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Sylvia's Lovers - Complete, by Elizabeth Gaskell
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Elizabeth Gaskell was a British author during the Victorian era, and her novels are notable for detailed descriptions of the different classes of society in 19th century Britain.
- Published on: 2016-01-30
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .77" w x 6.00" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 338 pages
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Life in a Yorkshire Whaling Town During the Napoleonic Wars
By Thomas Cotterill
From a masculine standpoint, *Sylvia's Lovers* is not a promising title for a novel. It sounds like a Harlequin romance when, in fact, it is a marvellous evocation of life in a rugged Yorkshire whaling town in the late 1700s. The English are at war with the French (again) and the vividly depicted harbour town bustles with whaling activity while the King's press gangs roam the narrow streets looking for able-bodied sailors they can strong-arm into a navy desperate for new recruits. As they make their daily rounds, the locals must walk furtively, resentfully watchful for the hated gangs. Emotions run high. There are outbreaks of violence.
The lovers of the novel's title are Philip Hepburn, an intelligent stooping local shop clerk, and Charlie Kinraid, a fine figure of a man who is a daring harpooner on a whaling ship. Sylvia is a pretty farm girl with an aversion to all book learning that does not involve the "Greenland seas" where the romantic Kinraid plies his perilous icy trade. The classic love triangle sets up when Philip loves Sylvia but *she* falls hard for Charlie Kinraid after he is wounded while bravely defending his shipmates from a press gang. (The name Kinraid is suggestive. Philip is a cousin of Sylvia's and Kinraid is trespassing on a relationship blessed by Sylvia's parents.) On the side, we have quiet self-effacing Hester Rose, who loves Philip with the constancy and devotion that men dream of but seldom find.
When it comes to competing for Sylvia's affections, bookish sombre Philip does not stand a dog's chance against the manly Charlie Kinraid. And here is where the author sets out her theme. Every major character in the book, barring quick-witted Charlie, is relentlessly obtuse and self-defeating. Philip could have Hester's abiding love, but barely notices the faithful young woman. Charlie is a known womanizer, but Sylvia will hear nothing said against him. Sylvia is a deliberate dunce, too tightly bound to her parents, and treats Philip with callous disregard, but the learned and sensitive Philip overlooks all. Instead of turning away, he masochistically continues to woo silly Sylvia in spite of her cruel slights and rebuffs. Hester refuses to declare her ardent love for Philip. Sylvia's father foolishly leads a mob against an active press gang going about the King's business. Sylvia's mother cannot cope with her grief. When faced with disgrace, Philip runs off like a child who has wet himself rather than deal with the situation like a man. Naturally, his craven act wins him nothing but catastrophe.
Gaskell is revealing just how weak, foolish, and self-defeating most people are. We turn away from what we could have, to chase things that can never be. We delude ourselves, ignore reality, and engage in the worst kinds of wishful thinking. We run away when we should make a stand. We make trouble when we should make peace. We hurt one another when, with just a little more intelligence, we could improve one another's lives immensely. Gaskell's theme is humanity's most egregious and enduring flaw.
Charlie Kinraid is Gaskell's foil. Charlie is always effective. He is a first rate harpooner who always hits his mark. Even when captured by the press gangs he manages to pass a message for Sylvia to Philip (although Philip then betrays him). Once pressed into the navy, the capable and courageous Charlie buckles down and quickly rises to the rank of Captain. When he learns that Sylvia has married treacherous Philip in his forced absence, he simply finds himself another suitable woman (there are plenty of fish in the sea) and happily marries. Romantics, of course, will say that Charlie never really loved Sylvia, but a womanizer only comes back for his lady after such a long time if he truly cares for her. Naturally, this obvious fact is lost on muddle-headed Sylvia.
Things end badly for all the obtuse self-defeaters while Charlie Kinraid, as is only fair and reasonable, comes through with flying colours. Gaskell points the way to happier lives. Have courage. Recognize, and responsibly look after, your real interests. Use your head.
*Sylvia's Lovers* is a rich and rewarding historical novel that does not romanticize foolish behaviour.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
I wanted to read it!
By Maeve Stormchild
I love this author. I've read at least 4 of her books. however, in this book, she tries so painfully hard to immerse the reader in the place and time that she renders the dialogue unreadable. It is so difficult to read that you might as well be trying to read a coded message! I did try to get through it, but in the end it was too much work to do.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Philip worships Sylvia, Sylvia worships Kinraid, and Kinraid worships himself...
By Mary Ann
Set in Whitby when it was a whaling town (many days before conservation!) during the Napoleonic wars, this is the story of the struggle between the two admirers of Sylvia Robson, daughter of smuggler-turned-farmer Daniel. She is loved by the serious minded Philip Hepburn and the dashing, lively 'Speksioneer' chief harpooner Charley Kinraid.
Philip has adored Sylvia for years, much to her disgust. When Sylvia hears the story of Charley Kinraid's being shot trying to defend his shipmates from a raid by one of the hated press gangs, he becomes a hero to her. They soon start to fall in love. Unlike Philip, he is depicted as being handsome and charming.
When Charley is forcibly impressed himself, he demands that Phllip deliver a message to Sylvia that he will be true. Philip, knowing Charley's reputation as a womaniser, decides not to pass on what he believes to be a worthless message. Soon, tragic circumstances force Sylvia to marry Philip.
But then Charley Kinraid returns...
The writing is lively, the descriptions vivid, and it is a compelling read overall, despite the notorious lapse into melodrama and improbable co-incidence in the third of the book.
**Spoiler Alert in the following analysis**
I was intrigued by the view of the critic T J Winnifrith that: 'Kinraid is eventually shown to be a shallow character, but the depiction of him is always so superficial that it is difficult to understand the depths of Sylvia's love for him'. I did find him very much a cardboard hero, devoid of the little human weaknesses that make a character endearing.
Besides, the evidence of his former heartless treatment of trusting young girls (Annie Coulson, Bessy Corney) Kinraid is also a prize opportunist. This unscrupulousness is illustrated by his meteoric naval career. He starts off by defending his fellow whalers against the press gang by shooting dead press gang members. Then, after he is press ganged into the navy, Kinraid is happy to accept promotion to the rank of captain. As has been demonstrated in research for the 'Hornblower' series, during the French Revolutionary Wars a naval captain must inevitably use press gangs to have enough crew to leave port. Kinraid unhesitatingly makes this moral compromise
Again, although it is true that Kinraid returns to Sylvia after three years, this is hardly evidence of a great devotion, given that as an impressed sailor and later in his years in a French prison, he would have no opportunity to find anyone else. Arriving back in England he does hurry to her, but on finding her unwilling to live with him outside marriage - he makes a vague promise that his admiral can somehow obtain a divorce for her - he leaves in a huff.
After this, he is clearly meant to discover that with his new status he can make a more advantageous marriage. In six months he is married to an heiress who has none of the qualities of fiery independence that he so admired in Sylvia herself, whom he swore to marry 'or none else'. No wonder the poor girl is disillusioned when she hears how quickly he has found comfort elsewhere.
This made me question whether Kinraid can be intended to be a truly admirable character, a 'hero' at all. Certainly, a minority of literary critics (Andrew Sanders, for instance) and general readers accept him uncritically as such. However, being familiar myself with Gaskell's highly moral stance. I was intrigued enough about this to read the available literary criticism on the topic. The majority of critics seem to consider that Kinraid is in fact meant to demonstrate that unscrupulousness, egotism, opportunism and emotional shallowness are frequent qualities in a dashing military hero of Kinraid's type, as for instance, argued by Graham Handley, Jane Spencer, Winifred Gerrin and others. Thus,I can see that if Kinraid is depicted as a Cardboard Hero without any endearing human weaknesses (having hollow legs for drink and womanising hardly count), so that you would never catch him being seasick like Horatio Hornblower or falling flat on his face during that hornpipe he does at the New Year's Eve Fete after drinking all night - then this is so that this whole concept of the Macho Hero can be called into question.
Hepburn would appear to be intended to be the (fatally flawed) hero of the novel who finally redeems himself from his former treachery by his selfless rescue of Kinraid at Acre and of his daughter from drowning. Still, given his self pity, his betrayal of Sylvia's trust and his unprepossessing characteristics, he is one it is hard to find sympathetic.
At the climatic scene of the novel when Sylvia and Hepburn are reconciled, he admits that his sin has been to make an idol of Sylvia, which has lead to his duplicity. As Sylvia had similarly made an idol out of Kinraid, the moral would appear to be - in line with Gaskell's Christian beliefs - how wrong it is to worship a faulty human being rather than the divine.
In this scene, when Hepburn begs for Sylvia's forgiveness for his lie, she berates herself for rejecting him in favour of the 'fickle and false' Kinraid. She blames herself bitterly and for her inability to forgive. She never recovers from her grief, dying before Bella is 'properly grown up'.
I felt myself that Sylvia had been betrayed by both men in their different ways, the one by his obsessive constancy, the other by his lack of it. But I felt too, that the problem was really one of the lack of opportunities open to her as a young girl in that era. On first meeting Kinraid, as Patsy Stoneman notes, Sylvia dreams, not of him, but of the adventures at sea that he represents. If the lively Sylvia had been able to go to sea and have such adventures herself instead of having to stay at home as a dutiful daughter carrying out domestic tasks, she would never have been so obsessed by Kinraid and his aura of excitement, or be obliged to marry Hepburn.
I go into this in more detail in my article on the book in the fword ezine - but it is against the rules to give a link here.
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Summing up the story in a sentence: Hepburn worships Sylvia, and finds dishonour; Sylvia worships Kinraid, and finds disillusionment; Kinraid worships himself, and finds a wife who agrees with him and a career in the Royal Navy.
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