One of the masterfully
written Gothic tales by Gaskell. She has beautifully captured the
essence of mystery and suspense, horror and fear in her story. A new
anxiety is added with the turn of each page. A complete generation is
bounded for destruction and disaster.
I read this short story for the 21 books for 21 challenge of The afternoon tea and scones with the lovely ladies (Goodreads group).
This tale tells the story of a curse issued by Owain Glyndŵr (Welsh) on the family of the Griffiths. His best friend, a Griffith, betrayed him to (gasp of horror) the British ! Owen Glendower is best known through Shakespeare's Henry IV, Elizabeth Gaskell brings to life the story of his final descendants and how you can never escape your destiny. It's chilling, it's doom, it's Oedipian and you can't escape ! Read it as a Gothic tale, perfect for the end of the year or telling tales around the fire place.
Not sure why, but this author scares me. Maybe this would be a good way to approach her
ReplyDeleteIf you've never read anything by her, I highly recommend you start with Cranford and I dare you to not smile when she mentions the Amazons at the very beginning ;)
DeleteI had no idea she wrote gothic. Very cool. I must get through her books faster so I can come across this one. :)
ReplyDeleteApparently, she wrote many short tales and there's a Penguin edition of her gothic tales if you're interested ^^
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