Top 100 Classic Books Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Lois the Witch is set against the backdrop of the Salem witch hunts. Recently orphaned, Lois is forced to leave the English parsonage and sail to America. When the girl joins her distant family, she finds jealousy and dissension are rife, and her cousins quick to point the finger at the "imposter."