11 h 9 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 9 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
An organ plays in the night, a family curse takes hold, and the living may be more dangerous than ghosts.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Curious, If True: Strange Tales brings fear into homes where secrets refuse to stay buried. In The Old Nurse’s Story, Hester recalls taking the orphan Rosamond to Furnivall Manor on the Northumberland fells. In Lois the Witch, gentle Lois Barclay seeks a home in Salem and meets suspicion instead.
The Poor Clare follows the curse of Bridget Fitzgerald, a wronged Irish woman. The Grey Woman sends Anna fleeing danger in her marriage across Germany and France. The title tale, Curious, If True, offers a lighter, dreamlike world of fairy tale figures. Across the collection, Gaskell explores guilt, pride, and the harm people do to one another.
What you’ll discover
- A cold, secretive house Follow Hester as she tries to protect Rosamond in a manor that guards its secrets.
- Suspicion takes hold Meet Lois Barclay, whose search for a home brings her into Salem’s witch panic.
- A wrong that lingers Discover how Bridget Fitzgerald’s curse hangs over a Lancashire household like an unburied memory.
- A wife in flight Follow Anna and her loyal servant as they escape the danger within her marriage.
- Fear with a human heart Look beyond the ghosts to the guilt, pride, and cruelty that give these tales their force.
Who will love it
For readers who love ghost stories told in a steady, humane voice, haunted manors, witchcraft and family curses, and anyone who knows Gaskell's social novels and wants to explore her darker side.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A child and a haunted manor
- Salem turns on an English girl
- A curse that follows a family
- A young wife flees through Europe
- What the tales are really about
- How Gaskell tells a ghost story
Who’s who
- HesterThe old nurse who tells her story, devoted to the orphan Rosamond and determined to protect her in a strange, cold house.
- RosamondA small, bright orphan who talks of a child she meets outside the manor and is not afraid of the old house.
- DorothyA long serving servant at the manor who guards the household's secrets and gives Hester few plain answers.
- Lois BarclayA gentle young Englishwoman who crosses to Salem to find a home and meets suspicion in her relatives' house.
- Grace HicksonLois's stern, devout aunt in Salem, who rules her household by strict belief and does not welcome a poor niece.
- Bridget FitzgeraldAn Irish woman who has been wronged and whose curse hangs over a Lancashire household in The Poor Clare.
- AnnaThe young German wife in The Grey Woman who discovers danger in her marriage and escapes with a loyal servant.
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- Audiobook
- 11 h 9 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Curieux, si l’on en croit la vérité : récits étranges
An organ plays in a haunted manor at night, where an old nurse tries to protect an orphan from the house's secrets.
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In short
Curious, If True gathers the strange and supernatural tales of Elizabeth Gaskell, the Victorian novelist best known for Cranford, North and South and Mary Barton. She wrote them for magazines in the middle of the nineteenth century, often for the Christmas numbers and for periodicals edited by Charles Dickens.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A child and a haunted manor
The Old Nurse's Story is told by Hester, who is now an old woman speaking to the children in her care. She remembers how, as a young nurse, she took the orphaned little Rosamond to Furnivall Manor, a huge house on the Northumberland fells. Two very old ladies live there in a corner of the house and speak little. Most of the building is shut up and left to silence.
From the first winter, odd things happen. Hester hears a organ playing at night, though the old instrument in the hall is broken and nobody will explain the sound. The servants are tight lipped. Dorothy, an old servant, gives her answers that are no answers at all, and Hester feels she is being kept out of a family secret.
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What is Curious, If True about?
It is a collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's supernatural and strange tales, including haunted houses, witchcraft, a family curse and a story of flight. Most use ghosts or fear to explore guilt, pride and cruelty.
Which stories are in Curious, If True?
Editions differ, but they typically include The Old Nurse's Story, Lois the Witch, The Poor Clare, The Grey Woman and the title tale, Curious, If True, which is a lighter, dreamlike piece.
Is Lois the Witch based on a true story?
Lois herself is a fictional character. The story is set in Salem in the early 1690s, during the real witchcraft trials, and Gaskell draws on that history to show how fear and suspicion spread.
The author
Elizabeth Gaskell
1810–1865 · English novelist
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was an English novelist of the Victorian era, admired for her keen social observation in works such as Cranford and North and South, and for her landmark biography of Charlotte Brontë.
More by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
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