Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
was also a visitor, friend, and neighbour. Returning one of her visits, GJ
was reportedly found sitting on the floor of Gaskell's drawing-room, reading aloud from Charles Lamb
's The Essays of Elia.
Howe, Susanne. Geraldine Jewsbury: Her Life and Errors. George Allen and Unwin.
23
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fletcher
Hamilton, herself a conservative, set about de-demonizing EF
's political reputation. She had good success in persuading her friends that Mrs Fletcher was not the ferocious Democrat she had been represented, and that she neither...
Friends, Associates
Florence Nightingale
In this year, 1854, Elizabeth Gaskell
visited the Nightingales' Derbyshire home, Lea Hurst, and stayed on there to write when the family left for Embley Park.
Cook, Edward. The Life of Florence Nightingale. Macmillan.
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
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
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...