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.
"Elizabeth Gaskell" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Elizabeth_Gaskell.jpg.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. This work is in the public domain.
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...
Cultural formation
Julia Wedgwood
JW
was born into that section of the English professional class which functioned as an intellectual and cultural elite. She was connected through her family with other Victorians strongly committed to spiritual and moral inquiry...
Cultural formation
Hesba Stretton
As an adult HS
abandoned her mother
's strict Methodism
and became an incurable sermon-taster. She favoured several denominations at the extreme of Protestantism. During the twelve-year period recorded in her Log Books only three...
death
Charlotte Brontë
Her body was placed in the family vault in Haworth Church on April 4. When Gaskell
heard of the circumstances of the death, she regretted she had not known; she would have hoped to save...
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...
Education
May Sinclair
Little is known about the early education of MS
or her brothers. She was taught the piano, and educated herself from her father's well-stocked library of Elizabethan, Restoration, and Victorian literature. Among her reading a...
Education
Anne Thackeray Ritchie
ATR
and her sister were educated by a series of governesses in London. It was not until the arrival of Miss Truelock
in 1850 that their father was finally satisfied with a governess's ability...
Education
Jessie Boucherett
JB
was educated at the Misses Byerleys' ladies' school, Avonbank, Stratford upon Avon. Elizabeth Gaskell
had attended the same school.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908.
“Obituary: Miss Emilia Jessie Boucherett”. Times, p. 8.
Anne's brother-in-law from 1822 was the distinguished Sir Henry Holland
(physician to Princess Caroline, and later Prince Albert
and Queen Victoria
), a descendent of the Wedgwood family and cousin of Elizabeth Gaskell
...
Family and Intimate relationships
Charlotte Brontë
Patrick Brontë
was an Irish protestant from a large respectable farming family of limited means. He took to books from an early age, opened a school for the gentry at the age of sixteen, became...
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Augusta Ward
From the time of her arrival in England, a major influence on the young Mary Arnold (later MAW
) was her aunt and godmother Jane Arnold
or Aunt K., a cultivated woman and friend...
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Stone
Elizabeth Gaskell
wrote that ES
's husband was a clergyman. Critic Michael Wheeler
speculates that he was the Rev. Thomas Stone
, whom ES
would have met while he was the Curate of Deane...
Family and Intimate relationships
Q. D. Leavis
The Roths were devastated by their daughter's decision to marry a gentile. They disowned her and ceased to give her any financial support. However, this period had its happy moments as well. Q. D. introduced...
Timeline
14 September 1767
Midwife Elizabeth Brownrigg
was hanged at Tyburn (in London near the present Marble Arch) for the murder of Mary Clifford
, a workhouse apprentice.
1825
Frances Parkes
(Mrs. William Parkes 1786-1842), published a highly successful domesticconduct book whose lengthy title begins Domestic Duties; or, Instructions to Young Married Ladies.
1837
Fredrika Bremer
published her domestic novelGrannarne, translated into English in 1842 as Neighbours.
December 1839
Thomas Carlyle
published his essayChartism, bearing the date of 1840.
Late Summer 1842
The Plug Riots, with significant participation by women, occurred in the northern industrial region of England when workers rebelled against inadequate wages.
March 1848
Chartist uprisings took place in London, Glasgow, and Manchester.
14 March 1856
A petitionfor Reform of the Married Women's Property Law, organized by the Married Women's Property Committee
and signed by many prominent women, was presented to both Houses of Parliament.
By 20 June 1857
W. W. Carus Wilson
published A Refutation of the Statements in The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Regarding the Caterton Clergy Daughters' School when at Cowan Bridge.
