Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Lois the Witch Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

This book brings to the readers a Gothic treasure written by the author of the classic North and South. Lois the Witch, a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria. Newly orphaned, the God-fearing and heart-broken Lois is sent across the Atlantic to live with her uncle's family in Salem, but on her arrival, she finds herself the object of cruel hostility, potent jealousy, and mad desire. When the local Pastor's daughters are contorted and convulsed by apparently satanic powers, the whole town is whipped into a hysterical witch hunt. And when Lois's cousins start to resent her presence in their household, life becomes precarious and an old woman's curse returns to haunt her.