Sylvia's Lovers (Annotated)

Set in the Yorkshire whaling port of Monkshaven during the Napoleonic Wars, Sylvia's Lovers is Elizabeth Gaskell's sombre historical romance of love, coercion, and moral consequence. Its plot turns on Sylvia Robson, beloved by both the passionate harpooner Charley Kinraid and her inward, dutiful cousin Philip Hepburn, amid the brutal realities of press-gangs and wartime uncertainty. Gaskell combin...