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
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.
qtd. in
Skabarnicki, Anne M. “Two Faces of Eve: The Literary Personae of Harriet Martineau and Jane Welsh Carlyle”. The Carlyle Annual, Vol.
11
, 1990, 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...
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 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, 1967.
203
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber, 1993.
339, 368
Friends, Associates Jane Welsh Carlyle
JWC criticized the party, which was also attended by Elizabeth Gaskell , William Thackeray , and Tom Taylor .
Surtees, Virginia. Jane Welsh Carlyle. Michael Russell, 1986.
204
Around this time JWC also met Frédéric François Chopin , who played her piano, and Caroline Norton .
Surtees, Virginia. Jane Welsh Carlyle. Michael Russell, 1986.
205
Friends, Associates Charles Dickens
As one of the leading literary figures of the period, CD had an extensive social network. His early acquaintances in publishing included Richard Bentley , William Harrison Ainsworth , and John Forster (who later became...
Friends, Associates John Ruskin
JR 's social and intellectual network was extensive: amongst his acquaintances were Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning , Elizabeth Gaskell , Violet Hunt , Jean Ingelow , Flora Shaw , Jane Welsh Carlyle and Thomas Carlyle
Friends, Associates Harriet Martineau
In 1838, HM met the British diplomat David Urquhart , who was known for his championship of Turkey against Russia. Although she recorded her dislike for his social egotism and misogynistic opinions, his hatred and...
Friends, Associates Mary Cowden Clarke
In addition to meeting Dickens as a result of her theatrical activities, MCC and her husband met William Hazlitt through a shared duty of theatre reviewing, and she became friends with Mary Howitt , and...
Friends, Associates Mary Taylor
When Elizabeth Gaskell wrote to MT in 1855 seeking information for her Life of Charlotte Brontë, Taylor responded with two letters from which Gaskell quoted.
Taylor, Mary. Mary Taylor, Friend of Charlotte Brontë: Letters from New Zealand and Elsewhere. Editor Stevens, Joan, Auckland University Press; Oxford University Press, 1972.
9
In her later years, MT disapproved of the...
Friends, Associates Caroline Clive
Lady Byron was another of the Clives' acquaintances. Following a visit in 1843, CC wrote: That is the woman that has been tossed about by such vehement passions, by contact with such a fiery nature...
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...
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, 1967.
286
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Fleeming Jenkin. “Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin”. Papers, Literary, Scientific, &c., edited by Sir Sidney Colvin et al., Longmans, Green, 1877, p. 1: xi - clxx.
li
To the future writer Vernon Lee she acted as literary mentor. In July 1871 she...
Friends, Associates Charlotte Brontë
She and Gaskell quickly established an epistolary friendship.
Shelston, Alan, and Elizabeth Gaskell. “Introduction”. The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Penguin, 1975, pp. 9-37.
11
Friends, Associates Harriet Beecher Stowe
While visiting Paris, HBS frequented the salon of Germaine de Staël , and in Rome she met Elizabeth Gaskell . In a letter to Grace Schwabe , Gaskell remarked that Stowe was short and...

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