Elizabeth
Gaskell
Þ Born: Elizabeth Stevenson, 29 September 1810. Chelsea,
London
Þ
Died: 12 November 1865
(aged 55) Holybourne, Hampshire
Þ
Occupation: Novelist
Þ
Nationality: British
Þ
Writing period:
1848–1865
Þ
Spouse(s): William
Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn
Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 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.
ü
EARLY LIFE
Gaskell was
born Elizabeth Stevenson on 29 September 1810, at 93 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea,
which was then on the outskirts of London. Gaskell was the eighth and last of
her parents' 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, but resigned his orders on conscientious
grounds, moving his family to London in 1806 with intention 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 materialise 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.
While
growing up Gaskell's future 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 the couple 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. John went missing in 1827 during an
expedition to India.
Much of
Elizabeth's childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt
Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, a town she would later immortalise as Cranford. They
lived in a large red brick 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
in 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 spent their honeymoon in North Wales, staying with Elizabeth's uncle,
Samuel Holland, who lived near Porthmadog.
ü
MARRIED LIFE AND PLYMOUTH
GROVE
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 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.
Gaskell died
in Holybourne, Hampshire in 1865 aged 55. The house on Plymouth Grove remained
in the Gaskell family until 1913.
Elizabeth
Gaskell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- Windows Internet Explorer
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Octubre de 2008, 16:32
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URL:
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Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Natalia Quintana Morán
naquinmo@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press
Þ MORE BIOGRAPHIES: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]