The Moorland Cottage and Other Stories

by Elizabeth Gaskell, Suzanne Lewis (Editor)

'I believe the art of telling a story is born with some people, and these have it to perfection.'

Elizabeth Gaskell was a consummate storyteller, and in this selection of one short novel and eight stories she encompasses an extraordinary range of narrative voices, settings, and genres. She herself acknowledged, 'you know I can tell stories better than any other way of expressing myself'. Her work shows her compulsion to express herself on the many subjects relevant to her experience as a Victorian, and Mancunian, a Unitarian, a social observer, and a woman. Above all, however, she writes about love.

Love is the common thread which runs through the stories collected here. Gaskell recognizes that it can give rise to selfishness as well as self-sacrifice, unhappiness as well as joy. Writing with passion and shrewdness, irony and sympathy, she explores these paradoxes through humour, pathos, tragedy, the extraordinary, and the everyday.

This selection of one short novel and eight stories shows Mrs. Gaskell working in different genres and with a wide range of material. As in her novels she explores different kinds of love, and her observations about human nature are as acute here as in her longer works.

In addition to the title tale, this edition includes The Sexton's Hero, Christmas Storms and Sunshine, The Well of Pen-Morfa, The Heart of John Middleton, Morton Hall, My French Master, The Manchester Marriage, and Crowley Castle.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Victorian, British Literature, Family, Romance

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1850

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 truly fantastic collection. The Moorland Cottage is a wonderfully compelling novella with a riveting and harrowing conclusion, and The Sexton’s Hero remains a favourite Gaskell short story from her entire oeuvre of short fiction. Christmas Storms and Sunshine was a cosy and heartwarming story very suitable for the Christmas season, and Crowley Castle got more than one gasp out of me!

Gaskell has the rare ability to write short fiction in a way that’s still fully satisfying and feels complete.

Highly recommended!

[Julia Rodas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without a real novel to read, I'm turning to Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter fiction. Just finished the delightful, if somewhat saccharine "The Moorland Cottage" (1850), one of those classic self-sacrificing too-good-to-be-true poor-girl stories wherein the heroine is rewarded by marriage to a rich and handsome young man who loves her for her own pure self. I know what I'm getting into when I read one of these, but I confess I like it anyway.

Now, I'm having a go at My Lady Ludlow (1858), a sizable novelette that promises, at least at the beginning, a strong Cranfordian undertone. In the second chapter, I'm already enjoying Gaskell's muted wit, which features far more prominently in this story than in "Moorland Cottage," which was a little cloying in its earnestness. Likewise, I feel more relaxed about the length of the volume; knowing that I have a good store of pages ahead gives me a sense of ease and plenty.

I'm thinking I'll likely turn to other Gaskell when I'm done with Lady Ludlow. One of the delights of the new Kindle reading I've been doing is not only that these Victorian titles are all free, but also that they're all so accessible. This is opening up a range of texts that had hitherto existed for me in a kind of literary purgatory--things I thought I'd look for or get to "one day" when I had time for a little more proactive research. Now, the books practically fall into my lap. That's one cheer, at least, for technology.

Finally, this reading is certainly putting me in mind of students from my Austen, Gaskell, Trollope seminar at Sarah Lawrence back in 2003. I feel so grateful to those who sat around that seminar table with me, sharing the excitement; my pleasure in this particular variety of reading is forever enhanced by those exchanges.

14 March 2012

[Kathryn Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love several of Elizabeth Gaskell's other works, but The Moorland Cottage I did not enjoy. Maggie's brother is selfish and mean, her mother ignores her and gives all her love to the brother, and yet Maggie remains perfect, tender and constantly sacrificing her own needs and desires to help them. Her brother made bad choices and deserved the consequences that came upon him and it drove me crazy that she would be willing to sacrifice her own dreams to help ease those consequences for a selfish ungrateful brother. The best help for him would have been to let the natural consequences of his actions teach him a lesson. In explaining her motives to her friend she talked about how she remembered her brother as a young boy, kneeling with her at their father's knee etc. and how because of that she loved him and felt he just had not been taught properly. Well, if that was the justification, then the reader needed to see some of that too, instead of only being shown his selfish and mean side. And lastly, if his excuse was that he wasn't taught properly, how did Maggie, raised by the same parents in the same household, with even less love and guidance from said parents, manage to learn right and wrong?
Also one too many phrases about her being a helpless or unintelligent female! ugh! I will stick with Wives & Daughters or Cranford!!

[Tabrizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

So beautiful and so heartbreaking...Gaskell has the gift to write about different variations of love. As touching as the emotion can be, love can also be vengeful and heartbreaking. It depends on the morality of the person of how they choose to use it.

[Krisannekerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the heroine's virtous character. Her brother was very frustrating and I felt such anxiety for her in her associations with him. I love when the good poor girl gets the good rich man!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually just read The Moorland Cottage, but apparently it's not listed singly. I liked it - not as much as North and South.

[Larisa]

So far, it is similar in theme to some of Thomas Hardy's novels, but with a lighter tone, and fewer descriptive passages.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The moorland cottage is soo soo soo depressing.
The other stories are not too bad.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet, simple story.

Accessible writing. Not sophisticated, but pleasing in its way. If you’re looking for an old fashioned romance, this is it!

[MyChienneLit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gaskell is one of the most important writers of the Victorian era, and The Moorland Cottage influenced writers from the Brontës to Eliot and beyond. This novella is emblematic of Gaskell’s style and innovative focus on the interiority of female characters. Her writing is heavily laced with Romantic elements, and while at times, her stories are melodramatic (i.e. the stories include shipwreck, fire, forgery, flight from the police, poisoning, etc.), but within the thematic context, these sometimes seemingly outlandish events somehow usually work. Her short stories are tightly constructed in a way few authors are able to achieve, and her characters are unusually well developed given the limitations of the form. My personal favorites in the collection appear last—Crowley Castle and The Manchester Marriage. Gaskell is definitely an author worth reading, particularly for anyone interested in the development of the novel or in the craft of writing fiction.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truly a story of another era, where the young woman’s finest qualities are being a moral compass to others and sacrificial in her love. Not my favorite Gaskell

[Faith Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of stories was so much better than the last collection I read. It was thrilling, heartbreaking, warm, and sweet all at the same time. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Moorland Cottage is the chronicle of brother and sister Edward and Maggie Browne. Edward is a bit of an ass but yet Maggie still follows him around like a lost puppy filling his every request. This is until she meets Frank Buxton and her attentions begin to drift elsewhere.

The story plays out like the fairy tale Cinderella, but once Maggie has claimed her glass slipper, the reader is only halfway through the short novel. What could happen to this seeming perfect union? Her irresponsible, co-dependent brother of course. Thus Maggie is forced to choose between the two men she loves, her brother and her fiance.

I'm embarrassed to say I was watching an Oprah Show recently that dealt with broken families due to tragedy. The two sisters that were on, knew what was happening was wrong but still felt an obligation to protect their older brothers. This may be a poor example but I feel that this is where Maggie Browne falls as well, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I was quite mistaken to think this would end neat and "happily ever after" but instead turned into a seafaring adventure and reminded me of the Titanic. The Moorland Cottage is an unexpected gem going from Jane Austen to Robert Louis Stevenson in a second. Elizabeth Gaskell will not disappoint.

[Jenna Scribbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story had potential. The writing made me like a few characters, loath a couple others and even cry a tear or two…. All was rolling along, I'm enjoying the storyline very much - until the last few chapters. The author took an odd turn in the storyline and then abruptly ended it. The turn of events is so strange I’m tempted to look as see if the upload of the public domain title has been tampered with. Is it a strange joke?

I also have no idea why the story is called The Moorland Cottage.

Go ahead and skip this one. Instead I recommend The Enchanted April or Understood Betsy.

this upload also had a handful of strange typos. I won't score it low for that reason but it could be easily fixed.

[Cerese · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like romance cloaked in a veneer of good literature (Jane Eyre, Jane Austen) you will probably enjoy Elizabeth Gaskell.
This was my first foray into reading free Kindle books on my computer. (Now I want a Kindle!) Anyway, this was a lovely quick read. So frustrating when it comes to women's roles and inherent gender bias, but such were the times.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie always does what she can for her brother, who is overbearing and selfish. She will even leave the love of her life to take her brother to America to avoid being captured by the law for his crimes.
A complicated and touching story by Ms. Gaskell. It was enjoyable to read.

[Chambodia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating read. I wanted to like it, but the characters were unlikeable and unrealistic. I don't know how old Mrs. Gaskell was when she wrote it, but the writing, especially at the beginning felt juvenile. The ending was forced and unbelievable.

[Joyce M. Tice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed every story

[Carolyn Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable but pleasant.

[Rosie Genova · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Cranford (the book and the PBS series) and really liked this one until it veered into Victorian melodrama. Still, a nice comfort read for a snowy night.

[Bex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this for the Read Along over on GaskellBlog.com :)

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I found it on the boring side.

[Yavonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good short story. Maggie becomes someone we all hope we can be a little like.

[Marija · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was too short. I would have given it more stars if it were longer. Easy and entertaining, but it lacked the drawn out nature these books tend to give

[Carrie Eyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent storytelling from the esteemed friend and colleague of Charlotte Bronte.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story. Not my favorite by Gaskell, but it was fun to read.

[Beth]

Just read The Moorland Cottage

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as North and South, but I enjoyed it.