I have to admit that Sylvia's Lovers left me strangely unmoved. There was a point about two-thirds of the way through the book that it became a page turner but it was rather short lived. The most interesting parts reflect the anger and agonies caused by the press gangs at the end of the eighteenth century. The worst parts have to do with the silly melodramatic plot and tiresome use of dialect (as if Ms. Gaskell didn't want us to forget for a second that the characters are hopelessly uneducated). In the end, it's a rather mediocre example of her work.

An interesting novel--not as good as Gaskell's North and South or Wives and Daughters, but still an interesting historical novel...i.e., written about press gangs and the whaling industry during the Napoleonic Wars sixty years later. ( )

Syvia's Lovers is the saddest book I have ever read which means that it is a wonderful book. The love of parents for a first and only child born later in life when hope was almost gone is a great and powerful love and tragic events rendered that more painful in the telling. Rich in historical detail , this is Elizabeth Gaskell at her best.