''Round the Sofa'' is an 1859 2-volume collection consisting of a novel with a story preface and five short stories by

Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...

. The two volumes were published by Sampson Low, Son & Co. in London. The 1859 2-volume set is unillustrated. The first volume consists of the novel ''

My Lady Ludlow ''My Lady Ludlow'' is a novel (over 77,000 words in the Project Gutenberg text) by Elizabeth Gaskell. It originally appeared in the magazine '' Household Words'' in 1858, and was republished in '' Round the Sofa'' in 1859, with framing passage ...

'' prefaced by a short story ''Round the Sofa'', which is used to provide a framework for the telling of ''My Lady Ludlow'' and the disparate stories. Mrs. Dawson tells the story of "My Lady Ludlow" and then five other narrators gathered around the sofa each tell a story. The second volume consists of the short stories ''An Accursed Race'', ''The Doom of the Griffiths'', ''Half a Life-time Ago'', ''The Poor Clare'', and ''The Half-Brothers''. The novel and three of the short stories were first published in ''

Household Words ''Household Words'' was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare's ''Henry V'': "Familiar in his mouth as household words." History During the planning stages, titles origi ...

''. ''The Doom of the Griffiths'' was first published in ''

Harper's New Monthly Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'' in January 1858. ''The Half-Brothers'' was first published in ''Fulcher's Ladies' Memorandum Book and Poetical Miscellany'' in 1856. In 1861 Sampson Low, Son & Co. published a 1-volume second edition entitled ''My Lady Ludlow, and Other Tales; included in "Round the Sofa"''. In the 1861 book the lengths of the stories are: ''Round the Sofa'', 6 p.; ''My Lady Ludlow'', 164 p.; ''An Accursed Race'', 15 p.; ''The Doom of the Griffiths'', 33 p.; ''Half a Life-time Ago'', 40 p.; ''The Poor Clare'', 49 p.; ''The Half-Brothers'', 10 p.

References

External links

* {{Elizabeth Gaskell Short stories by Elizabeth Gaskell 1859 short stories Sampson Low books