Short Story Review: "The Half-Brothers" by Elizabeth Gaskell

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This sad story relates the tale of two half-brothers. The elder, raised by a stepfather and maternal aunt after the death of his mother, is considered “lumpish and loutish, awkward and ungainly, marring whatever he meddled in.” The younger, the narrator of the story, is the son of a well-off landowner, “the young master,” and is looked upon as someone special. The older boy, Gregory, gets sent away from school with a remark from headmaster that maybe there’s something on the farm he can handle. The younger does much better in school. There seems to be no resentment, only sadness. The boys’ father even kicks Gregory’s dog because it’s ugly and because it’s Gregory’s. There comes a time though, when the boys need each other. The dog comes through for them. All that is left is regret. A story of this sort probably will not appeal to most 21st century readers. Gregory is too passive and too accepting of his abuse and marginalization. While this sort self-effacement might have seemed admirable to 19th century readers, I think most present day readers will see him as, well, spineless. Another thing that doesn’t work well with the modern read—me, in particular—is the formatting. A good portion of the story is one, long black paragraph, page after page. _____ Title: “The Half-Brothers” Author: Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) First published: 1859 The story is available here: