"Sylvia's Lovers" begins in the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven. Sylvia Robson lives with her parents on a farm, and is loved by her rather dull Quaker cousin Philip. She, however, meets and falls in love with Charlie Kinraid, a sailor on a whaling vessel, and they become engaged, although few people know of the engagement. When Kinraid goes back to his ship, he is press-ganged--forcibly enlisted in the Royal Navy, a scene witnessed by Philip. Philip does not tell Sylvia of the incident and, believing her lover is dead, Sylvia eventually marries her cousin.
And so begins "Sylvia's Lovers", the novel Elizabeth Gaskell claimed was the saddest novel she had ever written. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson (29 September 1810 to 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.
