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Cousin Phillis

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Cousin Phillis

By: Elizabeth Gaskell
Narrated by: Peter Joyce
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About this listen

The tale of a rural habitation in the late 19th century and the effect of industrialisation on the local community.

Seventeen-year-old Phillis lives on Hope Farm with her parents Minister Ebenezer Holman and his simple wife. Her second cousin Paul Manning, at first reluctantly, comes to visit. He is the son of a rising inventor from Birmingham and is employed as a clerk to Edward Holdsworth, the managing engineer of a railway company laying a line close to the farm. When Paul introduces his new employer and friend to Phillis he little realises the traumatic effect this will have on the young girl.

Elizabeth Gaskell is never judgemental and sketches a subtle portrait of an unsophisticated mode of living that once touched by irresistible forces will never be the same again.

About Assembled Stories: Over the years the national press have reviewed Assembled Stories titles as ‘excellent’, ‘remarkable’, ‘entrancing’, ‘superb’, ‘magic for sure’, ‘masterly’, ‘wonderful’, ‘a class act’ and ‘a splendid example of audio at its best’.

©2004 Elizabeth Gaskell (P)2004 Assembled Stories Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

"Peter Joyce is the most remarkable one-man band in audiobook publishing. Joyce, an experienced actor, reads them all himself." ( The Independent)
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A pretty ordinary Victorian story. Not necessarily one I would recommend or want to read again. It was probably too short for any real development of character.

Cousin Phillis

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This audiobook was my first time finishing this novella, even though it is such a short one. I appreciated how all the characters were interpreted through Peter Joyce’s apt narration, adding memorable colour to the tale. Although the plot line is unforgettable, I will relisten to this in the future to appreciate all the more the delicate soulful insights that Gaskell’s writing carries.

A memorable book, well read

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