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.
The title of the series (used in the Bodleian
though not in the British Library
catalogue) was Tales for the People and their Children. Following the British Libary dating (since authorities differ) MC's own...
Textual Production
Mary Howitt
This venture seems to have sprung from William's brief, financially damaging involvement in The People's Journal, 1846-8, whose chaotic business practices were a serious handicap to its programme for rendering workers prudent, sober, independent...
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.
41
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1333 (1853): 584-5
Travel
Mary Howitt
During their first year in Germany, the Howitts went on a tour along the Rhine, on which they were accompanied by Elizabeth Gaskell
.
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London.
191
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Muriel Jaeger
This book is sometimes called a memoir, but its autobiographical moments are only incidental. MJ
's attention is mostly directed towards books and reading; her own experiences of writing, publishing, and having her works performed...
Textual Production
Henry James
Although HJ
is best remembered as a novelist, he was also a prolific and insightful critic of literature and the arts. Over the course of his career he reviewed many novels by British women writers...
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
Literary responses
Anna Brownell Jameson
A Commonplace Book was reviewed by the Literary Gazette, the Athenæum (by Henry Fothergill Chorley
), The Spectator and Gentleman's Magazine.
Johnston, Judith. Anna Jameson: Victorian, Feminist, Woman of Letters. Scolar Press.
47
Elizabeth Gaskell
pronounced herself in a letter to ABJ
delighted with its graceful suggestive wisdom.
Jameson, Anna Brownell. Anna Jameson: Letters and Friendships (1812-1860). Editor Erskine, Beatrice Caroline, T. Fisher Unwin.
295
Friends, Associates
Henrietta Camilla Jenkin
In Manchester HCJ
became by 1854 a friend of Elizabeth Gaskell
, who helped her with publishing business.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Editors Chapple, J. A. V. and Arthur Pollard, Harvard University Press.
286
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Fleeming Jenkin. “Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin”. Papers, Literary, Scientific, &c., edited by Sir Sidney Colvin et al., Longmans, Green, p. 1: xi - clxx.
li
To the future writer Vernon Lee
she acted as literary mentor. In July 1871 she...
Literary responses
Henrietta Camilla Jenkin
Elizabeth Gaskell
later reported that reviews had been good.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Editors Chapple, J. A. V. and Arthur Pollard, Harvard University Press.
527
The Athenæum notice, by Geraldine Jewsbury
, was moderately favourable, but by calling it the work of a beginner,
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1593 (1858): 593
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
654 (1840): 371-2
Publishing
Henrietta Camilla Jenkin
Her friend Elizabeth Gaskell
wrote to George Smith
of Smith, Elder
on 10 February 1859 to urge him to publish this novel, which, however, she declared she had not read. He sent her a copy...
Publishing
Henrietta Camilla Jenkin
From two undated letters of Elizabeth Gaskell
, it seems that Gaskell recommended to William Chambers
the serialization of one of HCJ
's works in Chambers's Journal.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Editors Chapple, J. A. V. and Arthur Pollard, Harvard University Press.
942, 809
Textual Production
Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ
contributed an introduction to a volume, the seventh in John Lehmann
's The Chiltern Library, published in 1947 and containing two titles by Elizabeth Gaskell
. In her introduction to Thackeray
's Vanity...
