The Moorland Cottage
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Reviews
St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 31st July 2023.
The Moorland Cottage. Elizabeth Gaskell.
The group generally ‘quite enjoyed’ this book, finding it typically Victorian, very moralistic with a somewhat contrived ending, and readable as a novella rather than a full-length novel.
The chief ‘standout point’, one reader commented, was Maggie’s independence and determination when confronted with the Squire’s offer to rescue her brother Edward if in return she will renounce the Squire’s son Frank, her fiancé; and when she sets off for America with Edward. Such decision-making by a young woman, in opposition to the menfolks’ requests and suggestions, were presumably rare in that period.
Mrs Browne’s favouring of her son over her daughter is horribly convincing, we thought, the character of Mrs Browne being more than usually awful in such novels, even when contrasted with the ‘perfect’ character of the saintly Mrs Buxton, deceased. We discussed how favouritism within families occurs, and whether boys are favoured above girls, first children above subsequent ones, or whether it is impossible to generalise about the matter. We wondered what might be the opinion of a present-day person in their twenties about this, and how much things have changed since The Moorland Cottage was published in 1850.
The last paragraph of the book, about the late Mrs Buxton, emphasises the Christian message the book is putting to its readers, which is maybe the real point of the book, we supposed.
We talked a little about the author’s life, and how her later books, particularly North and South, and Cranford, are probably better demonstrations of her style and skill as an author.
