Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell was a British novelist, born Elizabeth Stevenson in London in 1810. Much of her childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with an aunt at Knutsford, a town she would later immortalise as Cranford. In 1832, she married a Unitarian minister, William Gaskell, and they settled in Manchester. The industrial surroundings would also offer inspiration for her novels.

Her first novel, Mary Barton[?], was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1855), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She was a friend of Charles Dickens, and wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte. She died suddenly in 1865. Mrs Gaskell today ranks as one of the most highly-regarded British novelists of the Victorian era.

External Links

e-texts of some of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's works:

• An Accursed Race (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=68)
• Cousin Phillis (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=447)
• Cranford (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=451)
• Doom Of The Griffiths (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=541)
• Half A Life-Time Ago (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=820)
• The Half-Brothers (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=822)
• Mary Barton (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1287)
• My Lady Ludlow (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1404)
• North And South (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1452)
• The Poor Clare (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1811)
• Ruth (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2049)
• Wives And Daughters (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1871)