DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "An Accursed Race" by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Two short stories, from the English novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, whose writings can be seen as critiques of Victorian era attitudes, particularly those toward women, with complex narratives and dynamic women characters. Some of Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865).

Though she gained acclaim as a novelist whom many critics and fans likened to another Victorian literary luminary, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell was also deeply interested in social causes, about which she often penned compelling nonfiction pieces. This essay paints a heart-rending portrait of the plight of the Cagots, a European clan who suffered severe persecution for hundreds of years.