My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell (narrated by Susanna Harker)

Elizabeth Gaskell is one of those Victorian novelists that most people don't read. They look at the "archaic" language of her novels, as well as those of Dickens, the Brontes, and Thackeray, and run in fright. Anyone who just looks at the surface of these novels and doesn't give them a chance is missing so much. They aren't necessarily stuffy. I mean they aren't 50 Shades of Grey, but thank God for that, really. They reflect the values of the era, the humor of the era, and the social issues of the era, essentially becoming eyewitness accounts of the time, even though they are fictions.

My Lady Ludlow is the epitome of old school. She looks down on the education of the lower orders, strictly adheres to the social strata, and does not approve of any religion other than the Church of England. All of these issues come up in the novel, and Lady Ludlow's opinions are steadfast. Until they aren't. People aren't sure how to take her. This is how people thought in the Victorian era. Gaskell shows how with a little experience opinions can change to the benefit of all. This novel, and others by her and the other authors mentioned above, might have been all the experience the upper classes would ever get. Just as authors today can open our eyes to situations we may never actually be able to experience, she attempted to open the eyes of her contemporaries to what was going on in the world around them. It still needs to be entertaining - it's a failure if the entertainment factor isn't there. Otherwise no one would want to read it and no change would be affected. So yes she seems silly, but blindly clinging to the beliefs of the past when those beliefs are clearly in opposition to reality is silly. If Lady Ludlow can change, we all can.