'I believe the art of telling a story is born with some people, and these have it to perfection.' Elizabeth Gaskell was a consummate storyteller, and in this selection of one short novel and eight stories she encompasses an extraordinary range of narrative voices, settings, and genres. She herself acknowledged, 'you know I can tell stories better than any other way of expressing myself'. Her work shows her compulsion to express herself on the many subjects relevant to her experience as a Victorian, and Mancunian, a Unitarian, a social observer, and a woman. Above all, however, she writes about love. Love is the common thread which runs through the stories collected here. Gaskell recognizes that it can give rise to selfishness as well as self-sacrifice, unhappiness as well as joy. Writing with passion and shrewdness, irony and sympathy, she explores these paradoxes through humour, pathos, tragedy, the extraordinary, and the everyday. This selection of one short novel and eight stories shows Mrs. Gaskell working in different genres and with a wide range of material. As in her novels she explores different kinds of love, and her observations about human nature are as acute here as in her longer works. In addition to the title tale, this edition includes The Sexton's Hero, Christmas Storms and Sunshine, The Well of Pen-Morfa, The Heart of John Middleton, Morton Hall, My French Master, The Manchester Marriage, and Crowley Castle.