“The Heart of John Middleton” is one of Elizabeth Gaskell’s short stories. It’s a rarity for this author to use a man for her main character; rarer still for her to have a male character narrating.

With the word “heart” featuring in the title I expected this to be a love story. In a way it is, but it’s essentially a moralistic tale, in the vein of “love thine enemy”.

John is motherless and is brought up by his criminal father. As a result he carries a lot of hate in his heart. He is a vengeful character. It takes the love of a good woman to help alleviate the bad feelings that he holds in his heart.

Not a bad tale, this one, though Mrs Gaskell has certainly written better shorts. ( )