3 stars-

I’m sad that I didn’t fall in love with this one! This was my first Elizabeth Gaskell, but in reading some reviews, it looks like this may not be typical of her work so I’ll definitely give her another try.

There are some really sweet and poignant chapters towards the end that almost saved this for me, but I found the middle to really be a slog and the humor only worked for me some of the time. I think it’s well written overall, and I think that Miss Matty in particular is really well drawn and inspired most of my interest in this story.

I think that class and respectability are really interesting themes that Gaskell is investigating here, and I love that there is a protofeminist aura in this town of almost all women. I think this novel really paved the way for Gissing’s The Odd Women, which takes some of this thematic material and truly runs with it.

It’s a decent read, but I may not recommend it as a first venture into Gaskell’s novels.