Now ready, Third Edition, 3 vols., post 8vo.
SYLVIA'S LOVERS.
BY
MRS. GASKELL,
AUTHOR OF
A DARK night's WORK," "THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE,"
"MARY BARTON," "RUTH," "NORTH AND SOUTH," ETC.
LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
By the same Author,
THE
LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË,
Author of "Jane Eyre," "Shirley," "Villette," &c. With
Portrait. Post 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. cloth.
Also a Cheap Edition. Fcap. 8vo. Price 2s. 6d. cloth.
∵ A few copies of the Library Edition, in Two Volumes,
Post 8vo, price 24s. cloth, may still be had.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
(Times.)
"It is rarely that we find a portrait of literary character with such a remarkable setting, and as rare to find an author whose works are so popular, so vivid, and distinctive, and whose personal history was so utterly unknown. A sister authoress, gifted herself with superior powers, has described, with true woman's sympathy and eagerness, the whole course of the life which is now closed for ever. We regard the record as a monument of courage and endurance, of suffering and triumph.... All the secrets of the literarv^ workmanship of the authoress of 'Jane Eyre' are unfolded in the course of this extraordinary narrative."
(Fraser's Magazine.)
"Mrs. Gaskell has done her work well. Her narrative is simple, direct, and unaffected. She dwells on her friend's character with womanly tact, thorough understanding, and delicate, sisterly tenderness. The extracts from the letters are excellently selected, and they are remarkable letters. Many parts of the book cannot be read without deep, even painful emotion. It is a life always womanly; and we are thankful that such a life should have been written by the author of 'Ruth.' No one else could have paid so tender and discerning a tribute to the memory of Charlotte Bronte."
(Athenæum.)
"The story of a woman's life, unfolded in this book, is calculated to make the old feel young, and the young old... By all this book will be read with interest Mrs. Gaskell has produced one of the best biographies of a woman by a woman which we can recall to mind."
(Daily News.)
"Thoroughly well and artistically has the work been accomplished; an informing method presides over the whole; there is no feebleness or redunancy; every circumstance has a direct bearing on the main object of painting, vigorously and accurately, a real picture of the woman as she was."
(Spectator.)
"The profound pathos, the tragic interest, of this book lies in the terrible struggle that life was to a woman endowed with Charlotte Bronte's conscientiousness, affection for her family, and literary ambition, and continually curbed and thrown back by physical wretchedness. Its moral is, the unconquerable strength of genius and goodness."
(Globe.)
"Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte' has placed her on a level with the best biographers of any country. It is a truthful and beautiful work. ... No one can read it without feeling strengthened and purified."
(Saturday Review.)
"If any one wishes to see how a woman possessed of the highest intellectual power can disregard every temptation which intellect throws in the way of women, how generously and nobly a human being can live under the pressure of accumulated misfortunes—the record is at hand in the 'Life of Charlotte Bronte.'"
(Economist.)
"We have before us the life of a truly great and noble woman, written by one who has sufficient moral sympathy to understand her character, and sufficient intellectual insight to appreciate her genius. Such a work cannot fail to be of the deepest interest; and it has a special interest for female readers."
(Literary Gazette.)
"These volumes supply ample information respecting the author of 'Jane Eyre.' The life itself possesses a tearful interest, that deepens as it advances towards its close. It is singularly touching, and sinks into the heart of the reader."
(Examiner.)
"We can be sincere in our praise of this book, and must not part from it without saying how often we have been touched by the tone of loving sympathy in which it is written, and how keenly, in the chapters dwelling upon events distant enough to be as much studied as felt, we have enjoyed the acute perception of those points which are most characteristic of a life—the well-timed production from a store of materials of that anecdote or fragment which tells what needs most to be told with the most perfect clearness and in fewest words."
(British Quarterly Review.)
"The story of this remarkable woman, told with such deep and simple pathos by her gifted and affectionate biographer, is as interesting as the tale of a second 'Jane Eyre.' The memoir has almost the charm of an autobiography; for in the half-unconscious revelations of the letters written to her friends, we may trace the formation of her peculiar intellectual power."
(National Review.)
"We echo the universal opinion as to the skill with which a difficult work has been executed, and an absorbing interest given to the narrative Whatever can be derived from sequence of events, external description, and such indications of personal character as letters afford, is furnished in the fullest abundance. The biographer's command of language, and her talent of description at once powerful and delicate, enable her to depict with wondrous vividness the scenes in which this painful and secluded drama of life was presented, and the conditions under which it was played out to its melancholy close."
LONDON; SMITH, ELDER & CO., 65, CORNHILL.