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Sybil #1
Cruel As The Grave
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
252 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1888
11 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
E.D.E.N. Southworth
205 books105 followersEmma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte (aka "E.D.E.N.") Southworth was an American writer of more than 60 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. She was probably the most widely read author of that era.
Some of her earliest works appeared in The National Era, the newspaper that printed Uncle Tom's Cabin. Like her friend Harriet Beecher Stowe, she was a supporter of social change and women's rights. Her first novel, Retribution, a serial for the National Era, published in book form in 1846, was so well received that she gave up teaching and became a regular contributor to various periodicals, especially the New York Ledger.
Her best known work was The Hidden Hand. Most of her novels deal with the Southern United States during the post-American Civil War era.
Some of her earliest works appeared in The National Era, the newspaper that printed Uncle Tom's Cabin. Like her friend Harriet Beecher Stowe, she was a supporter of social change and women's rights. Her first novel, Retribution, a serial for the National Era, published in book form in 1846, was so well received that she gave up teaching and became a regular contributor to various periodicals, especially the New York Ledger.
Her best known work was The Hidden Hand. Most of her novels deal with the Southern United States during the post-American Civil War era.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 9, 2022
I started it way long ago, set it aside, and finally finished it--and started the sequel. It was worth picking up again.
June 9, 2021
This book is very engaging and exciting. The characters are lively and appealing. This book features a Halloween masquerade in early 19th century Virginia. If one is interested in the history of American Halloween parties this would be a good book to read. The story features rich regional detail of the mountains of Virginia. There is a spooky gothic ruin, a detailed ghost story with side trip to colonial Williamsburg, and a stage coach ride across Virginia from Norfolk to Staunton. The depictions of inns and taverns along the coach road will be of much interest to the history enthusiast. Mrs. Southworth will greatly appeal to admirers of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
April 29, 2024
I'm neither a novel reader or inclined towards romances in the least but the title, pictorial cover and the year of its original publication in 1871 forced me to pick up the early 1900s Hurst & Co. edition at an estate sale for a couple of bucks.
Fast forward a few years and having decided to read some obscure and antique books on my YouTube Channel (I say this with zero intent of selling a product) I jumped into this one blindly and found myself quickly amused and interested in the far-fetched plot line of aristocratic love, Victorian charity and the expectant results of a meshing of two beautiful women and a charming gentleman.
As another reviewer has stated, there is a masquerade ball, ghosts and hauntings amid the antebellum backdrop, racial and gender stereotypes, drama and suspense. The ghost stories fall in line with others by Southworth in that there is relatively no shock value and much of what is presented is mostly washed away with the cosmic lemonade mumbo-jumbo logic-driven all-heal of SCIENCE and PSYCHOLOGY. Listen, I don't believe in ghosts but I also think that science is as much a religion as Spiritualism itself. It squints at truth and parallels it in some instances but hardly defines and explains reality itself.
All that said, I find it unsettling that nobody has thought to turn this book into a movie seeing as (SPOILER ALERT) the main character Sybil Berners is taken into an underground tomb at the climax of the book as if she were an unwilling Hercules being stolen away into the Underworld by its resident Spirits. Of course, without the benefit of having started the sequel I have no way of knowing whether this is a dream scenario, metaphor or just another plot twist whereby the GHOSTS are actually human benefactors. Regardless, the ending is very cinematic and worthy of such exposure in the visual field of arts. I like to be both equally ignorant of a book's plot lines and fully surprised by them and this tome delivers the unexpected amply and colorfully.
Fast forward a few years and having decided to read some obscure and antique books on my YouTube Channel (I say this with zero intent of selling a product) I jumped into this one blindly and found myself quickly amused and interested in the far-fetched plot line of aristocratic love, Victorian charity and the expectant results of a meshing of two beautiful women and a charming gentleman.
As another reviewer has stated, there is a masquerade ball, ghosts and hauntings amid the antebellum backdrop, racial and gender stereotypes, drama and suspense. The ghost stories fall in line with others by Southworth in that there is relatively no shock value and much of what is presented is mostly washed away with the cosmic lemonade mumbo-jumbo logic-driven all-heal of SCIENCE and PSYCHOLOGY. Listen, I don't believe in ghosts but I also think that science is as much a religion as Spiritualism itself. It squints at truth and parallels it in some instances but hardly defines and explains reality itself.
All that said, I find it unsettling that nobody has thought to turn this book into a movie seeing as (SPOILER ALERT) the main character Sybil Berners is taken into an underground tomb at the climax of the book as if she were an unwilling Hercules being stolen away into the Underworld by its resident Spirits. Of course, without the benefit of having started the sequel I have no way of knowing whether this is a dream scenario, metaphor or just another plot twist whereby the GHOSTS are actually human benefactors. Regardless, the ending is very cinematic and worthy of such exposure in the visual field of arts. I like to be both equally ignorant of a book's plot lines and fully surprised by them and this tome delivers the unexpected amply and colorfully.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2013
A wonderful book! so looking forward to the sequel. This is one of E.D.E.N. Southworth's better books!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews