Elizabeth Gaskell is by any measure one of the most admired novelists in history. Epics such as North & South demonstrate amply her undoubted talents. However she did like to dabble in other forms and gothic fiction was a marvellous outlet for her skills. In "Lois the Witch" she employs one of the most common themes of this genre, the power of ancestral sins to curse future generations, or the fear that they will.