HOME AGAIN - WIVES AND DAUGHTERS
The successive attacks on her were, however,
having their effect and 'The Life of Charlotte Bronte' marks the end of her
career as a controversial writer. Her remaining books, 'Sylvia's Lovers',
'Cousin Phyllis' and 'Wives and Daughters', are novels written in an
increasingly mature, gentle and tranquil vein.
By far the most important, and one
of the greatest in Knutsford interest, is her last work, 'Wives and Daughters',
a leisurely novel of country lives and loves. Many Knutsford buildings and
personages figure in 'Wives and Daughters'.
In writing of this novel, it is
impossible to improve on the comment of the distinguished woman writer, Miss
Rosamund Lehmann:
"'Wives and Daughters', Mrs.
Gaskell's last novel, is also incomparably her richest and most satisfying. In
it, her creative imagination comes to its fullness - a fruit ripened as it were
in a memorable year for bloom and crop. A great patient season of sun has gone
to its maturing. The rains that freshened it have been temperate and all
propitious; and although there is age in it, there is also youth, renewal and
the promise of next season's secret buds."
THE END OF AN ERA
But towards the end of 'Wives and
Daughters' in 1865, Mrs. Gaskell was showing signs of weariness. She wrote to
her publishers: 'I am so tired of spinning my brain, when I am feeling far from
strong. I begin to think that Heaven will be a place where all books and
newspapers will be prohibited by St Peter, and the amusement will be driving in
open carriages and eating strawberries and cream for ever...'
On November 12th, 1865, with only a
few pages of 'Wives and Daughters' to be written, Mrs. Gaskell was sitting
round the fire after tea with her daughters in the country house in Hampshire
which she had just bought in readiness for her husband's retirement. Suddenly,
in the middle of a sentence, she fell forward and died of a heart attack.
Whether she had previous attacks we do not know - if she had, she said nothing
about them. She was 55.
The body of Elizabeth Gaskell was
brought to Knutsford and buried in the Unitarian Churchyard, where her grave is
carefully tended. Here, in the town she loved, her memory is ever green.
Academic year 2009/2010
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Natalia Quintana Morán
naquinmo@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia Press
Knutsford
Cheshire / Virtual Knutsford for all you need to konw about Knutsford.
19 Septiembre de 2009, 17:24
URL: http://www.virtual-knutsford.co.uk/frameset.php?main=/gaskell_main.htm
MORE
ARTICLES: [1] [2] [3]
[4] [5] [6]