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.
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
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
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.
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
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
Health
Emily Brontë
EB
apparently had a very independent character. In a famous incident related to Elizabeth Gaskell
by Charlotte
, Emily tried to help a possibly rabid dog, only to have it bite her. She immediately went...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
There are occasional moments of wit, as when destitution reveals that the family servants think terms of practical life rather than sentimental fiction: the old-fashioned type of servant, who appears so frequently in Morton
's...
Intertextuality and Influence
Jane West
This work had the unusual distinction of earning approving comments from both Austen
and Wollstonecraft
. The contrasted sisters are generally seen as an important source for Austen
's Sense and Sensibility, and the...
Intertextuality and Influence
Matilda Charlotte Houstoun
The choice of name for the seduced woman in MCH
's novel suggests that it is in part a response to the fortunate and highly idealised fate of the fallen woman and mother in Elizabeth Gaskell
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, 1989.
41
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1333 (1853): 584-5
Intertextuality and Influence
George Eliot
Much feminist interest in the novel has centered on the relationship between Felix and Esther Lyon and the novel's treatment of the relationship between women and the public sphere. The book is in many ways...
Intertextuality and Influence
Edna Lyall
A Hardy Norseman makes honorific reference to Elizabeth Gaskell
's Wives and Daughters. Though it is largely set in Norway (convincingly portrayed), a crucial meeting takes place at Hyde Park Corner in London...
