An Accursed Race

by Elizabeth Gaskell

Classic short story. According to "Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell ( 1810 – 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. 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."

Genres: Classics, History, Nonfiction, Essays

38 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1855

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

[Juliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading my way through an ebook collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's works. This is actually an essay she wrote (not a short story) about a group of untouchables in Europe--the Cagots. I found this read interesting because I had never heard of the Cagots and there is apparently still a bit of mystery about who they were and why everyone wanted to persecute them. Were they left over Visigoths? Were they descended from the Sarencens left over from Moorish Spain? Were they a disgraced group of carpenters or even lepers?

When I decided to look up the Cagots on Wikipedia and the Internet I found this interesting article about what has happened since Gaskell wrote this essay.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wor...

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting historical essay of Gaskell's - not a subject I'd known at all about before!

[sabisteb aka callisto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elisabeth Gaskell schrieb nicht nur Romane und Kurzgeschichten, sondern auch Sachbücher und Essays. Dieses Werk ist ein Essay über die ausgestoßene Volksgruppe der Cagots. Ich hatte bisher nichts von dieser Ethnie gehört, bzw. kenne sie gerade mal als Buchtitel eines Krimis von Tom Knox.
Dieser Essay fasst die Vorurteile und den Aberglauben zusammen, die sich um diese Menschen, ihr Wesen und ihre Abstammung ranken. Sie wurden teilweise genauso behandelt wie die Juden zur damaligen Zeit. Sie wurden mit einem „piece of red cloth sewed conspicuously on the front of his dress“ markiert, durften nur Montags einkaufen, mussten die Kirche durch eine niedrigere Tür betreten, und wurden noch in vielen anderen Bereichen diskriminiert. Wer sich mit einem Cagot einließ oder diesen heiratete, wurde ebenfalls zu einem und verlor alles, was er besaß, bis zu dem Maß, was ein Cagot besitzen durfte.
Interessant ist, dass Gaskell in diesem Essay sogar ein wenig Linguistik betreibt: “The principal reason alleged in support of this supposition of their Gothic descent, is the specious one of derivation,—Chiens Gots, Cans Gets, Cagots, equivalent to Dogs of Goths.” Bis heute ist unklar, woher diese Volksgruppe stammte und warum sie derartig bis ins 19. Jahrhundert diskriminiert wurde.
Im Grunde, weiß man heute absolut nicht mehr, als was in diesem Essay bereits steht, der eine umfassende Zusammenfassung aller damaligen und auch heutigen Erkenntnisse zu sein scheint.
Interessant sind vor allem die Berichte über die "wissenschaftlichen" Versuche, die man wohl zu Gaskells Zeiten an diesen Menschen durchführte und wie man versucht wissenschaftlich zu begründen, warum es richtig ist, diese Menschen auszugrenzen, in denen es einerseits keinerlei Hinweise gibt, dass sie wirklich anders sind, aber da sie eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit haben, gewisse Erkrankungen zu entwickeln, ist es doch angebracht, eine Vermischung mit den "pure bloods" zu vermeiden.

So gesehen immer noch interessant, wenn man sich für diese Volksgruppe interessiert.
Wer jedoch eine viktorianische Kurzgeschichte erwartet, wird schwer enttäuscht werden.

[Chambodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short non-fiction work about a group of people who are horribly oppressed in france/spain. The lengths people in power will go through to oppress a group of people based on whatever they think their ancestors were guilty of is obscene.

There is some wry humor in Gaskell's commentary, which lightens it up a tiny bit in a couple of places.

[Galicius · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short essay describes little known social group in the Pyrenes, Northern Spain and Western France known as Cagots who were much discriminated and controlled by their neighbors. Author dates them to the period from 13th to 19th Century about which time they seem to disappear or integrate despite their outcast status.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2531/...

Fascinating non-fiction short story/essay about prejudice. The accursed race refers to a French/Spanish population who were discriminated against and persecuted for centuries.

[Justin]

Fascinating. I had never heard of the Cagots until I read Creation Lake.

[Carol E. · Rating 1 out of 5]

What is this book?? It was written in the 1800s. I think I got it free, thank goodness. Also, it was blessedly short. More like a short story. It describes a group of people who are an "accursed race" and grossly discriminated against. The whole story explains what makes them an accursed race: this group of people has a terrible smell, they have a tendency to have leprosy. If they don't appear to have leprosy, it's because they have the invisible kind. They do some awful ceremony with the blood of Christian babies, (even though they are said to be faithful Catholics.)

They can only walk in these areas, they can only do these professions, they can only own so many pigs and sheep. To attend church, they can only enter through this very small door on the side. On and on. It ends abruptly. I think the author was trying to show why people should not hold this group of people in contempt, but her effort was futile. Her attitude was only one notch above the horrors that she described, still very paternalistic and condescending.

I am hoping I missed the point of this story by a wide margin, but I'm not going to re-read it to see what I may have missed. I'm glad it's in my past.

[Elicia Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slightly informative essay regarding the Cagots of Spain. The connotation suggested that Ms Gaskell was very sympathetic toward the accursed race. As i read, I couldn’t help but see a connection to two other people groups. The first, the fare giants of near eastern literature described in the Bible as children of the “Watchers” (gods) and humans. The second, in the writings of pre-nazi race theorists, there was described a large, fare, blue-eyed race that migrated through Eurasia (north to south or south to north depending on whose theory you read). In both instances, the large race would have been a threat to the “pure race”. (Her referencing Europeans as such reinforces the idea that the Cagots may have been demigod-like half-breeds, even though she herself said there was no known origin to their race. Also suspicious.)

This is a quick read and functions as a nice little gateway to a blurry rabbit trail rather than any kind of end/answer to our questions.

[Diana Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a non fiction work which could be more an essay than a story. I have never heard of the "Cagots"and their plights which extended for at least a thousand years. It appears these people were just the same as any other human being and they only could be recognized by their family names. Because of superstitions and false information this race was cast as undesirable and for the most part denied basic human rights. Mrs. Gaskill was not going to pass up an opportunity to pick up the gauntlet and again expand her cause as a champion of the underdogs. Very informative and interesting work.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is listed as a short story, but I think it is more of an essay. It explains the persecution of the Cagots, a group of people from Europe (mostly France and Brittany). They were mistreated and had unjust laws up until the 19th century.
This was interesting historically, but not really an exciting (or relevant to today) read.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book. I found it to be interesting, but I didn't really enjoy it.