Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Title: Cousin Phillis.
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell.
Genre: Fiction, literature, novella, romance.
Country: U.K.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1864.
Summary: A lyrical masterpiece that depicts a vanishing way of life and a girl's disappointment in love. The story is about Paul Manning, a youth of seventeen who moves to the country and befriends his mother's family and his (second) cousin Phillis Holman, who is confused by her own placement at the edge of adolescence. When he introduces her to one of his charming friends, a doomed love affair begins.
My rating: 7.5/10.
My review:
♥ “I see you don’t think I am half good enough for your friends. Out with it, man.”
“No,” I replied, boldly. “I think you are good; but I don’t know if you are quite of their kind of goodness.”
“And you’ve found out already that there is greater chance of disagreement between two “kinds of goodness,” each having its own idea of right, than between a given goodness and a moderate degree of naughtiness - which last often arises from an indifference to right?”
♥ “When a man talks to you in a way that you don’t understand about a thing which he does not understand, them’s metaphysics.”
♥ “I was on the verge of displeasing him once or twice, I fear, with random assertions and exaggerated expressions, such as one always uses with other people, and thinks nothing of; but I tried to check myself when I saw how it shocked the good man; and really it is very wholesome exercise, this trying to make one’s words represent one’s thoughts, instead of merely looking to their effect on others.”