Elizabeth Stevenson was born in Chelsea, London, in
1810. Her mother, worn out by giving birth to eight children, of whom only two survived,
died thirteen months later. Elizabeth's father, William Stevenson, was a Unitarian but
had given up preaching to become the Keeper of the Treasury Records. Unable to raise her himself,
Stevenson sent Elizabeth to live with her aunt Hannah Lamb, who lived in
Knutsford, Cheshire.
Elizabeth shared her father's religious beliefs and
attended the local Unitarian
chapel and taught at Sunday School. At the age of eighteen, Elizabeth's
brother, John Stevenson was drowned at sea. The news devastated her father and
he went into a deep depression. Elizabeth now returned to her father's
household in London
where she nursed him until his death in 1829.
A distant relative, William Turner, a Unitarian
minister in Newcastle,
invited Elizabeth to live with his family. Elizabeth's was deeply influenced by
Turner's religious beliefs and charitable works. On a visit to Turner's
daughter, who lived in Manchester,
Elizabeth met William
Gaskell, a minister at their local Unitarian
chapel. They quickly developed a close friendship and were married on 30th
August, 1832.
Most of William Gaskell's parishioners were textile workers
and Elizabeth was deeply shocked by the poverty she witnessed in Manchester.
Elizabeth, like her husband, became involved in various charity work in the
city. She also started writing a novel that attempted to illustrate the
problems faced by people living in industrial towns and cities.
Mary Barton:
A Tale of Manchester Life was published in 1848. With its casts of
working-class characters and its attempt to address key social issues such as urban poverty, Chartism
and the emerging trade union
movement, Gaskell's novel shocked Victorian society. It also was greatly
admired by other writers such as Charles
Dickens, William
Thackeray, John Ruskin,
Charles Kingsley
and Thomas
Carlyle. Dickens was so impressed that he arranged for Gaskell's
next novel, Cranford,
to be serialised in his journal, Household
Words (1851-1853).
Other novels written by Gaskell include Ruth
(1853), North and
South (1855), and Sylvia's
Lovers (1863). In her books Gaskell expressed a deep sympathy
for the poor and suggested the need for large-scale social reform. Gaskell also
wrote an acclaimed biography of Charlotte
Bronte. This also created controversy and some allegedly libellous
statements had to be removed before The Life of
Charlotte Bronte could be published. Elizabeth Gaskell died in
1865.
Elizabeth
Gaskell – Windows Internet Explorer
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20 Octubre de 2008, 18:58
URL: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jgaskell.htm
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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