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
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Geraldine Jewsbury
GJ was an advocate of realist novels with well drawn characters and a coherent plot. Her review of Charlotte Chanter 's Over the Cliffs compared the plot to a child's attempt at drawing a picture,—the...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Sarah Tytler
Clearly delighted with the opportunity to mix in literary circles, ST recorded her personal observations of these authors in Men and Women Met by the Way, the final 100-page-long section of her family autobiography...
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...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Margaret Kennedy
Here Kennedy argues that entertainment and enjoyment are valuable aims for the novel. She maintains that the novelist is, in essence, a storyteller, but the storyteller-novelist has been excluded by a literary society that devalues...
Travel Fredrika Bremer
Again her impressions were distinctly mixed. She enjoyed the tail-end of the Great Exhibition; she met George Eliot , Elizabeth Gaskell , and Charles Kingsley , as well as the William HowittHowitts ; but she was...
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, 1992.
191
Travel Charlotte Brontë
CB visited her neighbours Sir James and Lady Kay-Shuttleworth in the Lake District, where she met Elizabeth Gaskell .
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press, 1994.
631, 651, 653
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Editor Shelston, Alan, Penguin, 1975.
417
Travel Charlotte Brontë
CB visited Elizabeth Gaskell in Manchester on her way back to Haworth.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press, 1994.
681
Travel Charlotte Brontë
CB returned Gaskell 's visit with a four-day stay in Manchester.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press, 1994.
752

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Texts

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