totally unexpected. The Poor Clare was fantastic, without a doubt my favourite after Lady Ludlow. Here was a story of great tragedy, love, sorcery, witchcraft and was downright creepy in places. Even though it was told from the male perspective it was still very well done and the plight of everyone involved was most touching. It also ended up going to a different place in the ending which made it walk an interesting line between reality and fantasy. The Half Brothers was not able to follow on quite so well. It was fairly sweet, and it probably most remarkable in that there was a Collie dog named Lassie who rescued the main character when he was stuck in the snow and saved his life by getting help! The Manchester Marriage was also tragic and sweet. The characters themselves were not as lovable as some of the others but came across as just as real. I am really enjoying the books of Elizabeth Gaskell that I’ve read so far. I’m definitely going to be adding her to my favourite authors discovered this year and am planning on reading some more of her longer novels very shortly.

[Tocotin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Elizabeth Gaskell, but this book was just okay. Maybe because Lady Ludlow and nearly every other character annoyed the heck out of me. No, I agree, she was not a bad person, but the conclusion of the story is this: may God forbid your life and well-being would depend entirely on prejudices and convictions of another human being.
I especially disliked the central story about French Revolution and the poor darlings who suffered because of it. Yes, the Revolution was horrible. It was also necessary, and bound to happen.

[Jeff W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried to like this one but I just couldn't. The best part was the short novel 'My Lady Ludlow', aside from the French Revolution story within the story. I liked how Lady Ludlow overcame some of her prejudices against the lower classes, especially in regards to giving them an education. However, the short stories (and I use that term loosely as some of them were quite lengthy) were absolutely depressing and seemed to drag on in their misery.

[Lesia Waschuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I withhold the final star is because of the strangeness of the interpolation of the non-fiction essay "The Accursed Race." The fiction is stellar, and the collection is otherwise a delight, and get this edition if you can, for the notes and introduction by a literary scholar at Laurentian University.

[b james · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant collection of reflections on social mores in the form of a series of short stories. These create fascinating fictional histories and characters drawn with wit, compassion and intelligence to challenge prejudice.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

2017: reread Ludlow; I'd forgotten how just infuriating the character is.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My Lady Ludlow" expands on material found in "Cranford". In the most predominant part of the story Lady Ludlow now explains her reasons for believing that the ability to read among those without "hereditary principles and honourable training" is detrimental and hazardous. Gaskell uses a story within the story to dramatically illustrate Lady Ludlow's reasoning. After reading "Lady Ludlow" and looking back to "Cranford", the reader has a much clearer understanding of why she feels justified in holding this opinion.

"Mr. Harrison's Confessions" is based on the same character as Dr. Harrison in "Cranford". Gaskell delightfully expands on his background and particularly adds to the episode concerning the Valentine and misapprehensions of various ladies of Duncombe as to his true intentions. This treatment makes the story much more comical and Mr. Harrison's predicament exceedingly more dire.

This volume also includes several other short stories infrequently seen in recent editions. Among them, "The Accursed Race", "The Half-Brothers" and "The Doom of the Griffiths" illustrate the author's skill in dealing with exceedingly tragic characters in a significantly darker mood than seen in her better-known works.

An Appendix of brief transitions to the stories is included in the publication. These transitions were published with the original "Around the Sofa" edition published in 1859 that included all of these stories with the exception of "Mr. Harrison's Confessions". They use new characters to illustrate the telling of the stories literally "around the sofa".

[Kate Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the stories I have read throughout my Gaskell Gorge, My Lady Ludlow was my least favorite story. Yet, I am not quite sure why. It was a nicely spun tale. It just seemed like each anecdote was random instead of woven into the whole story.

However, Mr Harrison's Confessions was hilarious. This is a different short story, about 100 pages, contained in the book. It was a lovely story filled with comical characters and incidents. It made me laugh out loud, which is rare for a Victorian novel.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a surprisingly eclectic collection of stories. The two longest stories are bookends framing shorter offerings which touch upon such subjects as a minority group found in France and Spain and an elderly Irish servantwoman who undergoes quite an interesting metamorphosis. If you enjoy Elizabeth Gaskell, I recommend this collection. If you are new to Mrs. Gaskell, I would advise reading one of her full novels first.

[Superkim71 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As ever with Elizabeth Gaskell's work, I find this book a delight.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little book of pastoral tales. Enjoyable and calming.