Sylvia's Lovers (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

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 Phlip 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.

**Spoiler Alert for Next Five Paragraphs**

I used to agree fully with 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, and I felt that this was a great weakness in the book until I had a fascinating discussion with the lovely reviewer balleto8, who pointed out some things that changed my perception of what Gaskell was aiming at.

A great many literary critics and general readers accept Charley Kinraid fairly uncritically,assuming that he is meant to be wholly admirable, that the romance between Kinraid and Sylvia is intended by Gaskell to be deep and true and seem to have no objection to the superficial depiction of the character.

Ballet08, however, argues that Sylvia is meant to be a foolish young thing who is so infatuated by Kinraid and his reputation that she has no sense regarding him;that Gaskell in fact was questioning the typical concept of a hero in her creation of the opposing characters the flashy, macho Charley Kinraid and Philip Hepburn, who is despised by many for his 'unmasculine' occupation in working in a drapers shop and his opposition to violence; that in contrasting the characters of Kinraid and Hepburn Gaskell was trying to create a new type of hero.

This interpretation makes Gaskell's shallow potrayal of Kinraid not a fault in characterisation, as I had assumed, but a deliberate technique so that Sylvia's feelings for him remain not a real love of the man, but infatuation with the hero that she thinks that he is.

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.

**End of Spoilers**

There is a great deal of fascinating detail in this well-researched novel.

The lapse into melodrama in the last part of the novel has often been condemned, but I did find the end, with its emphasis on reconciliation and forgiveness,touching.

My OH wanted me to read this to find out what I thought of the characters.
Me: (suspicious) 'It's Elizabeth Gaskell. Is it a love story?'
Her: 'Only partly...You'll be interested in the historical background.'
Me: 'Well, OK, but you'll have to read some Virgil.'

The background is very interesting, as this is set in Whitby during the French Revolution when it was a whaling port.

Spoiler Alert!

The plot is that pretty, empty headed Sylvia Robson lives in a farm with her father, an ex whaler turned farmer Daniel Robson, a bit of a fool, and her mother, who isn't.

She's worshipped by her cousin Philip Hepburn, whom she doesn't think much of a man at all; he's nerdy and needs to go and work out in a gym, only they haven't been invented yet. He works in a haberdashers instead and has bourgoise values.

Along comes handsome Charley Kinraid, cousin of her neighbours the Corneys. He's much more her type. He's a Specksioneer [Chief Harpooner] and when a press gang try and seize the crew of his returning whaler, he has a shoot out with them during which his best mate Darley is killed and he kills two of them but escapes trial because he's left for dead himself.

He goes to Darley's funeral looking like a dead body himself but Sylvia's so impressed with his heroics she gets a crush on him anyway. He makes friends with Sylvia's father and takes to coming round. He and she fall for each other and later they get engaged.

Philip Hepburn is jealous and warns Sylvia about Kinraid's reputation as a womaniser: Kinraid's even supposed to have caused the 'death by broken heart' of Coulson's in the haberdasher's sister when he went out with her for two years and then threw her over for another girl. Does Sylvia believe these stories about her hero? Answers on a postcard...

Then Kinraid is seized by a press gang on his way back to his whaler; it so happens the only witness is Philip Hepburn. Kinraid asks Hepburn to pass on to Sylvia the message that he'll come back and marry her.

Hepburn puts it off and in the end doesn't say anything about seeing Kinraid being taken by the gang after he hears even more talk about Kinraid and women. It seems Bessy Corney thought that she was engaged to Kinraid too.

Sylvia mourns Kinraid. Her father's hanged for starting an anti-press gang riot and her mother goes mad. They're in danger of losing the farm. Their old farm hand Kester promises to help Sylvia run the farm.

That's what she ought to do, as she hates living in town and she'd be free when Kinraid comes back.

Surely a girl like Sylvia, who every man between sixteena and seventy is meant to fancy, and living near a busy port, even if she doesn't go into town much, would know a lot more than one dashing sailor boy. It'd be more realistic that she'd know a lot of 'em but I suppose for the purposes of the plot Kinraid can't have any acceptable rivals.

Anyway, Sylvia gives in and marries Philip Hepburn instead of carrying out Kester's plan. She goes on mourning for Kinraid, usually in secret, going down for walks by the shore, but sometimes Hepburn catches her at it. They're not too happy. Sylvia has baby Bella.

Sylvia goes on and on mourning for Kinraid and I got fed up with it, though not as fed up as Philip Hepburn.

Kinraid comes back, a war hero promoted to Lieutenant for his adventures with Sidney Smith. It's obvious to me that even if Sylvia had been free, then that in itself would mean they couldn't be happy together, because as a nval officer he has to rely on the press gangs to supply men and Sylvia still hates them for being the reason for her father's hanging, but as there's no chance of them geting married now, no mention is made of that difficulty.

When he discovers the trick Hepburn's played on him and Sylvia, Kinraid wants to give him a hiding but Sylvia throws herself between them. She says she'll never forgive Hepburn for coming between her and Kinraid in turn.

She's very impressed with the way that Kinraid's come back to her after three years and some readers may be. Not me, because from the dates that Sidney Smith and his followers were imprisoned in France you can tell that Kinraid was either an impressed man and later a warrent officer away on a war ship, or in prison in Franc, so he didn't have much chance to met anyone he'd be want to marry but Sylvia.

Kinraid wants Sylvia to run off with him but she won't because of the baby; so he goes off. So does Hepburn, who enlists in the marines, hoping to be a hero too.

He just happens to come on Charley Kinraid at the Seige of Acre and saves his life but then is unecognisably disfigured in an explosion and makes his way back to Whitby where he lives in poverty, unrecognisable.

Meanwhile, Sylvia hears from the Corneys that Kinraid married an heiress only a few months after seeing her. She's annoyed he could forget her easily after all his talk, when she's been pining for him for so long.

Kinraod's wife turns up looking for Hepburn to thank him for saving Kinraid's life at the Siege of Acre. She says Kinraid talked about his 'friendship' with Sylvia with her, but he can't have told her the whole story. Sylvia doesn't think much of this and she's impressed with Hepburn's bravery. She starts softening towards him.

Then the story gets really melodramatic.Hepburn saves baby Bella when she falls into the sea but is fatally injured.As he lies dying, Kester, who just happened to see it all brings Sylvia to him.

Sylvia forgives Hepburn for his trick, saying he was right about Kinraid being 'fickle and false' and he was only acting as he thought best etc etc.

After he dies she only lives a few miserable years. This time its Hepburn she's mourning.

My OH thinks that Hepburn gets more or less what he deserves, Sylvia gets worse than she deserves and Kinraid always comes up smelling of roses (for all he once worked on a whaler cutting up blubber).

He's indestructable really. Despite being shot in the side and in the leg, when the reader sees him last he doesn't even have a limp, as he would with eighteenth century bone setting, and his silly heiress wife worships him. All the women do and men all think he's a great guy too.

As a naval captain,he can't object to press gangs any more as he needs them to supply him with men. He never gets tried for his killings of the two press gang members years before whereas old Daniel Robson gets hanged for much less.

I think OH is right about the fates of these three; I don't know if Gaskell was trying to make the point that life is unfair.

I didn't care much about these characters, as I didn't find them real enough. I htink another reviewer says somewhere that 'Kinraid doesn't have any human weaknesses and Hepburn is a walking mass of weaknesses' and that about sums it up. Hepburn is boring and dismal, Kinraid doesn't seem to have any mental life at all (that makes sense, or he wouldnt want to marry such silly women as Sylvia and his wife} and Hepburn seems to be some sort of depressive who needs to get out a bit more. Sylvia is a fool.

Probably, as a guy I just can't get properly into reading love stories; in the end I found the set up with Hepburn obsessed with Sylvia and Sylvia obsessed with Kinraid boring.

I thought the historical background was interesting, as OH said, and Gaskell's done her research well; the book would be worth reading just for that. Some of the descriptions of people and places are brilliant, too.

OH wanted to know who I had most sympathy with; my answer, firstly, the whales; secondly, Mrs Robson, and third, Daniel Robson.

this is a true classic in every sense....beautiful characters, tragedy and joy, elation and despair...it is emotional rollercoaster in book and i highly recommend it. Don't let the size put you off, it is brilliant throughout