Lois the Witch: and Other Stories (Pocket Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Gaskell, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141038802 ISBN 13: 9780141038803

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2008

Synopsis

Fear of Satan becomes murder in the name of God.

Newly orphaned, the God-fearing and heart-broken Lois is sent across the Atlantic to live with her uncle’s family in Salem, but on her arrival she finds herself the object of cruel hostility, potent jealousy and mad desire.

When the local Pastor’s daughters are contorted and convulsed by apparently satanic powers, the whole town is whipped into a hysterical witch hunt. And when Lois’s cousins start to resent her presence in their household, life becomes precarious and an old woman’s curse returns to haunt her.

About this title

Review:

'The book, though little, has power. It was written with a skilled hand adept at portraying what beats beneath our fears, beneath our dreams and wants. It also talks of human suffering, pain, love and death. Though short, 'Lois the Witch' is a beautiful Victorian novel, worth savouring for a few more hundred years.' --Linear Reflections

'Elizabeth Gaskell has produced a well-researched tale highlighting the religious bigotry and malicious superstition, which surrounded the Salem Witch Trials. A reading group wishing to indulge in a little known historical classic would find plenty to discuss in this story written one hundred and fifty years ago.' --The Directory

From the Publisher:

Only single-volume edition available

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0141038802
• ISBN 13: 9780141038803
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 256