'I see her now
- cousin Phillis. The westering sun shone full upon her & made a slanting stream of light into the room within.' Elizabeth Gaskell has long been one of the most popular of Victorian novelists yet in her lifetime her shorter fictions were equally well loved & they are among the most accomplished examples of the genre. The novella-length Cousin Phillis is a lyrical depiction of a vanishing way of life & a girl's disappointment in love: deceptively simple its undercurrent of feeling leaves an indelible impression. The other five stories in this selection were all written during the 1850s for Dickens's periodical Household Words. They range from a quietly original tale of urban poverty & a fallen woman in ' Lizzie Leigh' to an historical tale of a great family in ' Morton Hall'; echoes of the French Revolution the bleakness of winter in Westmorland & a tragic secret are brought vividly to life. Heather Glen reflects on the stories' original periodical publication & on the nineteenth-century development of the short story in her Introduction to these immensely readable & sophisticated tales. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.