Lizzie Leigh

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About this book

Lizzie Leigh is by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, and its first chapter says that James Leigh died just as the far-away bells of Rochdale Church were ringing for morning service on Christmas Day, 1836. A few minutes before his death, James Leigh makes a sign to his wife, who catches the whisper "I forgive her, Annie! May God forgive me!" Mrs. Leigh appears to find it an effort to tear herself away from a window.

Mrs. Leigh, who leans back languidly in her chair, answers almost eagerly "Read me the Prodigal Son" when asked whether Tom shall read her a chapter. Susan comes down with a bundle of far-worn baby-clothes and says that Nanny is not her niece, nor any kin to her, that she knows of. Mrs. Leigh kneels by a bed and says to Lizzie, "I never left off loving thee, Lizzie."

About the author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist and biographer whose fiction ranged across Victorian society from mill towns to country parishes. Remembered for Mary Barton, Cranford, and North and South, she wrote with sympathy for the poor and for women, and produced the first major life of her friend Charlotte Bronte.