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.
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 Sara Coleridge
Among women writers, in addition to Dorothy Wordsworth , Joanna Baillie , and Maria Jane Jewsbury , SC also knew Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Anna Jameson , Elizabeth Rigby , Elizabeth Gaskell , and Harriet Martineau
Friends, Associates Eliza Meteyard
She became connected through her writing to Douglas Jerrold , Mary and William Howitt , and Harriet Martineau .
Lightbown, Ronald W., and Eliza Meteyard. “Introduction”. The Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Cornmarket Press, 1970.
The difficulties of social life for unattached women are visible in her regret and anxiety over...
Friends, Associates Julia Wedgwood
Sixteen-year-old JW visited the holidaying Gaskell family at Skelwith in Little Langdale, near Ambleside in the Lake District.
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber, 1993.
231-2
Friends, Associates Fredrika Bremer
FB's lifelong friendship with Per Böklin survived her refusal of his hand and his marriage to someone else. The influence he had on her thinking was shared by Stina, Countess Sommerhielm , and the academic...
Friends, Associates Dinah Mulock Craik
Their circle of friends included the critic and historian George Lillie Craik , Camilla Toulmin , John Westland Marston , Alexander Macmillan (the publisher), Charles Edward Mudie (founder of Mudie's Lending Library ), and the...
Friends, Associates Florence Nightingale
In this year, 1854, Elizabeth Gaskell visited the Nightingales' Derbyshire home, Lea Hurst, and stayed on there to write when the family left for Embley Park.
Cook, Edward. The Life of Florence Nightingale. Macmillan, 1913, 2 vols.
8n1, 39, 139
Having met FN at...
Friends, Associates Mary Howitt
Visitors who stayed with the Howitts at The Elms included Hans Christian Andersen , Tennyson , Elizabeth Gaskell , and Eliza Meteyard , who wrote as Silver Pen. Their circle also included Charles Dickens
Friends, Associates Geraldine Jewsbury
Elizabeth Gaskell was also a visitor, friend, and neighbour. Returning one of her visits, GJ was reportedly found sitting on the floor of Gaskell's drawing-room, reading aloud from Charles Lamb 's The Essays of Elia.
Howe, Susanne. Geraldine Jewsbury: Her Life and Errors. George Allen and Unwin, 1935.
23
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 Elizabeth Barrett Browning
By 1832 she had read Mme de Staël 's novel of the romantic female artist, Corinne, three times and claimed the immortal book ought to be reread annually.
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press, 1984–2025, 14 vols. to date.
3: 25
She strongly admired the...
Intertextuality and Influence Annie Keary
She took as implicit motto for all her own writings the words from Thomas Carlyle 's Biography (on the foolishness of both writer and subject) with which Elizabeth Gaskell prefaced Mary Barton.
Keary, Eliza. Memoir of Annie Keary. Macmillan, 1882.
196
Intertextuality and Influence Emily Gerard
The book deals with the usual topics of travel writing: history, tradition, peasant life, and scenery, with a lucid exposition of the politics of the region.
Gerard, Emily. The Land Beyond the Forest. W. Blackwood and Sons, 1888, 2 vols.
1: 21ff
It includes attractive personal reminiscence. EG 's...
Intertextuality and Influence Harriet Martineau
The novel prompted a complimentary letter on 7 November 1849 from Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë ) saying that in it he tasted a new and keen pleasure, and experienced a genuine benefit. In his...
Intertextuality and Influence Susan Hill
The story is set in the imaginary, sheltered village of Haverstock, which might be seen as a descendant of Elizabeth Gaskell 's Cranford. It opens with the funeral of an unmarried woman who has two...
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...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

No bibliographical results available.