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Sylvia's Lovers
''Sylvia's Lovers'' is an 1863 novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, which she called "the saddest story I ever wrote". Synopsis The novel begins in the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven (modeled on Whitby, England) against the background of the practice of impressment during the early phases of the French Revolution. 17-year-old Sylvia Robson lives happily with her parents on a farm, and is passionately loved by her rather dull Quaker cousin Philip Hepburn. She, however, meets and falls in love with Charlie Kinraid, a dashing sailor on a whaling vessel, and they become secretly engaged. When Kinraid goes back to his ship, he is forcibly enlisted in the Royal Navy by a press gang, a scene witnessed by Philip. Philip does not tell Sylvia of the incident nor relay to her Charlie's parting message and, believing her lover is dead, Sylvia eventually marries her cousin. This act is primarily prompted out of gratefulness for Philip's assistance during a difficult time fol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victorian society, including the lives of the very poor. Her first novel, ''Mary Barton'', was published in 1848. Her only biography ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', published in 1857, was controversial and significant in establishing the Brontë family's lasting fame. Among Gaskell's best known novels are ''Cranford (novel), Cranford'' (1851–1853), ''North and South (Gaskell novel), North and South'' (1854–1855), and ''Wives and Daughters'' (1864–1866), all of which have been adapted for television by the BBC. Early life She was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London, now 93 Cheyne Walk. The doctor who delivered her was Anthony Todd Thomson, whose sister Catherine later became Gaskell's step ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Novel
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from the Latin word ''socii'' ("allies"). It is particularly derived from the Italian '' Socii'' states, historical allies of the Roman Republic (although they rebelled against Rome in the Social War of 91–87 BC). Social theorists In the view of Karl Marx,Morrison, Ken. ''Marx, Durkheim, Weber. Formations of modern social thought'' human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by definition social beings who, beyond being "gregarious creatures", cannot survive and meet their needs other than through social co-operation and association. Their social characteristics are therefore to a large extent an objectively given fact, stamped on them from birth and affirmed by socialization processes; and, according to Marx, in producing and reprod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels. An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. The historical romance usually seeks to romanticize eras of the past. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert intentionally ahistorical or speculative elements into a novel. Works of historical fiction are sometimes criticized for lack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smith, Elder & Co
Smith, Elder & Co., alternatively Smith, Elder, and Co. or Smith, Elder and Co. was a British publishing company which was most noted for the works it published in the 19th century. It was purchased by John Murray in the early 1900s, its archive now kept as part of the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland. History The firm was founded by George Smith (1789–1846) and Alexander Elder (1790–1876) and successfully continued by George Murray Smith (1824–1901). They are known to have published as early as 1826. They are notable for producing the first edition of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB''). The firm achieved its first major success with the publication of Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'' in 1847, under the pseudonym of "Currer Bell". Other major authors published by the firm included Robert Browning, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, Richard Jefferies, George MacDonald, Charles Reade, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby had significant Herring fleet, herring and whaling fleets, and was where Captain Cook learned seamanship. He first explored the southern ocean in HMS Endeavour, HMS ''Endeavour'', built in Whitby.Hough 1994, p. 55 Alum industry in North Yorkshire, Alum was mined locally, and Whitby Jet (lignite), jet jewellery was fashionable during the 19th century. Tourism started in Whitby during the Georgian period and developed with the arrival of the railway in 1839. The abbey ruin at the top of the East Cliff is the town's oldest and most prominent landmark. Other significant features include the Whitby Swing Bridge, swing bridge, which crosses the River Esk and the harbour sheltered by grade II listed Piers of Whitby, east and west piers. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is a type of conscription of people into a military force, especially a naval force, via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"). European navies of several nations used impressment by various means. The large size of the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail meant impressment was most commonly associated with Great Britain and Ireland. It was used by the Royal Navy in wartime, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice can be traced back to the time of Edward I of England. The Royal Navy impressed many merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other, mostly European, nations. People liable to impressment were "eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 55 years". Non-Sailor, seamen were sometimes impressed as well, though rarely. In addition to the Royal Navy's use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers because the founder of the movement, George Fox, told a judge to "quake before the authority of God". The Friends are generally united by a belief in each human's ability to be guided by the inward light to "make the witness of God" known to everyone. Quakers have traditionally professed a priesthood of all believers inspired by the First Epistle of Peter. They include those with evangelical, holiness, liberal, and traditional Quaker understandings of Christianity, as well as Nontheist Quakers. To differing extents, the Friends avoid creeds and hierarchical structures. In 2017, there were an estimated 377,557 adult Quakers, 49% of them in Africa followed by 22% in North America. Some 89% of Quakers worldwide belong to ''evangelical'' a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Language Review
''Modern Language Review'' is the journal of the Modern Humanities Research Association ( MHRA). It is one of the oldest journals in the field of modern languages. Founded in 1905, it has published more than 3,000 articles and 20,000 book reviews. ''Modern Language Review'' is published four times a year (in January, April, July and October). All articles are in English and their range covers the following fields: * English (including United States and the Commonwealth) * French (including Francophone Africa and Canada) * Germanic (including Dutch and Scandinavian) * Hispanic (including Latin-American, Portuguese, Catalan, and Galician) * Italian * Slavonic and East European Studies * General Studies (including linguistics, comparative literature, and critical theory) History The first issue was published in October 1905 with John G. Robertson as the founding editor-in-chief. When Robertson died in 1933, he was replaced by Charles Jasper Sisson. Sources [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: ''Adam Bede'' (1859), ''The Mill on the Floss'' (1860), ''Silas Marner'' (1861), ''Romola'' (1862–1863), ''Felix Holt, the Radical'' (1866), ''Middlemarch'' (1871–1872) and ''Daniel Deronda'' (1876). Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their literary realism, realism, psychological fiction, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside. ''Middlemarch'' was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people"Woolf, Virginia. "George Eliot." ''The Common Reader''. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1925. pp. 166–176. and by Martin Amis an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam Bede
''Adam Bede'' was the first novel by English author George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans, first published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time. The novel has remained in print ever since and is regularly used in university studies of 19th-century English literature. Eliot described the novel as "a country story full of the breath of cows and scent of hay". Plot summary According to '' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (1967), : "the plot is founded on a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a Methodist preacher, and the original of Dinah Morris of the novel, of a confession of child-murder, made to her by a girl in prison." The novel follows the lives of four characters in the fictional community of Hayslope—a rural, pastoral, and close-knit community—in 1799. The novel revolves around a love "rectangle" among the beautiful but self-absorbed Hetty Sorre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1863 British Novels
Events January * January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate States of America an official war goal. The signing proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's four million slaves and immediately frees 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as the Union Army advances. This event marks the start of America's Reconstruction Era. * January 2 – Master Lucius Tar Paint Company (''Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius''), predecessor of Hoechst, as a worldwide chemical manufacturing brand, founded in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. * January 4 – Founding date of the New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, in a schism with the Catholic Apostolic Church in Hamburg, Germany. * January 7 – In the Swiss canton of Ticino, the village of Bedretto is partly destroyed and 29 killed by an avalanche. * January 8 ** ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
