A Dark Night's Work

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, (29 Sep 1810 – 12 Nov 1865), was a British novelist and short story writer of the Victorian era. Gaskell’s works are picturesque portraits of live of dwellers of various layers and levels of society, from the poorest to the richest. The most know work of her are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1867) and Wives and Daughters (1865).

A Dark Night’s Work is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. The plot is focused on Edward Wilkins, a country attorney-at-law and his daughter. Being the son of a successful lawyer and taking over his provincial practice did not correlated well with Edward’s artistic nature. More and more problems fall upon him – he can’t fit into high society circles, develops issues with alcohol, wastes too much money causing business problems, and eventually he is forced  to take on a junior partner named Mr. Dunster.