The Poor Clare

The haunting novella The Poor Clare is one of Elizabeth’s Gaskell’s Gothic tales. It tells the story of Bridget Fitzgerald, who unwittingly puts a curse on her own estranged daughter and the granddaughter she did not know existed. When she discovers that the curse has fallen on her own kin, Bridget submits herself to the rituals of an obscure religious sect, hoping to lift the curse. The Poor Clare sensitively treats issues of class and Catholic and Protestant religious tension in Victorian England, making this an innovative and thrilling gem from Gaskell’s wide-ranging oeuvre.