{"id":93533,"date":"2016-01-15T15:26:37","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T20:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=93533"},"modified":"2016-01-15T15:49:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T20:49:34","slug":"spirited-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/15\/spirited-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirited Ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Elizabeth \u201cMrs.\u201d Gaskell.<\/p><\/div>\n

The other evening, my friend Patrick was telling me about his recent visit to Plymouth Grove, the Manchester home of the Victorian writer Mrs. Gaskell. The house was restored and reopened to the public in 2011; it contains many of the author\u2019s personal effects, as well as period interiors. It\u2019s now, he says, evocative and interesting and, appropriately, haunted.\u00a0Or so the docents say.<\/p>\n

In addition to her novels\u2014socially conscious books like\u00a0Ruth<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0North and South<\/em>, or the beloved\u00a0Cranford<\/em>\u2014Mrs. Gaskell wrote ghost stories. And she liked to tell them, too: an article written later in\u00a0Putnam\u2019s Monthly<\/em>\u00a0describes tales of \u201cScotch ghosts, historical ghosts, spirited ghosts with faded uniforms and nice old powdered queues.\u201d Her\u00a0Gothic Tales\u00a0<\/em>is a must for any aficionado of intricate Victorian ghost stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which brings me to my recommendation:\u00a0The Poor Clare<\/a><\/em>, released in Melville House\u2019s Art of the Novella series. I\u2019ll confess I was drawn at least as much to the book\u2019s stark design and compact size as to its author; it\u2019s the perfect trim and weight for slipping into a coat pocket,\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0it has flaps to mark your place. If such considerations seem shallow, you haven\u2019t toted many books. Here\u2019s how the publisher describes it:<\/p>\n

\n

The purposeful slaying of lonely Bridget\u2019s beloved dog unleashes a torrent of rage that surges down through the generations. In her desire for revenge, Bridget utters a fearsome curse upon the dog\u2019s killer: All that the murderer loves most, he will lose.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s short, of course\u2014I dispatched it within two days of subway commutes, plus one solo dinner at a restaurant\u2019s bar\u2014but, despite a rather abrupt and slightly unsatisfying ending, it\u2019s the kind of page-turner that only something written for serialization can be. There\u2019s maximum drama and twists packed into the narrative, and it\u2019s pleasantly creepy in a cozy, midwinter way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This being Mrs. Gaskell, the book is not without its topical aspects: in this case, England\u2019s underlying anti-Catholic prejudice. Although she sets the book some hundred years earlier, in her day this would still have been an active issue. Now, it should be said that she does render one of the primary Catholic characters a witch\u2014a literal witch\u2014but she\u2019s treated as quite sympathetic. Really, Bridget has no\u00a0choice\u00a0but to place a curse on the villain\u2019s head. Or at any rate, generations of prejudice and suspicion have warped her beyond reason.<\/p>\n

Whether you believe in ghosts or just compact books, do give it a try.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other evening, my friend Patrick was telling me about his recent visit to Plymouth Grove, the Manchester home of the Victorian writer Mrs. Gaskell. The house was restored and reopened to the public in 2011; it contains many of the author\u2019s personal effects, as well as period interiors. It\u2019s now, he says, evocative and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[16747,6215,20476,4383,20800,20801,20802,20803],"class_list":["post-93533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-anti-catholicism","tag-catholicism","tag-elizabeth-gaskell","tag-ghost-stories","tag-mrs-gaskell","tag-novellas","tag-plymouth-grove","tag-the-poor-clare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn Elizabeth Gaskell\u2019s \u201cThe Poor Clare\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 15, 2016 \u2013 The other evening, my friend Patrick was telling me about his recent visit to Plymouth Grove, the Manchester home of the Victorian writer Mrs. Gaskell.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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