Crossing Borders in Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Grey Woman” (1861) and Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman (1866): Genre, Nation, and Gender
Linda K. Hughes
Abstract
This article examines Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Grey Woman” (1861) and Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas (1866) as interventions in sensation and adventure fiction. Both works align with sensation fiction in their shocking crimes, Gothic elements, and domestic conflicts, yet they simultaneously engage adventure fiction in the characters’ daring exploits, wandering journeys, and exotic settings that are cross-roads for multiple nationalities and conflicts: the Vosges mountains bordering France and Germany in Gaskell’s Franco-German novella, and the wide open spaces of southwest Texas near the Mexican border in Reid’s novel. These tales differ from later adventure novels in sidestepping the British empire and its imperial conquests. Their settings, if linked to sensational crimes, also open spaces for gender fluidity to a degree unusual in both sensation and adventure fiction, especially in these two works’ secondary female characters: Amante, Gaskell’s heroic, cross-dressing Norman servant and Reid’s wealthy, fearless Mexican Isidore, who cross-dresses, commands masculine physical prowess, and is heterosexually attractive yet mustachioed. After exploring how these two works cross ostensible borders of genre, nation, and gender, the article concludes in a coda with the authors’ ability to extend their reputations beyond their native borders into world literature, including Reid’s appeal to Vladimir Nabokov, and their relevance to studies today.
Keywords
Elizabeth Gaskell; Mayne Reid; borders; sensation fiction; adventure fiction; gender fluidity; reputation; Nabokov
Date of Acceptance: 1 July 2026
Date of Publication: 3 July 2026
Double Blind Peer Reviewed
Recommended Citation:
Hughes, Linda K. 2026. “Crossing Borders in Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘The Grey Woman’ (1861) and Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman (1866): Genre, Nation, and Gender.” Victorian Popular Fictions, 8.1 (Spring): 29-46. ISSN: 2632-4253 (online) DOI: https://doi.org/10.46911/BVRJ1639
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
