Cousin Phillis

Written by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Narrated by Peter Joyce

The tale of a rural habitation in the late 19th Century and the effect of industrialisation on the local community.

Seventeen year old Phillis lives on Hope Farm with her parents Minister Ebenezer Holman and his simple wife. Her second cousin Paul Manning, at first reluctantly, comes to visit. He is the son of a rising inventor from Birmingham and is employed as a clerk to Edward Holdsworth, the managing engineer of a railway company laying a line close to the farm. When Paul introduces his new employer and friend to Phillis he little realises the traumatic effect this will have on the young girl.

Elizabeth Gaskell is never judgemental and sketches a subtle portrait of an unsophisticated mode of living that once touched by irresistible forces will never be the same again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Assembled Stories
• Release date: Oct 12, 2004
• ISBN: 9781860152634

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English author who wrote biographies, short stories, and novels. Because her work often depicted the lives of Victorian society, including the individual effects of the Industrial Revolution, Gaskell has impacted the fields of both literature and history. While Gaskell is now a revered author, she was criticized and overlooked during her lifetime, dismissed by other authors and critics because of her gender. However, after her death, Gaskell earned a respected legacy and is credited to have paved the way for feminist movements.

Reviews for Cousin Phillis

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

An older man recounts an instance in his youth when he became fast friends with a local pious family. But in introducing them to his charming boss, he inadvertently causes teenaged Phillis romantic agony. Like Gaskell's other work, this is a slow-paced tale focused on the minutia of a small community's daily lives and feelings. Unlike the other work I've read by her, this has a section in which a woman swoons after hearing her crush has gotten married, and then nearly dies of brain fever (whatever that might be) and stays near death for months. It was so melodramatic and inexplicable to me that it tainted my enjoyment of the earlier section of the novel.

[Naomi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sweet story that leaves you to think on the power of love

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Elizabeth Klett gives another wonderful narration in this free Librivox recording. The story itself I found a bit dated: brain fever? I wonder what illness this actually was! I liked Phillis (this is the spelling used in my Project Gutenberg Kindle edition) and her father.

[fliss88_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It took me a little while to get in-sync with the language of this book, never having read anything by Elizabeth Gaskell before and it originally being published in 1864. But once I discovered the secret, that is, to slow down my reading speed and let the words, and the vocabulary start to work their magic, I was able to sit back and thoroughly enjoy this lovely book. Back in the day, of no technology as we now know it, words were the way of things. People spoke slower, used many more words and seemed to think more carefully about how they said things…... and it's fantastic once you lose yourself to it!