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.
Connections
Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
---|---|---|
Literary responses | Christina Rossetti | Gabriel
anticipated critics when he described Commonplace as a prose tale . . . rather in the Austen
vein. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Editors Doughty, Oswald and John Robert Wahl, Clarendon Press, 1965–1967, 4 vols. 2: 818 Athenæum. J. Lection. 2223 (1870): 734 |
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, 1967. 527 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 |
Literary responses | Charlotte O'Conor Eccles | Once again reviewers (as quoted at the back of The Matrimonial Lottery) were delighted with these [c]lever studies of Irish life and character. The Athenæum praised especially those stories which reflected first-hand knowledge (with... |
Literary responses | Fredrika Bremer | Elizabeth Gaskell
reported that Charlotte Brontë
saw a resemblance (as Gaskell herself did not) between Fransiska and Jane Eyre. Asmundsson, Doris R. Fredrika Bremer in England. Columbia University, 1964. 102 |
Literary responses | George Eliot | On the whole reviewers were enthusiastic (E. S. Dallas
began his notice in the Times, George Eliot is as great as ever qtd. in Carroll, David, editor. George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. Barnes and Noble, 1971. 131 |
Literary responses | Dinah Mulock Craik | Some felt she wrote too much too fast. Elizabeth Gaskell
commented in a letter of 1851, I wish she had some other means of support than writing, which must be pumped up instead of bubbling... |
Literary responses | Elizabeth Rigby | Brontë
also indulged in assumptions about gender and class in her reading of the critique. She wrote: I read The Quarterly without a pang, except that I thought there were some sentences disgraceful to the... |
Literary responses | Florence Nightingale | Edward Cook
and William John Bishop
agree that although Notes is FN
's least read work, it is her most remarkable. Cook, Edward. The Life of Florence Nightingale. Macmillan, 1913, 2 vols. 343 Bishop, William John, and Sue Goldie. A Bio-Bibliography of Florence Nightingale. Dawsons for the International Council of Nurses, 1962. 52 |
Literary responses | Emily Brontë | Since the early criticism which took its lead from Charlotte's biographical portrait, a biographical and hagiographic industry has arisen around all three Brontë sisters and their home in Haworth. A. Mary F. Robinson
published... |
Literary responses | Barbara Pym | BP
's father wrote to her on 3 May 1950 commending this novel, which he had not expected to enjoy since he preferred mysteries. Wyatt-Brown, Anne M. Barbara Pym: A Critical Biography. University of Missouri Press, 1992. 157n12 |
Literary Setting | Mary Louisa Molesworth | This novel is the story of an unhappy marriage. The male protagonist, mentioned twice in the title, proves not to be a good husband. The novel is set in Mallingford, an unflattering portrayal of Knutsford... |
Material Conditions of Writing | Mary Angela Dickens | The journal All the Year Round, founded by MAD
's grandfather
and then edited by her father, was one of the first and most significant platforms for her short stories and serialized novels. Other... |
Material Conditions of Writing | Harriet Beecher Stowe | HBS
used her earlier travels in Europe as material for a travel guide for Americans. She had met Germaine de Staël
and Elizabeth Gaskell
while in Europe, and had voraciously read everything by George Sand |
Material Conditions of Writing | Charlotte Brontë | CB
's stay in Brussels (as well as contributing eventually to Villette) produced a number of French exercises or devoirs, plus her subsequent letters to Constantin Heger
. Four of the letters (of which... |
Occupation | Selina Davenport | During her marriage SD
worked at running a school, which, however, was far from profitable. She also supported her daughters through her writing, and opened another unsuccessful school at Greenwich after she left her husband.... |
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