Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Elizabeth Gaskell
-
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.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press.
Education
Jessie Fothergill
She acquired much knowledge through her voracious consumption of books: I loved books, and read all that I could get hold of, and have had many a rebuke for poring over those books instead of...
Textual Features
Jessie Fothergill
Of particular interest is JF
's handling of the benefits of cross-class mutual aid and moral principle
Debenham, Helen. “’Almost always two sides to a question’: the novels of Jessie Fothergill”. Popular Victorian Women Writers, edited by Kay Boardman and Shirley Jones, Manchester University Press, pp. 66-89.
76
as rich and poor, male and female, employer and workers, civil authorities and landowners join forces against...
Author summary
Jessie Fothergill
During her relatively short career in the later nineteenth century, Jessie Fothergill
produced fourteen novels, many of which ran to several editions and appeared in Indian and Australian journals,
He gradually lost faith in High Church
tenets, however, a process that intensified under the influence of Thomas Carlyle
. JAF
was forced to relinquish his fellowship on publishing The Nemesis of Faith (1849), and...
Intertextuality and Influence
Emily Gerard
The book deals with the usual topics of travel writing: history, tradition, peasant life, and scenery, with a lucid exposition of the politics of the region.
Gerard, Emily. The Land Beyond the Forest. W. Blackwood and Sons.
1: 21ff
It includes attractive personal reminiscence. EG
's...
Textual Features
Ann Gomersall
After Fanny drops Charles for somebody of her own class, his father's death brings him the revelation that he is illegitimate: he must be reduced to the necessity of living by his industry!
Gomersall, Ann. The Citizen. Scatcherd and Whitaker.
1: 126
Literary responses
Isabella Neil Harwood
This novel generated a large amount of attention and positive reviews. They all made some points in common: they loved the plot, the way Minnie/Minna's character developed, the originality and the sustained interest it provided...
Friends, Associates
Ann Hawkshaw
Sir John Hawkshaw was known to Elizabeth Gaskell
's circle. Samuel Bamford
, the working-class Manchester radical and poet, mentions AH
and praises her poetry in the preface to his Poems (self-published at Manchester in...
Intertextuality and Influence
Susan Hill
The story is set in the imaginary, sheltered village of Haverstock, which might be seen as a descendant of Elizabeth Gaskell
's Cranford. It opens with the funeral of an unmarried woman who has two...
Occupation
Richard Hengist Horne
Reports such as Horne's also provided writers of protest literature such as Benjamin Disraeli
, Charles Dickens
, and Elizabeth Gaskell
with material which they incorporated into their fiction. Elizabeth Barrett
's The Cry of...
Intertextuality and Influence
Matilda Charlotte Houstoun
The choice of name for the seduced woman in MCH
's novel suggests that it is in part a response to the fortunate and highly idealised fate of the fallen woman and mother in Elizabeth Gaskell
Reception
Mary Howitt
MH
's biographer Joy Dunicliff
credits her with introducing the reading public to both Keats
and Gaskell
.
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London.
1
Intertextuality and Influence
Anna Mary Howitt
Anna Mary Howitt
published An Art-Student in Munich, written on the advice of her mother, Mary Howitt
, and of Elizabeth Gaskell
.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago.