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My Lady Ludlow

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About this listen

Lady Ludlow's appalling snobbery, prejudice and bred-in-the-bone conviction as to the superiority of the English aristocracy and their feudal way of life are deliciously tested, and found wanting, in this gently radical tale of the collapse of a social system.

Elizabeth Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow is a brilliant picture of the shift in power in a rural northern village, from the velvety feudal Ludlows to the glitter of the new money rattling through the system courtesy of the brazen baker from Birmingham.

The interruption of scenes from the French Revolution adds a crackling of horror to this quintessentially British of downfalls. One of the extraordinary things about My Lady Ludlow as a book is that in spite of the creation of a monster of hidebound arrogance and pretension, Gaskell cannot help but produce a character that you end up rooting for right up to the wide grin induced by the final twist in the plot.

Public Domain (P)2008 Silksoundbooks Limited Classics Drama & Plays Village
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This is a wonderful classic. Lady Ludlow represents Eighteenth Century opinions – opinions shaped by her experience of the French Revolution. Mr Gray represents the new opinions of the Nineteenth Century. This book gives a fascinating insight into how opinions and society changed at the dawn of the new century. Lady Ludlow is a good woman and a sympathetic character, and the book shows clearly how and why two good people can hold totally different viewpoints. Part of the novel tells the story of people caught up in the French Revolution but most of the book is set in England around 1810 with captivating detail of life in that period. There is drama and there is humour, and this is the kind of book that you can listen to over and over again. It is very positive and uplifting. The narrator, Susannah York, is excellent. She expertly performs all the voices – both male and female.

Excellent classic

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Mrs Gaskell is a wonderfully sympathetic writer. I thought at first the scope of the story was too narrow, and nearly set it aside; but gradually her sensitive study of an old lady lost in a changing culture won me over. Not as powerful as her other novels, but still worth the listen.

A lost age

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