The Moorland Cottage (1850) by Elizabeth Gaskell follows the life story of a very different sister and brother, Maggie and Edward Browne, children of the late curate of Combehurst, who live with their grieving widow mother in the moorland cottage of the novel title. For years Maggie, gentle, dutiful, and loving, does what she can on behalf of her brother, the overbearing and selfish Edward, and yet their mother continues to prefer her son to the very end. A complicated and touching story of familial bonds and the search for happiness by the talented contemporary of Charlotte Brontë.