Four Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell

Ever since I read Cranford last summer I have known that little by little I will read all the novels by Elizabeth Gaskell. I had no idea she also wrote some short stories until I happend to notice a slim, little volume called Four Short Stories in the library. After reading the text on the back cover I realised this book would be perfect for the Women Unbound challenge.

Four Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell includes the following stories:

• The Three Eras of Libbie March
• Lizzie Leigh
• The Well of Pen-Morfa
• The Manchester Marriage
  

The first story in the collection The Three Eras of Libbie March was first published in Howitt's Journal in 1847, a year before her first novel Mary Barton saw the light of day. Lizzie Leigh and The Well of Pen-Morfa were both published in Household Words in 1850. The publisher of this magazine was Charles Dickens. The fourth of the stories in the collection, The Manchester Marriage, was published in 1858, also in Household Words.

All four stories are about women and the trials and tribulations women faced in mid 19th century Britain.The heroines in the first three stories are all unmarried. Libbie March is a single, working class woman, who knows she is not going to marry and who has to try and find a way to live her life without the safetynet of a husband and a house of her own. Lizzie Leigh is an unwedded mother, whereas the heroine of The Well of Pen-Morfa is a women about to get married whose whole life is changed tragically after an accident leaves her disabled for life. Only the heroine of The Manchester Marriage is married, but also this story portrays the position of women in a male dominated society.

After the wonderful lightness and humour of Cranford these were grimmer stories, but not stories without hope and, in some cases, there were even quite a lot of happiness. My favorites were The Manchester Marriage and The Three Eras of Libbie March, but all four stories were well worth reading. Elizabeth Gaskell was, not only able to write (in some cases quite long) novels, but also to use the more compact form of short stories quite effectively. All in all an interesting and enjoyable read!

Four Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell was my 6th read for the Women Unbound Challenge. I still have one fiction and one nonfiction book to read to complete the challenge. :)