Gothic Tales: Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell`s chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. `Disappearances`, inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; `Lois the Witch`, a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in `The Old Nurse`s Story` a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as `The Poor Clare`, where an evil doppelganger is formed by a woman`s bitter curse, or mischievous like `Curious, if True`, a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the stories in this volume form a stark contrast to the social realism of Gaskell`s novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing.