ELIZABETH GASKELL (1810-1865)
English author, wrote Mary Barton: A Tale
of Manchester Life (1848);
The
eyes of John Barton grew dim with tears.
Rich and poor, masters
and men, were then brothers in the deep suffering of the heart; for was not this
the very anguish he had felt for little Tom, in years so long gone by, that
they seemed like another life!
The mourner before him
was no longer the employer; a being of another race, eternally placed in
antagonistic attitude; going through the world glittering like gold, with a
stony heart within, which knew no sorrow but through the accidents of Trade; no
longer the enemy, the oppressor, but a very poor and desolate old man.
The sympathy for
suffering, formerly so prevalent a feeling with him, again filled John Barton's
heart, and almost impelled him to speak (as best he could) some earnest, tender
words to the stern man, shaking in his agony.
But who was he, that he
should utter sympathy or consolation? The cause of all this woe.
Oh, blasting thought!
Oh, miserable remembrance! He had forfeited all right to bind up his brother's
wounds.--Ch. 35
As a Unitarian
dissenter living in the industrial town of Manchester, Gaskell wrote with
compassion but at-times bold frankness about controversial issues of the day
including the general poverty of the working classes, the hardships of men
working in mines and factories, and women working in mills. After enjoying an
idyllic middle class childhood in the country, she was shocked and saddened to
see families living in slums eking out a miserable existence. Time and again
she would cause controversy among her privileged Victorian readership with her
characters and themes. While trying to balance her domestic duties with
burgeoning literary pursuits, Gaskell inevitably drew upon her own experiences
with various charitable organisations in assisting the poor to create her now
famous fictitious works. She also wrote numerous essays and short stories, and
for her efforts earned the respect of such esteemed authors of her day as Thomas Carlyle and Charles Kingsley. She was friends with and maintained
correspondence with Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among other fellow authors who praised her
works and shared her values and morals. Today Gaskell's works continue to be
inspiration to other authors, have been the subject of film adaptations, and
many are still in print today.
Elizabeth Cleghorn
Stevenson was born on 29 September
Elizabeth's education
started early: her aunts taught her to read and she attended Unitarian Sunday
school. At the age of eleven she went off to boarding school, then
"Avonbank" in Stratford-upon-Avon. Upon finishing school Elizabeth
returned to Chelsea to live with her father, who had remarried in 1814. His
health was failing and she cared for him in his last days. After his death
Elizabeth stayed with different friends and relatives including the Reverend
William Turner in Newcastle upon Tyne. A staunch proponent of reform and the
abolition of oppressive and inhumane practices such as slavery, his outspoken criticisms
profoundly affected Elizabeth's values and her perspective on life.
On 30 August 1832 at
the Knutsford Parish Church, Elizabeth married lecturer, educator, and
Unitarian minister William Gaskell (1805-1884). He was soon to become minister
of the Cross Street Chapel in Manchester, the city the couple settled in after
their honeymoon. Six children would be born to the Gaskells; a stillborn
daughter in 1833; Marianne (1834-1920), Margaret Emily (1837-1913), Florence
Elizabeth (1842-1881), William (1844-1845), and Julia Bradford (b.1846). As the
wife of a minister and mother to four growing girls, Gaskell's life was hectic:
they both taught Sunday school and volunteered for much-needed charitable
causes in Manchester. With its slums and families in need of food, clothing,
and shelter, there was no end to their work. While the Gaskell's lives were
dominated by his ministry and social activities, Reverend William was a prime
supporter of his wife's writing career. She found the time to write poetry and
sketches and he assisted her in research and editing. Blackwood's Magazine
printed her first story "Sketches Among the Poor" in 1837. Her
schooldays-inspired short story "Clopton House" was published in
William Howitt's collection Visits to Remarkable Places in 1840. The
following year the Gaskells enjoyed a trip to the Rhine.
When Reverend Gaskell
was appointed professor of Literature and History at Manchester Academy in 1846
they were now living in a larger home on Upper Rumford Street. The Gaskells
were soon acquainted with many other prominent Unitarians from Europe and North
America, and Elizabeth started a prolific period of writing. She had numerous
short stories including "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras: A Lancashire
Tale" (1847), "Christmas Storms and Sunshine" (1848), "Hand
and Heart" (1849), "Lizzie Leigh: A Domestic Tale" (1850), and
her novella "The Moorland Cottage" (1850) published in various
periodicals and magazines including Howitt's Journal, Ladies'
Companion, Harper's, the Pall Mall Gazette, Cornhill
Magazine, and Charles Dickens's All the Year Round (formerly Household
Words).
Said to have been
inspired by the death of her son William, Gaskell's first novel Mary Barton:
A Tale of Manchester Life was published anonymously in 1848. It immediately
caused a sensation and when it was deduced that she was the author she suffered
accusations of being overly harsh in her portrayals of employers and working
conditions. It was followed by another highly controversial work exposing the
hypocrisy of church and state, her story of an unmarried mother Ruth
(1853). Cranford (1853), first serialised in Dickens's periodical Household
Words in 1851, met with much more favourable reviews, the public taking kindly
to Gaskells' genteel and humorous look at Victorian society;
In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappears; he is either fairly frightened to death by being the only man in the Cranford evening parties, or he is accounted for by being with his regiment, his ship, or closely engaged in business all the week in the great neighbouring commercial town of Drumble, distant only twenty miles on a railroad. In short, whatever does become of the gentlemen, they are not at Cranford. What could they do if they were there?
Now living in Plymouth Grove
in Manchester, the Gaskells' summered in the Lake District. Elizabeth met Charlotte Bronte in 1850, and they struck up a great
friendship, Elizabeth visiting Haworth in 1853. After the death of Charlotte in
1855, her father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte, for himself and on behalf of
Brontes's husband Arthur Bell Nicholls, asked Gaskell to write her biography in
response to gossip and speculation. The Life of Charlotte Bronte was published in 1857. Gaskell spent much time
researching, gathering material, and reading the letters of the eldest Bronte
sister, and while she had set out to write a biography, the first edition was
seen as an artful weaving of fact and fiction. People who were blamed for the
demise of the Brontes spoke out, threatening legal action--even Patrick was
dismayed by the at-times mythical content. Apologies and revisions ensued but
regardless of the controversy, it was a pioneering effort in the biography genre.
North and South (1855) was Gaskell's next novel,
and she continued to write short stories including "My Lady Ludlow"
(1858), "The Crooked Branch" (1859), "A Dark Night's Work"
(1863), and "Cousin Phillis" (1863). Gaskell also travelled with her
daughters to Italy, Scotland, England, and France. Sylvia's Lovers
(1863) was first serialised in Cornhill Magazine. Wives and Daughters
(1866), said by many to be Gaskell's most mature and complex work was also
serialised in Cornhill but unfortunately remained unfinished at the time
of her death. In 1865, at the age of fifty-five, Elizabeth Gaskell died
suddenly of a heart attack at her cottage the Lawn near Alton in Holybourne,
Hampshire on 12 November 1865. She now rests in the Brookstreet Chapel's
graveyard in the town of her childhood, Knutsford. William survived her by
almost twenty years and now rests beside her.
Biography
written by C. D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc. 2007. All Rights
Reserved.
20 Octubre de 2008, 18.45
URL: http://www.online-literature.com/elizabeth_gaskell/
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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