ELIZABETH GASKELL (1810 - 1865)
Elizabeth
Gaskell, novelist who championed the working classes ©
Gaskell was a Victorian novelist,
also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.
Elizabeth Stevenson was
born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister.
After her mother's early death, she was raised by an aunt who lived in
Knutsford in Cheshire. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian
minister, and they settled in the industrial city of Manchester.
Motherhood and the
obligations of a minister's wife kept her busy. However, the death of her only
son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published
anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success, winning the praise of Charles
Dickens and Thomas Carlyle.
Dickens invited her to
contribute to his magazine, 'Household Words', where her next major work,
Cranford, appeared in 1853. 'North and South' was published the following year.
Gaskell's work brought her many friends, including the novelist Charlotte
Brontë. When Charlotte died in 1855, her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell
to write her biography. The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) was written with
admiration and covered a huge quantity of firsthand material with great
narrative skill.
Gaskell died on 12
November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.
BBC- History
– Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 – 1865) – Windows Internet Explorer
20 Octubre 2008. 17:22
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gaskell_elizabeth.shtml
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Natalia Quintana Morán
naquinmo@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia Press
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