This year I am taking part in a Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine of November’s Autumn. The goal is to read at least seven classics in 2012 and every month Katherine is posting a prompt to help us discuss the books we are reading. Our task for June is to create a Visual Tour of a scene or description from the book.
The novel I’m currently reading for the challenge is Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. The story is set in the 1790s in the fictional town of Monkshaven which Gaskell based on Whitby in North Yorkshire. Whitby was also the setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula and is a beautiful coastal town with a busy harbour and a ruined abbey on the cliff. I would highly recommend a visit if you have the opportunity!
In Chapter 2 of the novel Sylvia and her friend Molly are walking into Monkshaven so that Sylvia can buy a new cloak. While they are there, a whaling ship returns from a voyage to the Greenland Sea. I have chosen some images that I think help to visualise Gaskell’s descriptions in this chapter.
..but as they were drawing near Monkshaven they stopped, and turned aside along a foot-path that led from the main-road down to the banks of the Dee. There were great stones in the river about here, round which the waters gathered and eddied and formed deep pools.
The next turn of the road showed them the red peaked roofs of the closely packed houses lying almost directly below the hill on which they were. The full autumn sun brought out the ruddy colour of the tiled gables, and deepened the shadows in the narrow streets.
The narrow harbour at the mouth of the river was crowded with small vessels of all descriptions, making an intricate forest of masts.
Image from Wikipedia – sepia photograph by Frank Sutcliffe, dated around 1890
There the old stone cross was raised by the monks long ago; now worn and mutilated, no one esteemed it as a holy symbol…
Image © bythestars – Caedmon’s Cross at St Mary’s Churchyard, Whitby
The red and fluted tiles of the gabled houses rose in crowded irregularity on one side of the river…
The fresh salt breeze was bringing up the lashing, leaping tide from the blue sea beyond the bar. Behind the returning girls there rocked the white-sailed ship, as if she were all alive with eagerness for her anchors to be heaved.
Image from Wikipedia – Whitby 1886, a watercolour on paper by Frederick William Booty
I hope these pictures have helped bring Gaskell’s writing to life for you! I’ll be posting my thoughts on Sylvia’s Lovers after I’ve finished reading the book.
She Reads Novels 
Thank you – wonderful images and a lovely visual tour which also inspires me to read Sylvia’s Lovers. I like to read anything about Yorkshire as my father was born there, in Bridlington. We visited Whitby in 2001 and it is beautiful – climbing those steps to the abbey I remember well!
I’m not from Yorkshire but I’ve been many times and love reading books set there. Whitby really is beautiful and yes, it’s impossible to forget the steps once you’ve had the experience of climbing them!
Beautiful visual tour, Helen! I’ve always thought of Whitby as being gloomy and dark, thanks to Dracula, so it is nice to see that it isn’t really that scary.
No, not scary at all, though it is quite atmospheric up on the cliff near the abbey.
I’ve always fancied a trip to Whitby 🙂 I am also looking forward to reading some Elizabeth Gaskel for the Classic Club.
It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in that part of the country. I hope you enjoy whichever Elizabeth Gaskell book you choose to read.
That is a lovely tour! I liked the blend of historic & contemporary images (without modern intrusions).
Thanks, Lisa. It took me forever to decide which pictures to include in the tour. It was difficult to find contemporary images that didn’t look too ‘modern’.
I still haven’t read Gaskell’s Sylvia’s Lovers. Charming images of Whitby. Thank you for participating in this month’s prompt, Helen! 🙂
I am up to the final chapter of Sylvia’s Lovers and was really pleased to find this site, I only wish I had looked for it sooner.You did really well to find these photos and it certainly helps to picture the scenes.I was sort of imagining Staithes in my mind as I have spent more time there. Thanks again…and it is a great story!
Hi Joan, thanks for your kind words. I’m glad the photos have helped you to picture the scenes.