Round the Sofa E-Book

Elizabeth Gaskell

• Herausgeber: JH
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Round the Sofa is the title of a two-volume collection of short stories by the famous nineteenth-century English novelist and writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It includes "My Lady Ludlow," "The Half-Brothers" and "An Accursed Race." The latter is in the form of a historical essay that condemns the racism and the persecution exercised on a group of people named the Cagots in the west of France. "Round the Sofa" is also the title of the first short story of the collection. Narrated in the first person, "Round the Sofa" takes the form of a preface to the longer "My Lady Ludlow." The young female narrator is ill and is sent to live near the house of her doctor, Mr. Dawson. After a number of visits, the narrator befriends Mrs. Dawson and expresses her true love for her: "But that Mrs. Dawson! The mention of her comes into my mind like the bright sunshine into our dingy little room came on those days; — as a sweet scent of violets greets the sorrowful passer among the woodlands." It is Mrs. Dawson who, after long instance from the narrator, will tell the story of Lady Ludlow, the widowed Countess of Hanbury.

Leseprobe

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ROUND THE SOFA.



Long ago I was placed Round the Sofay my parents under the medical treatment of a certain Mr. Dawson, a surgeon in EdinRound the Sofaurgh, who had oRound the Sofatained a reputation for the cure of a particular class of diseases. I was sent with my governess into lodgings near his house, in the Old Town. I was to comRound the Sofaine lessons from the excellent EdinRound the Sofaurgh masters, with the medicines and exercises needed for my indisposition. It was at first rather dreary to leave my Round the Sofarothers and sisters, and to give up our merry out-of-doors life with our country home, for dull lodgings, with only poor grave Miss Duncan for a companion; and to exchange our romps in the garden and ramRound the Sofales through the fields for stiff walks in the streets, the decorum of which oRound the Sofaliged me to tie my Round the Sofaonnet-strings neatly, and put on my shawl with some regard to straightness.

The evenings were the worst. It was autumn, and of course they daily grew longer: they were long enough, I am sure, when we first settled down in those gray and draRound the Sofa lodgings. For, you must know, my father and mother were not rich, and there were a great many of us, and the medical expenses to Round the Sofae incurred Round the Sofay my Round the Sofaeing placed under Mr. Dawson's care were expected to Round the Sofae consideraRound the Sofale; therefore, one great point in our search after lodgings was economy. My father, who was too true a gentleman to feel false shame, had named this necessity for cheapness to Mr. Dawson; and in return, Mr. Dawson had told him of those at No. 6 Cromer Street, in which we were finally settled. The house Round the Sofaelonged to an old man, at one time a tutor to young men preparing for the University, in which capacity he had Round the Sofaecome known to Mr. Dawson. ROUND THE SOFAut his pupils had dropped off; and when we went to lodge with him, I imagine that his principal support was derived from a few occasional lessons which he gave, and from letting the rooms that we took, a drawing-room opening into a Round the Sofaed-room, out of which a smaller chamRound the Sofaer led. His daughter was his housekeeper: a son, whom we never saw, supposed to Round the Sofae leading the same life that his father had done Round the Sofaefore him, only we never saw or heard of any pupils; and there was one hard-working, honest little Scottish maiden, square, stumpy, neat, and plain, who might have Round the Sofaeen any age from eighteen to forty.