Gaskell, Elizabeth

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{{epname|Gaskell, Elizabeth}}  
  
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[[Image:Elizabeth Gaskell - Project Gutenberg eText 19222.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Gaskell — from the portrait by [[George Richmond]]]]
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{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] —>
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[[Image:EGaskell.jpg|thumb|Photograph taken late in Gaskell's life]]
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| name    = Elizabeth Gaskell
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| image    = Elizabeth Gaskell 1832.jpg
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| imagesize  = 220px
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| caption  = Elizabeth Gaskell, in the 1832 miniature by [[William John Thomson]]
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| pseudonym  =
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| birthdate = {{birth date|1810|09|29|mf=y}}
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| birthplace = [[Chelsea, London]]
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| deathdate = {{death date and age|1865|11|12|1810|09|29|mf=yes}}
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| deathplace = [[Holybourne]], [[Hampshire]]
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| occupation = [[Novelist]]s
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| nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
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| period  = 1848–1865
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| genre    =
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| subject  =
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| movement  =
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| spouse  = [[William Gaskell]]
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| partner  =
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| children  =
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| relatives  =
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| influences =
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| influenced =
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| signature  =
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| website  =
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}}
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'''Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell''' (née Stevenson; September 29, 1810 &ndash; November 12, 1865), often referred to simply as '''Mrs. Gaskell''', was an [[England|English]] [[novelist]] and short story writer during the [[Victorian era]]. She is perhaps best known for her biography of [[Charlotte Brontë]]. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to [[social history|social historians]] as well as lovers of literature.<ref> [http://tropej.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/24/4/158.pdf "Children in Early Victorian England: Infant Feeding in Literature and Society 1837-1857."] Tropical Pediatrics and Environmental Child Health, August 1978. Retrieved June 2, 2008.</ref>
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{{toc}}
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==Early life==
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Gaskell was born '''Elizabeth Stevenson''' on September 29, 1810, at 93 [[Cheyne Walk]], [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], which was then on the outskirts of [[London]]. Gaskell was the eighth, and last, of her parent's children, the only one except the first-born, John (born 1806), to survive infancy. Her father, William Stevenson, was a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] minister at Failsworth, near Manchester. He resigned his orders on conscientious grounds, moving his family in 1806 to London with intentions of going to India after he had been named private secretary to the [[Earl of Lauderdale]], who was to become [[Governor-General of India]]. This position did not materialize and Stevenson was instead nominated Keeper of the Treasury Records. Stevenson's wife, Elizabeth Holland, came from a prominent [[Midlands]] family that was well-connected with other Unitarian and prominent families like the [[Wedgwood]]s, the [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]]s and the [[Darwin-Wedgwood family|Darwin]]s, and when she died three months after giving birth to Gaskell she left a bewildered husband who saw no other alternative for young Elizabeth but to be sent away to live with her mother's sister Hannah Lumb, in [[Knutsford]], [[Cheshire]].<ref>Arthur Pollard, ''Mrs Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer'' (Manchester University Press, 1965, ISBN 0674577507), 12.</ref>
  
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'''Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell''' (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810&ndash;12 November 1865), was often referred to simply as '''Mrs. Gaskell''', was an [[England|English]] [[novelist]] and short story writer during the [[Victorian era]]. She is perhaps best known for her biography of [[Charlotte Bronte]].
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Gaskell's future situation while growing up was very uncertain as she had no personal wealth, and no firm home, even though she was a permanent guest at her aunt and grandparents house. Her father had married again to Catherine Thomson in 1814 and by 1815 the couple already had a male heir, William (born 1815) and a daughter, Catherine (born 1816). Although Gaskell would sometimes spend several years without seeing her father and his new family, her older brother John would often visit her in Knutsford. John had been early destined for the [[Royal Navy]], like his grandfathers and uncles, but he had no entry and had to go into the [[British Merchant Navy|Merchant Navy]] with the [[English East India Company|East India Company]]'s fleet of ships.<ref>Winifred Gérin, ''Elizabeth Gaskell'' (Oxford University Press, 1976, ISBN 0-19-281296-3), 10-17.</ref>
  
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==Life==
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John would go missing in 1827 during an expedition to [[India]]. Gaskell's father remained in London where he married and fathered other children.
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Gaskell was born Elizabeth Stevenson at 93 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London in 1810. Her mother, Eliza Holland, was from a prominent Midlands family that was well connected with other Unitarian and prominent families like the Wedgwoods and the [[Charles Darwin|Darwins]], but she died when Elizabeth was a child. Her father, William Stevenson, was a Unitarian minister who was also a writer. He remarried after Eliza's death.  
 
  
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Much of her childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with an aunt, Mrs Lumb, in Knutsford, a town she would later immortalise as ''Cranford''.
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Much of Elizabeth's childhood was spent in [[Cheshire]], where she lived with an aunt, Hannah Lumb, in [[Knutsford]], a town she would later immortalize as ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]''. They lived in a large redbrick house, Heathwaite, on Heathside (now Gaskell Avenue), which faces the large open area of [[Knutsford Heath]].
  
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She also spent some time in Newcastle upon Tyne and Edinburgh. Her stepmother was a sister of the Scottish miniature artist, William John Thomson, who painted a famous portrait of Elizabeth in 1832.
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She also spent some time in [[Newcastle upon Tyne]] (with Rev. William Turner's family) and [[Edinburgh]]. Her stepmother was a sister of the [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[portrait miniature|miniature artist]], [[William John Thomson]], who painted the famous 1832 portrait of Gaskell in Manchester. Also during this period, Gaskell met and married [[William Gaskell]], the minister at [[Cross Street Unitarian Chapel]], who had a literary career of his own. They honeymooned in [[North Wales]], staying with Elizabeth's uncle, Samuel Holland, who lived near [[Porthmadog]].
  
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In the same year, she married  William Gaskell, the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel in Manchester who had a literary career of his own. They settled in Manchester where the industrial surroundings would offer inspiration for her novels (in the ''industrial novel'' genre). The circles in which the Gaskells moved included literary greats, religious dissenters and social reformers, including William and Mary Howitt.
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==Married life and Plymouth Grove==
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[[Image:Elizabeth Gaskell - Project Gutenberg eText 19222.jpg|thumb|left|Elizabeth Gaskell—from the 1851 portrait by [[George Richmond]]]]
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The Gaskells settled in Manchester, where the industrial surroundings would offer inspiration for her novels (in the [[industrial novel|industrial genre]]). They had several children: a stillborn daughter in 1833, followed by Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily (1837), known as Meta, Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844-1845) and Julia Bradford (1846). Her daughter Florence married a barrister, Charles Crompton, in 1862.
  
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Gaskell died in Holybourne, Hampshire in 1865 aged 55.
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They rented a villa in [[84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester|Plymouth Grove]] in 1850, after the publication of Gaskell's first novel, and Gaskell lived in the house with her family until her death 15 years later.<ref name="Uglow">J. Uglow, ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories'' (Faber and Faber, 1993, ISBN 0-571-20359-0).</ref> All of Gaskell's books, except for one, were written at Plymouth Grove, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The circles in which the Gaskells moved included literary greats, religious dissenters and social reformers, including [[William Howitt|William]] and [[Mary Howitt]]. Visitors to Plymouth Grove included [[Charles Dickens]], [[John Ruskin]], [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] and American writer [[Charles Eliot Norton]], while conductor [[Charles Hallé]] lived close by, and taught the piano to one of Gaskell's four daughters. Close friend [[Charlotte Brontë]] is known to have stayed there three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet Gaskell's visitors.<ref name="Independent">Robert Nurden, [http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article353793.ece 'An ending Dickens would have liked'] ''Independent'' (26 March 2006). Retrieved June 2, 2008.</ref>
  
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==84 Plymouth Grove==
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Gaskell died in [[Holybourne]], [[Hampshire]] in 1865 aged 55. The house on Plymouth Grove remained in the Gaskell family until 1913.
  
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Gaskell purchased 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester in 1850, after the publication of her first book, and lived in the house, with her family, until her death 15 years later in 1865. All of Gaskell's books except for one were written in the house, while her husband, William Gaskell, held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The house was designed in the Greek Revival style by architect Richard Lane in circa. 1838, as part of a wider development of the area for the newly-emerging middle-class. The design of the building is quite unique; the house contains twenty-rooms spread over three levels with a rectangular front-porch containing four columns carved with a lotus leaf shape, reminiscent of the Tower of the Winds in Athens.
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==Works==
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Gaskell's first novel, ''[[Mary Barton]]'', was published anonymously in 1848. The best known of her remaining novels are ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' (1853), ''[[North and South (1854 novel)|North and South]]'' (1854), and ''[[Wives and Daughters]]'' (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her [[ghost story]] writing, aided by her friend [[Charles Dickens]], who published her work in his magazine ''[[Household Words]]''. Her ghost stories are quite distinct in style from her [[industrial novel|industrial fiction]] and belong to the [[Gothic fiction]] genre.
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Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions (including signing her name "Mrs. Gaskell"), Gaskell usually frames her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes, particularly those toward women, with complex narratives and dynamic female characters.<ref>Excluding Reference to Gaskell's Ghost Stories, M.H. Abrams, et al. (eds.), "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810-1865," ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century'', 7th ed., Vol. B (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001, ISBN 0-393-97304-2), DDC 820.8—dc21, LC PR1109.N6.</ref>
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In addition to her fiction, Gaskell also wrote the first biography of [[Charlotte Brontë]], which played a significant role in developing her fellow writer's reputation.
  
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The house is considered a 'historical gem' and visitors to the house included [[Charles Dickens]], [[John Ruskin]], [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] and American writer [[Charles Eliot Norton]], while conductor Charles Hallé lived close by, and taught the piano to one of Gaskell's four daughters. Close friend [[Charlotte Brontë]] is known to have stayed at the house three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet Gaskell's visitors.
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===Themes===
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[[Unitarian]]ism urged comprehension and tolerance upon its members and upon all fellow [[Christian]]s and, even though Gaskell tried to keep her own beliefs hidden, these were values Gaskell felt very strongly about and tried to include in her works, like in ''North and South'' where "Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm."<ref> Elizabeth Gaskell, ''North and South'' (Penguin Popular Classics, 1854-5, ISBN 978-0-140-62019-1), 227.</ref><ref>Angus Easson, ''Elizabeth Gaskell'' (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1979, ISBN 0-7100-0099-5), 12-17.</ref>
  
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The house, and the area, has suffered serious decline; today the area is neighboured by a housing estate, Manchester’s main Hospitals and an area housing large number of students from Manchester’s two universities. The neoclassical villa is in a very poor state of repair with severe structural problems. The building is listed as Grade II* and is citied on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register.
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===Mary Barton===
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The first half of the novel focuses mainly on the comparison between the rich and poor. In a series of set pieces across the opening chapters we are shown the humble lifestyle of the Barton's and Wilson's (most prominently in the chapter "A Manchester Tea-Party"), the devastating conditions of the Davenport household and the contrasting luxury of the Carson establishment (in the chapter "Poverty and Death"). A key symbol is five shillings; this is the amount John Barton receives for pawning most of his possessions, but also the loose change in Henry Carson's pocket.
  
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The house remained in the Gaskell family until 1913, when it was offered to many organisations, including the local authority. The University of Manchester purchased the building in 1969, converting it for use by the International Society. The university relinquished the building in 2000 despite the building being listed on the at Risk Register. The building was purchased in 2004 by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust who plan a £2.5m restoration of the building. The Trust plan to restore the building and open it to the public.
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Gaskell depicts the importance of the mother in a family through the visible decline in John Barton's physical and moral well-being after his wife's death and by Job Leigh's inability to care for Margaret as a baby in the chapter "Barton's London Experience."
  
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The house is within a five minute walk of Victoria Baths, another Victorian-era landmark requiring large amounts of restoration.
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The second half of the book deals mainly with the murder plot. [[redemption (religious)|Redemption]] is also a key aspect of the novel; as seen through the eventual outcome of the relationship between Messers Carson and Barton, but also in Gaskell's presentation of Esther, a "fallen woman." Her selfless nature and brutal honesty in confessing her own faults portrays her as a prostitute with a "heart of gold"&mdash;one of the early such depictions in nineteenth-century literature.
  
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==Works==
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Despite several protests to the contrary, Gaskell's aim is squarely on the class divide of nineteenth-century Great Britain. She openly pleads for reducing this divide through increased communication and, as a consequence, understanding between employers and workmen and generally through a more human behavior based on [[Christian]] principles, at the same time presenting her own fears of how the poor will eventually act in retaliation to their oppression.
  
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Gaskell's first novel, ''Mary Barton'', was published anonymously in 1848. ''Mary Barton'' has recently received attention from professors who wish to expand the canon of British literature known by American students.
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===Dialect usage===
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The best-known of her remaining novels are ''Cranford'' (1853), ''North and South'' (1854), and ''Wives and Daughters'' (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her [[ghost story]] writing, aided by her friend [[Charles Dickens]], who published her work in ''Household Words''. Her ghost stories are quite distinct in style from her [[industrial novel|industrial fiction]] and belong to the [[Gothic fiction]] genre.
+
Gaskell's style is notable for putting local [[dialect]] words into the voice of middle-class characters and of the narrator; for example in ''North and South'', Margaret Hale suggests ''redding up'' (tidying) the Bouchers' house and even offers jokingly to teach her mother words such as ''knobstick'' (strike-breaker).<ref name="Ingham">P. Ingham, 1995, Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of ''North and South''.</ref> Her husband collected Lancashire dialect, and Gaskell defended her use of dialect as expressing otherwise inexpressible concepts in an 1854 letter to [[Walter Savage Landor]]:<ref name="Ingham" />
  
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[[Image:North and South.jpg|thumb|A cover of Gaskell's ''[[North and South (1854 novel)|North and South]]'']]
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<blockquote>:'...you will remember the country people's use of the word "unked." I can't find any other word to express the exact feeling of strange unusual desolate discomfort, and I sometimes "potter" and "mither" people by using it.'<ref name="Letters">J. A. V. Chapple and A. Pollard (eds.), ''The Letters of Mrs Gaskell'', Mandolin (Manchester University Press, 1997).</ref></blockquote>
  
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Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions (including signing her name "Mrs. Gaskell"), Gaskell usually frames her stories as critiques of [[Victorian era]] attitudes, particularly those toward women, with complex narratives and dynamic women characters.<ref>Excluding Reference to Gaskell's Ghost Stories, Abrams, M.H., et. al. (Eds.) "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810-1865." ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century,'' 7th ed., Vol. B. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97304-2. DDC 820.8—dc21. LC PR1109.N6.</ref>
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She used the dialect word "nesh" (soft), which goes back to [[Old English]], in ''Mary Barton'':  
  
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In addition to her fiction, Gaskell also wrote the first biography of [[Charlotte Brontë]], which played a significant role in developing her fellow writer's reputation.
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<blockquote>"Sit you down here: the grass is well nigh dry by this time; and you're neither of you nesh folk about taking cold."<ref>E. Gaskell, 1848, ''Mary Barton'', chapter 1</ref></blockquote>
  
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===Dialect usage===
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and later in 'The Manchester Marriage' (1858):  
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Gaskell's style is notable for putting local [[dialect]] words into the voice of middle-class characters and of the narrator; for example in ''North and South'', Margaret Hale suggests ''redding up'' (tidying) the Bouchers' house and even offers jokingly to teach her mother words such as ''knobstick'' (strike-breaker).<ref name="Ingham">Ingham P. (1995) Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of ''North and South''</ref> Her husband collected Lancashire dialect, and Gaskell defended her use of dialect as expressing otherwise inexpressible concepts in an 1854 letter to Walter Savage Landor:<ref name="Ingham" />
 
  
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:'...you will remember the country people's use of the word "unked". I can't find any other word to express the exact feeling of strange unusual desolate discomfort, and I sometimes "potter" and "mither" people by using it.'<ref name="Letters">Chapple JAV, Pollard A, eds. ''The Letters of Mrs Gaskell''. Mandolin (Manchester University Press), 1997</ref>
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<blockquote>"Now, I'm not above being nesh for other folks myself. I can stand a good blow, and never change colour; but, set me in the operating-room in the Infirmary, and I turn as sick as a girl."
  
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The earliest traceable use of the dialect word ''nesh'' (soft) in literature was in ''The Manchester Marriage'', written by Gaskell in 1858:
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"At Mrs Wilson's death, Norah came back to them, as nurse to the newly-born little Edwin; into which post she was not installed without a pretty strong oration on the part of the proud and happy father; who declared that if he found out that Norah ever tried to screen the boy by a falsehood, or to make him nesh either in body or mind, she should go that very day."<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15252/15252.txt Victorian Short Stories, Stories Of Successful Marriages], The Project Gutenberg. Retrieved June 2, 2008.</ref></blockquote>
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:"Now, I'm not above being nesh for other folks myself. I can stand a good blow, and never change colour; but, set me in the operating-room in the Infirmary, and I turn as sick as a girl."
 
  
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:"At Mrs Wilson's death, Norah came back to them, as nurse to the newly-born little Edwin; into which post she was not installed without a pretty strong oration on the part of the proud and happy father; who declared that if he found out that Norah ever tried to screen the boy by a falsehood, or to make him nesh either in body or mind, she should go that very day."<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15252/15252.txt Victorian Short Stories, Stories Of Successful Marriages], The Project Gutenberg</ref>
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==Legacy==
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Gaskell is still best known for her biography of her friend, and fellow novelist, [[Charlotte Bronte]].  
  
 
== Publications ==
 
== Publications ==
 
=== Novels ===
 
=== Novels ===
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* ''Mary Barton'' (1848)  
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* ''[[Mary Barton]]'' (1848)  
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* ''Cranford'' (1851-3)
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* ''[[Cranford (novel)|Cranford]]'' (1851–3)
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* ''Ruth'' (1853)
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* ''[[Ruth (novel)|Ruth]]'' (1853)
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* ''North and South'' (1854-5)
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* ''[[North and South (1854 novel)|North and South]]'' (1854–5)
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* ''Sylvia's Lovers'' (1863)
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* ''[[Sylvia's Lovers]]'' (1863)
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* ''Cousin Phillis'' (1864)
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* ''[[Cousin Phillis]]'' (1864)
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* ''Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story'' (1865)
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* ''[[Wives and Daughters|Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story]]'' (1865)
  
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=== Collections ===
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=== Novellas and collections ===
 
* ''The Moorland Cottage'' (1850)
 
* ''The Moorland Cottage'' (1850)
 
* ''The Old Nurse's Story'' (1852)
 
* ''The Old Nurse's Story'' (1852)
Line 70: Line 106:
  
 
===Short stories (partial) ===
 
===Short stories (partial) ===
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* ''Libbie Marsh's Three Eras'' (1847)
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* ''Christmas Storms and Sunshine'' (1848)
 
* ''The Squire's Story'' (1853)
 
* ''The Squire's Story'' (1853)
 
* ''Half a Life-time Ago'' (1855)
 
* ''Half a Life-time Ago'' (1855)
 
* ''An Accursed Race'' (1855)
 
* ''An Accursed Race'' (1855)
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* ''The Manchester Marriage'' (1858), a chapter of "[[A House to Let]]", co-written with [[Charles Dickens]], [[Wilkie Collins]], and [[Adelaide Anne Procter]]
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* ''The Poor Clare'' (1856)
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* "The Manchester Marriage" (1858), a chapter of ''[[A House to Let]]'', co-written with [[Charles Dickens]], [[Wilkie Collins]], and [[Adelaide Anne Procter]]
 
* ''The Half-brothers'' (1859)
 
* ''The Half-brothers'' (1859)
 
* ''The Grey Woman'' (1861)
 
* ''The Grey Woman'' (1861)
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* ''Christmas Storms and Sunshine''
 
  
 
=== Non-fiction ===
 
=== Non-fiction ===
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* ''The Life of Charlotte Bronte'' (1857)
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* ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'' (1857)
  
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== References ==
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==Notes==
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<div><references/></div>
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{{reflist}}
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==References==
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*Abrams, M.H., et al. (eds.). "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810-1865." ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century, 7th ed., Vol. B. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97304-2
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*Chapple J. A. V., and A. Pollard (eds.). ''The Letters of Mrs Gaskell''. Mandolin. Manchester University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-1901341034
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*Gérin, Winifred. ''Elizabeth Gaskell'', 10-17. Oxford University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-19-281296-3
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*Pollard, Arthur. ''Mrs Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer'', 12. Manchester University Press, 1965. ISBN 0674577507
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*Uglow J. ''Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories''. Faber and Faber, 1993. ISBN 0-571-20359-0
  
 
==External links ==
 
==External links ==
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*[http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Gaskell.html The Gaskell Web]
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All links retrieved February 13, 2024.
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*[http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/gaskell/gaskellov.html Elizabeth Gaskell at Victorian Web]
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*[http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article353793.ece Independent (Newspaper) article on 84 Plymouth Grove]
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*[http://www.gaskellsociety.co.uk The Gaskell Society]
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*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2004_46_thu_05.shtml BBC Radio Programme on 84 Plymouth Grove]
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*[http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/gaskell/index.html Elizabeth Gaskell at Victorian Web]
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*[http://local.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=84+Plymouth+Grove&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=12.474378,41.132813&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=53.46372,-2.221234&spn=0.001507,0.006781&t=h&om=1&iwloc=addr Satellite Image of Plymouth Grove]
 
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*[http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Plymouth.html A history of 84 Plymouth Grove and pictures from now and then]
 
 
* {{gutenberg author| id=Elizabeth+Cleghorn+Gaskell | name=Elizabeth Gaskell}}
 
* {{gutenberg author| id=Elizabeth+Cleghorn+Gaskell | name=Elizabeth Gaskell}}
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*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2305 Memorial Page for Elizabeth Gaskell at FindaGrave]
  
 
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
 
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
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{{credit|110584214}}
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[[category:Writers and poets]]
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[[category:Biography]]
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{{credit|Elizabeth_Gaskell|211668591|Elizabeth_Gaskell|214002583|Mary_Barton|207378081}}

Latest revision as of 16:19, 13 February 2024


Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell 1832.jpg
Elizabeth Gaskell, in the 1832 miniature by William John Thomson
Born September 29 1810(1810-09-29)
Chelsea, London
Died November 12 1865 (aged 55)
Holybourne, Hampshire
Occupation Novelists
Nationality British
Writing period 1848–1865
Spouse(s) William Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; September 29, 1810 – November 12, 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.[1]

Early life

Gaskell was born Elizabeth Stevenson on September 29, 1810, at 93 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, which was then on the outskirts of London. Gaskell was the eighth, and last, of her parent's children, the only one except the first-born, John (born 1806), to survive infancy. Her father, William Stevenson, was a Scottish Unitarian minister at Failsworth, near Manchester. He resigned his orders on conscientious grounds, moving his family in 1806 to London with intentions of going to India after he had been named private secretary to the Earl of Lauderdale, who was to become Governor-General of India. This position did not materialize and Stevenson was instead nominated Keeper of the Treasury Records. Stevenson's wife, Elizabeth Holland, came from a prominent Midlands family that was well-connected with other Unitarian and prominent families like the Wedgwoods, the Turners and the Darwins, and when she died three months after giving birth to Gaskell she left a bewildered husband who saw no other alternative for young Elizabeth but to be sent away to live with her mother's sister Hannah Lumb, in Knutsford, Cheshire.[2]

Gaskell's future situation while growing up was very uncertain as she had no personal wealth, and no firm home, even though she was a permanent guest at her aunt and grandparents house. Her father had married again to Catherine Thomson in 1814 and by 1815 the couple already had a male heir, William (born 1815) and a daughter, Catherine (born 1816). Although Gaskell would sometimes spend several years without seeing her father and his new family, her older brother John would often visit her in Knutsford. John had been early destined for the Royal Navy, like his grandfathers and uncles, but he had no entry and had to go into the Merchant Navy with the East India Company's fleet of ships.[3]

John would go missing in 1827 during an expedition to India. Gaskell's father remained in London where he married and fathered other children.

Much of Elizabeth's childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with an aunt, Hannah Lumb, in Knutsford, a town she would later immortalize as Cranford. They lived in a large redbrick house, Heathwaite, on Heathside (now Gaskell Avenue), which faces the large open area of Knutsford Heath.

She also spent some time in Newcastle upon Tyne (with Rev. William Turner's family) and Edinburgh. Her stepmother was a sister of the Scottish miniature artist, William John Thomson, who painted the famous 1832 portrait of Gaskell in Manchester. Also during this period, Gaskell met and married William Gaskell, the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, who had a literary career of his own. They honeymooned in North Wales, staying with Elizabeth's uncle, Samuel Holland, who lived near Porthmadog.

Married life and Plymouth Grove

Elizabeth Gaskell—from the 1851 portrait by George Richmond

The Gaskells settled in Manchester, where the industrial surroundings would offer inspiration for her novels (in the industrial genre). They had several children: a stillborn daughter in 1833, followed by Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily (1837), known as Meta, Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844-1845) and Julia Bradford (1846). Her daughter Florence married a barrister, Charles Crompton, in 1862.

They rented a villa in Plymouth Grove in 1850, after the publication of Gaskell's first novel, and Gaskell lived in the house with her family until her death 15 years later.[4] All of Gaskell's books, except for one, were written at Plymouth Grove, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The circles in which the Gaskells moved included literary greats, religious dissenters and social reformers, including William and Mary Howitt. Visitors to Plymouth Grove included Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Harriet Beecher Stowe and American writer Charles Eliot Norton, while conductor Charles Hallé lived close by, and taught the piano to one of Gaskell's four daughters. Close friend Charlotte Brontë is known to have stayed there three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet Gaskell's visitors.[5]

Gaskell died in Holybourne, Hampshire in 1865 aged 55. The house on Plymouth Grove remained in the Gaskell family until 1913.

Works

Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost story writing, aided by her friend Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are quite distinct in style from her industrial fiction and belong to the Gothic fiction genre.

Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions (including signing her name "Mrs. Gaskell"), Gaskell usually frames her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes, particularly those toward women, with complex narratives and dynamic female characters.[6]

In addition to her fiction, Gaskell also wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë, which played a significant role in developing her fellow writer's reputation.

Themes

Unitarianism urged comprehension and tolerance upon its members and upon all fellow Christians and, even though Gaskell tried to keep her own beliefs hidden, these were values Gaskell felt very strongly about and tried to include in her works, like in North and South where "Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm."[7][8]

Mary Barton

The first half of the novel focuses mainly on the comparison between the rich and poor. In a series of set pieces across the opening chapters we are shown the humble lifestyle of the Barton's and Wilson's (most prominently in the chapter "A Manchester Tea-Party"), the devastating conditions of the Davenport household and the contrasting luxury of the Carson establishment (in the chapter "Poverty and Death"). A key symbol is five shillings; this is the amount John Barton receives for pawning most of his possessions, but also the loose change in Henry Carson's pocket.

Gaskell depicts the importance of the mother in a family through the visible decline in John Barton's physical and moral well-being after his wife's death and by Job Leigh's inability to care for Margaret as a baby in the chapter "Barton's London Experience."

The second half of the book deals mainly with the murder plot. Redemption is also a key aspect of the novel; as seen through the eventual outcome of the relationship between Messers Carson and Barton, but also in Gaskell's presentation of Esther, a "fallen woman." Her selfless nature and brutal honesty in confessing her own faults portrays her as a prostitute with a "heart of gold"—one of the early such depictions in nineteenth-century literature.

Despite several protests to the contrary, Gaskell's aim is squarely on the class divide of nineteenth-century Great Britain. She openly pleads for reducing this divide through increased communication and, as a consequence, understanding between employers and workmen and generally through a more human behavior based on Christian principles, at the same time presenting her own fears of how the poor will eventually act in retaliation to their oppression.

Dialect usage

Gaskell's style is notable for putting local dialect words into the voice of middle-class characters and of the narrator; for example in North and South, Margaret Hale suggests redding up (tidying) the Bouchers' house and even offers jokingly to teach her mother words such as knobstick (strike-breaker).[9] Her husband collected Lancashire dialect, and Gaskell defended her use of dialect as expressing otherwise inexpressible concepts in an 1854 letter to Walter Savage Landor:[9]

:'...you will remember the country people's use of the word "unked." I can't find any other word to express the exact feeling of strange unusual desolate discomfort, and I sometimes "potter" and "mither" people by using it.'[10]

She used the dialect word "nesh" (soft), which goes back to Old English, in Mary Barton:

"Sit you down here: the grass is well nigh dry by this time; and you're neither of you nesh folk about taking cold."[11]

and later in 'The Manchester Marriage' (1858):

"Now, I'm not above being nesh for other folks myself. I can stand a good blow, and never change colour; but, set me in the operating-room in the Infirmary, and I turn as sick as a girl." "At Mrs Wilson's death, Norah came back to them, as nurse to the newly-born little Edwin; into which post she was not installed without a pretty strong oration on the part of the proud and happy father; who declared that if he found out that Norah ever tried to screen the boy by a falsehood, or to make him nesh either in body or mind, she should go that very day."[12]

Legacy

Gaskell is still best known for her biography of her friend, and fellow novelist, Charlotte Bronte.

Publications

Novels

  • Mary Barton (1848)
  • Cranford (1851–3)
  • Ruth (1853)
  • North and South (1854–5)
  • Sylvia's Lovers (1863)
  • Cousin Phillis (1864)
  • Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story (1865)

Novellas and collections

  • The Moorland Cottage (1850)
  • The Old Nurse's Story (1852)
  • Lizzie Leigh (1855)
  • My Lady Ludlow (1859)
  • Round the Sofa (1859)
  • Lois the Witch (1861)
  • A Dark Night's Work (1863)

Short stories (partial)

  • Libbie Marsh's Three Eras (1847)
  • Christmas Storms and Sunshine (1848)
  • The Squire's Story (1853)
  • Half a Life-time Ago (1855)
  • An Accursed Race (1855)
  • The Poor Clare (1856)
  • "The Manchester Marriage" (1858), a chapter of A House to Let, co-written with Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Adelaide Anne Procter
  • The Half-brothers (1859)
  • The Grey Woman (1861)

Non-fiction

  • The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857)

Notes

  1. ↑ "Children in Early Victorian England: Infant Feeding in Literature and Society 1837-1857." Tropical Pediatrics and Environmental Child Health, August 1978. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  2. ↑ Arthur Pollard, Mrs Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer (Manchester University Press, 1965, ISBN 0674577507), 12.
  3. ↑ Winifred Gérin, Elizabeth Gaskell (Oxford University Press, 1976, ISBN 0-19-281296-3), 10-17.
  4. ↑ J. Uglow, Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (Faber and Faber, 1993, ISBN 0-571-20359-0).
  5. ↑ Robert Nurden, 'An ending Dickens would have liked' Independent (26 March 2006). Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  6. ↑ Excluding Reference to Gaskell's Ghost Stories, M.H. Abrams, et al. (eds.), "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810-1865," The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century, 7th ed., Vol. B (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001, ISBN 0-393-97304-2), DDC 820.8—dc21, LC PR1109.N6.
  7. ↑ Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (Penguin Popular Classics, 1854-5, ISBN 978-0-140-62019-1), 227.
  8. ↑ Angus Easson, Elizabeth Gaskell (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1979, ISBN 0-7100-0099-5), 12-17.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 P. Ingham, 1995, Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of North and South.
  10. ↑ J. A. V. Chapple and A. Pollard (eds.), The Letters of Mrs Gaskell, Mandolin (Manchester University Press, 1997).
  11. ↑ E. Gaskell, 1848, Mary Barton, chapter 1
  12. ↑ Victorian Short Stories, Stories Of Successful Marriages, The Project Gutenberg. Retrieved June 2, 2008.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Abrams, M.H., et al. (eds.). "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810-1865." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century, 7th ed., Vol. B. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97304-2
  • Chapple J. A. V., and A. Pollard (eds.). The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Mandolin. Manchester University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-1901341034
  • Gérin, Winifred. Elizabeth Gaskell, 10-17. Oxford University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-19-281296-3
  • Pollard, Arthur. Mrs Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer, 12. Manchester University Press, 1965. ISBN 0674577507
  • Uglow J. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber, 1993. ISBN 0-571-20359-0

External links

All links retrieved February 13, 2024.

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