Sylvia's Lovers Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - This tragic tale from Elizabeth Gaskell follows the wartime love affairs of the title character. After her true love is believed to have perished at sea, Sylvia seeks stability in a loveless arranged marriage. But does her husband know more about her first lover's fate than he is admitting?The novel begins in the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven (modeled on Whitby, England) against the background of the practice of impressment during the early phases of the Napoleonic Wars.