VICTOBER 2025 discussion

A thread to discuss this year's readalong!

We'll be reading Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell throughout the month, in the following schedule

Disappearances: 1st October
The Old Nurse’s Story: 2nd–3rd October
The Squire’s Story: 4th October
The Poor Clare: 5th–8th October
The Doom of the Griffiths: 9th–11th October
Lois the Witch: 12th–18th October
The Crooked Branch: 19th–22nd October
Curious, If True: 23rd October
The Grey Woman: 24th–31st October

Let us know your thoughts below, but please be wary of spoilers if you're reading ahead of the schedule or have read any of the stories before.

Thank you!! This is my first Victober

This schedule is great and manageable, but I think my Victober TBR is pretty ambitious. Since I have too much work this October and my plan is to read North and South by the same author, I think I'll skip the whole collection. I might read Lois the Witch if I find the time.

So excited to finally read this! Gaskell is the best, and this book has sat on my shelf for at least the last three years.

Katie wrote: "A thread to discuss this year's readalong!

We'll be reading Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell throughout the month, in the following schedule

Disappearances: 1st October
The Old Nurse’s Story: 2..."

I think it's interesting that there's a schedule, but I will see if I can keep up with everyone else as I will be reading other books as well. Though, I know that the stories in this collection are little tales so they might be easier to schedule in as well.

Can't wait to start reading and discussing these with everyone!

Just got my copy today! Looking forward to reading with you all. This will be my third Gaskell having loved North and South and Cranford. Happy Victober!

I really enjoyed last year's readalong of Shirley so I'm excited for this one. I'm eagerly anticipating these short stories and it will be fun to talk about them. This is my third Victober and I hope to be more active on here this year :)

Ordering my copy today, excited to get started :-D

So excited to start reading this tomorrow!

Still waiting on my copy from the library but I think I'll try to start on schedule by finding a free version for kindle so I can read Disappearances tomorrow and I have a Penguin little black classics version of The Old Nurse's Story. Hopefully by then I might have the library book.

Not read any of these before but love Gaskell as an author, so excited to start!

Okay I started. So far, so great! Gaskell is one of my favorite authors and I really enjoyed the first story.

So, I read GT in March but plan to reread some of the tales. The booktube channel The Bookshelf Odyssey has recorded podcasts of The Old Nurse's Story, and The Grey Woman with an interview with Dr. Diane Duffy of the Gaskell Association and Gaskell House. Here is the link https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtd...

Gillian wrote: "Still waiting on my copy from the library but I think I'll try to start on schedule by finding a free version for kindle so I can read Disappearances tomorrow and I have a Penguin little black clas..."

I found a PDF of Disappearances online that looks complete here:
https://nmi.org/wp-content/uploads/Pu...

I already have the cheapo Wordsworth Tales of Mystery & the Macabre which is almost identical to Gothic Tales, it doesn't contain 'The Crooked Branch' but does have an additional story 'The Ghost in the Garden Room'. So I'm going to use that edition instead. If anyone else has the Wordsworth collection, there's a copy of the missing 'crooked branch' story here:

http://victorian-studies.net/EG-Crook...

Ooooh ... a schedule! 😀

Disappearances.... wasn't expecting that!

Disappearances ... for some reason I was expecting that. 🤣

The last line of Disappearances made me laugh. I was also tickled by the following line:

"When I was a child, I was sometimes permitted to accompany a relation to drink tea with a very clever old lady, of one hundred and twenty -- or, so I thought then; I now think she, perhaps, was only about seventy."

It just really encapsulates how children can view adults they interact with.

What a strange story, the points about the detective police seemed to be part ironic, part laden with anxiety, almost a precursor to contemporary concerns about surveillance society. I wasn't expecting the documentary-type style either, I read 'The Old Nurse's Story' recently so I thought this would be more in that tradition, slightly gothic, atmospheric. I wonder if this one was written to fulfil a commission by a publication for some quick cash?

Disappearances was an interesting commentary on police and the missing. I’m also curious about what compelled Gaskell to write it.

Not what I was expecting at all. I kept thinking - now the real story begins . . . and it didn’t.

Found that story very strange indeed. Don’t know what to make of it at all. The others look more substantial so I’m thinking there’s a bit more to get into in the next few. I’ve not read Gaskell before so don’t have anything tk compare it to either.

I found "Disappearances" a little disappointing at first until I realized that the short story form was still in its infancy in 1851 when it was published. Feeling more charitably inclined now. ;-)

Alice wrote: "Found that story very strange indeed. Don’t know what to make of it at all. The others look more substantial so I’m thinking there’s a bit more to get into in the next few. I’ve not read Gaskell be..."

'The Old Nurse's Story' is very much a conventional ghost story, lots of snow and wind, and strange happenings. I really enjoyed it, very different from 'Disappearances'.

I had to read all the notes in the back of the book for Disapperances, lol. The mentions of the police at the beginning kind of threw me off, but once I had finished the story. I felt like it was setting up the spooky vibes for the rest of the book/stories.

Alwynne wrote: "Gillian wrote: "Still waiting on my copy from the library but I think I'll try to start on schedule by finding a free version for kindle so I can read Disappearances tomorrow and I have a Penguin l..."

Thanks so much, that's really helpful! Book is on its way to the library so fingers crossed I can pick it up on Monday.

Anonymouse wrote: "I found "Disappearances" a little disappointing at first until I realized that the short story form was still in its infancy in 1851 when it was published. Feeling more charitably inclined now. ;-)"

I wondered why it was included with her supernatural stories, I saw an article online that said it was a non-fiction piece and she wrote it as part of an experiment in writing about crime. The breakdown of her life on the Gaskell Society site says her brother disappeared at sea, so maybe that made her interested in the topic in general?

Disappearances
I think I was kinda surprised by this. I was expecting some horror story.
I like how the story gives us an idea about Victorian society for example, people can face poor treatment because their relative was suspected of having committed a crime, and also the idea of bigamy and how it influenced families back then.
The story also suggests that there were many unsolved crimes.

Disappearances was a little odd. It felt strange to be included as a gothic tale. The Old Nurses Story is an ideal spooky read! Perfect campfire stuff

I enjoyed Disappearances - I thought it was qusite quaint. The old Nurse's Story is going good so far. Love the Northern setting.

I did not love or hate Disappearances. I'm glad I read it, can't say it is one I will return to over and over though. I like a lot of what people have written about it such as why she might of written it, family history, trying her hand in yet another genre (which is part of why I love Gaskell so much.)

I LOVED The Old Nurse's Story. So atmospheric and Victorian. Just enjoyed it so much. I don't know if anything will top it for me in this book.

Disappearances was okay, confusing at parts but it ended up being interesting. I loved the Old Nurse's Story! Very atmospheric and creepy. Hoping the rest of the stories are like that

I loved the Old Nurses Story. It was so atmospheric and wonderfully creepy.

Disappearances was an interesting ans eerie commentary on Victorian society.
The Old Nurse’s Story was very good, the kind of Gothic I like with mystery and ghosts!

The Old Nurse's Story was pretty good, but I think I've read a lot of Victorian ghost stories and it didn't really impress me. Definitely worth reading though, especially as someone who already loves Gaskell. And "Disappearances" got me through the waiting room of the DMV while I got my driver's license renewed so I have to give credit where credit is due; if it can make me ignore the anxiety of being surrounded by a bunch of people in a small closed room for ages while waiting for someone to call my name and take a terrible picture that I've then got to carry around for a couple years, it's gotta be pretty good.

It's interesting reading this collection after having read Jenny Uglow's biography Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories earlier this year. I loved it, highly recommend if you like Gaskell's work. She was such an interesting person and the bio def gave me a better understanding of where she was coming from when she was writing. One thing Uglow talks about is Gaskell's love of spooky stories and The Gothic(tm), which enhances this collection for me, knowing how much the author loved telling scary stories to her friends and acquaintances at any given opportunity!

According to the Introduction of my edition, "Disappearances" was NOT a story, but rather a non-fiction article Gaskell wrote for Dickens' magazine "Household Words" about instances of real people who had disappeared. I enjoyed them and felt like these would be real-life events that a writer might use to inspire them to base their own story on.

Ry wrote: "It's interesting reading this collection after having read Jenny Uglow's biography Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories earlier this year. I loved it, highly recommend if you like Gaskell's work."

Yes, I have that book--I've been dipping in and out, but plan to make a proper reading of it later. Right now I'm in the middle of Uglow's biography of George Eliot, which is also excellent.

The Old Nurse’s Story was exactly what I was hoping for in these Gothic Tales, definitely reassured me after the strange opening of Disappearances!

Kathy wrote: "Ry wrote: "It's interesting reading this collection after having read Jenny Uglow's biography Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories earlier this year. I loved it, highly recommend if you like Gaske..."

Jenny Uglow has written some excellent biographies, well-researched and easy to read.

Just finished ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ and really enjoyed it.

My edition doesn't have notes but I'm a huge fan of Dickens's work so I'll root for him anyway! And the story does have a Dickensian feel. although it also feels more modern somehow.

Ry wrote: "The Old Nurse's Story was pretty good, but I think I've read a lot of Victorian ghost stories and it didn't really impress me. Definitely worth reading though, especially as someone who already lov..."

Sounds good, she's very reliable particularly on historical issues, but have to read her 'Lear' biography first.

Thanks for the tip about the Jenny Uglow biography, sounds really interesting.

Have just finished The Old Nurse's Story and it was so creepy and unsettling. I know it plays on a lot of common themes from ghost stories but it still managed to be atmospheric and interesting.

Definitely lots of atmosphere in The Old Nurse’s Story. A good little spooky tale overall.

Hi! This is my first Victober!
Tried to read Gaskell before, but could never get drawn in, as I have with other classic literature. But so far, so good with Gothic Tales!!
The Old Nurse’s Story had me hooked, nice and spooky! Reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw, I thought. Looking forward to the next short story. 😊

Kathy wrote: "Ry wrote: "It's interesting reading this collection after having read Jenny Uglow's biography Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories earlier this year. I loved it, highly recommend if you like Gaske..."

Yeah I've heard her Eliot one is good too. I've just started Middlemarch so I think when I've finished that one, I'll might try the bio.

AllisonLL wrote: "I read The Old Nurse's Story last night and I enjoyed it very much. When I read the note about the change Dickens wanted her to make, I must say I have to come down on his side of the argument."

I completely agree!

So far I’m enjoying the read along. The Squires Story was more of a sensational tale rather than gothic and I liked it as well.

Struggled with ‘The Squire’s Story’, ended up listening to an audio version, I just couldn’t get into it🙁 It went round the houses a bit too much for me!