Cousin Phillis

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.1

Word count: 214K words
Chapters: 22

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Cleghorn GaskellAuthor: Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2003

Editor's review

Cousin Phillis is a fine novella by Mrs. Gaskell, centered on the coming-of-age and emotional trials of a country minister's daughter and narrated from the observing perspective of a visiting relative. Though brief, it renders the quiet of pastoral life, the religious atmosphere of the household, and a young girl's inner stirrings with restraint and sincerity, and the closing sense of loss and lingering resonance is especially accomplished. Gaskell excels at carrying emotional weight through everyday detail; this book is a fitting entry point to her shorter narrative art and also rewards reading alongside works such as Mary Barton to observe the differences in her rural and urban writing and her portrayals of women. As you read, note how the narrator's limited perspective shapes the reader's understanding of Phillis's inner world.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Victorian English fiction
Literature lovers interested in women's growth and rural themes
Readers who want a short work as an introduction to Gaskell
Students who need a novella text for an English literature course

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking intricate plots and strong dramatic conflict
General readers who only want a Chinese translation
Readers with little patience for depictions of a religious household atmosphere

Reading tips

Read the novella straight through first, then revisit the limits on information created by the narrator's perspective.
Note the correspondences between pastoral scenery and characters' emotions, making brief notes.
Read alongside other works by Gaskell to compare women's situations in rural and urban settings.
After reading, map the key turning points in Phillis's emotional changes and discuss how the ending is handled.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a novel or a novella?

It is a novella: concentrated in narrative with a small cast, suited to reading in one or two sittings so you can grasp the structure and emotional arc as a whole.

Who is the narrator, and what are the characteristics?

The narrator is a visiting relative who tells the story as both observer and participant; the perspective is limited, so readers should watch for biases in his observations and judgments.

Is it suitable for non-native English readers?

The length is friendly, but Victorian English and the vocabulary of a religious household require some grounding; upper-intermediate readers can finish it comfortably with notes.

Comments

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About the author

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 Author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810–1865) was a British novelist of the Victorian era. The library holds 28 of her works, including Cranford, Wives and Daughters, North and South, Sylvia's Lovers, and The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Her writing focuses on daily life in English villages and industrial towns, with a delicate and often humorous touch, and she excels at portraying characters and circumstances across different social classes. Cranford depicts a small-town female community with gentle irony; North and South interweaves industrial conflict between employers and workers with personal feeling; and her biography of Charlotte Brontë is also an important biographical work. Public information is limited, so this note outlines her subjects and style based only on the works held here.