Life with love, life without love

Susan Dixon is a pretty young girl who has spent her life so far on Yew Nook farm in Westmorland, England. Her mother's death hits her hard, but she doesn't have much time for grieving – she has to manage the household and her not-so-bright younger brother, Willie… and she still finds time for love. Her relationship with the handsome, though somewhat superficial, farmer's son Michael Hurst seems the most natural and sweetest thing in the world… But then, a treacherous illness strikes her family. She herself recovers without any lasting effects, but her father dies and Willie is left incapacitated, a burden. Susan doesn't want to give him up; after all, she promised her dying mother she would never abandon him. However, Michael has different ideas about their life together, and the more he pressures Susan, the more distant he becomes in her eyes. Torn between her love for Michael and her sense of duty to her family, Susan ultimately chooses the latter. She tries to heal her broken heart with hard daily work. Yet even the sad days with her crazed and occasionally aggressive brother on the lonely farm are not the final blow life has in store for her. And so, the once-beautiful girl transforms into a proud and disappointed woman, desperately defending the last thing she has left in life. Will she find love again? And will her sacrifice one day be rewarded? The famous English author Elizabeth Gaskell wove the answers into this short but emotionally overflowing novella, which you can now read for the very first time in your native language, thanks to the sensitive translation by Jana Srbová.