Elizabeth Gaskell

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Standard Name: Gaskell, Elizabeth
Birth Name: Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson
Nickname: Lily
Married Name: Elizabeth Gaskell
Indexed Name: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Pseudonym: Cotton Mather Mills
Pseudonym: The Author of Mary Barton etc.
Self-constructed Name: E. C. Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell , one of the foremost fiction-writers of the mid-Victorian period, produced a corpus of seven novels, numerous short stories, and a controversial biography of Charlotte Brontë . She wrote extensively for periodicals, as well as producing novels directly for the book market, often on issues of burning interest: her industrial novels appeared in the midst of fierce debate over class relations, factory conditions and legislation; Ruth took a fallen woman and mother as its protagonist just as middle-class feminist critique of gender roles emerged. Gaskell occupies a bridging position between Harriet Martineau and George Eliot in the development of the domestic novel.
Photograph of a well-known head-and shoulders drawing of Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, 1851. She looks calmly at the viewer, her smooth hair parted in the middle, with a ribbon or scarf hanging from her head and a bow at her neckline. She thought the drawing on the whole a good likeness. National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Charlotte Brontë
Elizabeth Gaskell initiated her friendship with CB by her sympathetic comments about the sickbed scenes in Shirley.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
615
Friends, Associates Mary Howitt
Visitors who stayed with the Howitts at The Elms included Hans Christian Andersen , Tennyson , Elizabeth Gaskell , and Eliza Meteyard , who wrote as Silver Pen. Their circle also included Charles Dickens
Friends, Associates John Ruskin
JR 's social and intellectual network was extensive: amongst his acquaintances were Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning , Elizabeth Gaskell , Violet Hunt , Jean Ingelow , Flora Shaw , Jane Welsh Carlyle and Thomas Carlyle
Friends, Associates Eliza Fletcher
Joanna Baillie (a well qualified judge) thought few people have so many friends as EF , and that they all warmly esteemed as well as loving her.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
2: 699
At first meeting, Fletcher did not...
Friends, Associates John Forster
JF was well connected in literary circles. He counted Elizabeth Gaskell , Lady Blessington , Jane Welsh Carlyle , Charles Dickens , Edward Bulwer Lytton and Leigh Hunt among his intimates.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press.
Friends, Associates Bessie Rayner Parkes
BRP knew personally and corresponded with many of the Victorian intelligentsia. In addition to her Langham Place associates already mentioned, her literary friends and acquaintances included Matilda Hays , Harriet Martineau , Anthony Trollope ,...
Friends, Associates Jane Welsh Carlyle
Some time after 1835 the Carlyles met Harriet Martineau . While Martineau took to Thomas, she found Jane coquettish and disliked her tendency to interrupt abstract philosophical conversations with little jokes & wanting notice.
Skabarnicki, Anne M. “Two Faces of Eve: The Literary Personae of Harriet Martineau and Jane Welsh Carlyle”. The Carlyle Annual, Vol.
11
, pp. 15-30.
20
Friends, Associates Selina Davenport
As well as Jane Porter , SD had some acquaintance with Elizabeth Gaskell , who wrote a letter (formal in tone, dated 26 April 1854) in support of her RLF application. She wrote in the...
Friends, Associates Beatrix Potter
Friends constituted another bright spot in her life. One early mentor was the Rev. William Gaskell , whose death in June 1884 was the occasion of moralising in her journal about loss and change.
Grinstein, Alexander. The Remarkable Beatrix Potter. International Universities Press.
28
Friends, Associates Charlotte Brontë
Elizabeth Gaskell visited CB at Haworth for four days.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
738
Friends, Associates Flora Shaw
Here she became a friend of novelist and neighbour George Meredith , who introduced her to a wider social circle, including W.T. Stead , the scandalous journalist and editor of the Pall Mall Gazette...
Friends, Associates Jane Welsh Carlyle
JWC criticized the party, which was also attended by Elizabeth Gaskell , William Thackeray , and Tom Taylor .
Surtees, Virginia. Jane Welsh Carlyle. Michael Russell.
204
Around this time JWC also met Frédéric François Chopin , who played her piano, and Caroline Norton .
Surtees, Virginia. Jane Welsh Carlyle. Michael Russell.
205
Friends, Associates Charles Dickens
As one of the leading literary figures of the period, CD had an extensive social network. His early acquaintances in publishing included Richard Bentley , William Harrison Ainsworth , and John Forster (who later became...
Friends, Associates Mary Cowden Clarke
In addition to meeting Dickens as a result of her theatrical activities, MCC and her husband met William Hazlitt through a shared duty of theatre reviewing, and she became friends with Mary Howitt , and...
Friends, Associates Anna Brownell Jameson
ABJ 's friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell developed out of Gaskell's letter request for an autograph note. ABJ was supportive during the scandal over Gaskell's Ruth, and advised her on the composition of North and South.
Thomas, Clara. Love and Work Enough: The Life of Anna Jameson. University of Toronto Press.
203
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber.
339, 368

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