Short Stories (All the Year Round, 1859-1863)


Read by Phil Benson

(4.5 stars; 11 reviews)

In 1859 Charles Dickens launched a new weekly journal, All the Year Round, to replace Household Words. Elizabeth Gaskell remained a prolific contributor until 1863. Her fictional contributions feature strong female characters and have a darker tone than her previous works, reflecting the fashion for Gothic fiction of the 1860s and her travels in Europe. They include two of her best known shorter works: Lois the Witch, a heartfelt story of a young English girl who becomes of a victim of the Salem witch trials, and The Grey Woman, a powerful tale of a deceived wife's flight from her husband, a nobleman who turns out to be a leader of the French 'chauffeurs'. Two of Gaskell's most complex family sagas were thinly disguised as Christmas Ghost stories: The Ghost in the Garden Room (later, The Crooked Branch) and How the First Floor Went to Crowley Castle. The Cage at Cranford is a short reprise of Gaskell's Cranford stories. Of the two documentary pieces, Select Committee on French Songs (attributed to Gaskell in 2015) appears here for the first time in a collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's work. (Phil Benson) (0 hr 28 min)

Chapters

Lois the Witch: Part the First 50:41 Read by Phil Benson
Lois the Witch: Part the Second 1:11:51 Read by Phil Benson
Lois the Witch: Part the Third 1 59:10 Read by Phil Benson
Lois the Witch: Part the Third 2 54:28 Read by Phil Benson
The Ghost in the Garden Room 1 1:04:53 Read by Phil Benson
The Ghost in the Garden Room 2 54:15 Read by Phil Benson
The Grey Woman: Portion the First 43:05 Read by Phil Benson
The Grey Woman: Portion the Second 54:24 Read by Phil Benson
The Grey Woman: Portion the Third 54:37 Read by Phil Benson
Select Committee on French Songs: Sitting the First 42:04 Read by Phil Benson
Select Committee on French Songs: Sitting the Second 44:48 Read by Phil Benson
An Italian Institution 24:25 Read by Phil Benson
The Cage at Cranford 29:37 Read by Phil Benson
How the First Floor Went to Crowley Castle 1 56:04 Read by Phil Benson
How the First Floor Went to Crowley Castle 2 44:16 Read by Phil Benson

Reviews

some are boring


(3 stars)

Some of these stories are pretty good but a couple aren't stories and didn't hold my attention at all.

Different book however...Phil Benson is a superb reader.


(5 stars)

Interesting. well done to the reader


(5 stars)