Publication
Naxos Audiobooks (2010)
Original publication date
1863
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Genres
Description
Lauded by critics as one of the most nuanced accounts of adolescence and young adulthood to have been penned in the nineteenth century, Cousin Phillis also offers a glimpse into the lives of working-class English farmers and the deeply intertwined extended family relationships that were a fact of life during the era.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Fliss88
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
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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! Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
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.
LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
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.
LibraryThing member john257hopper
This novella has apparently been described by many critics as the author's crowning achievement in short fiction. I personally preferred Mr Harrison's Confession, though I can see why this more serious work is generally rated more highly. It is well written and presents a good portrayal of life on
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the Holman farm. But I found it curiously unemotionally engaging. It ended quite suddenly and I thought it felt almost more like a novel fragment than a novella. I discovered subsequently that further parts were planned but never written. Show Less
Language
Original language
English