"Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 2" by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell is a novel published in 1863. Set in 1790s coastal England during the age of impressment, it follows young Sylvia Robson torn between two men: her devoted Quaker cousin Philip and Charlie Kinraid, a dashing sailor. When Charlie is seized by a press gang, Philip conceals this truth, leading Sylvia to marry him believing her lover dead. The consequences of this deception unfold across years of separation, war, and devastating revelations in what Gaskell called "the saddest story I ever wrote." (This is an automatically generated summary.)