Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (aka Mrs. Gaskell) was a Victorian-era novelist and short-story writer. She is well-known for her 1857 biography of Charlotte Brontë and for her ghost stories.

Blurb: "Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell née Stevenson (1810-1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. She married William Gaskell, the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel in Manchester. They settled in Manchester, where the industrial surroundings would offer inspiration for her novels. Her first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life, was published anonymously in 1848. The best known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1855), and Wives and Daughters (1866). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost story writing, aided by her friend Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her other works include The Grey Woman (1865), Lois the Witch and The Old Nurse's Story and Other Tales."

Bibliography

Novels

• Mary Barton (1848)
• Cranford (1851-3)
• Ruth (1853)
• North and South (1854-5)
• Sylvia's Lovers (1863)
• Cousin Phillis (1864)
• Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story (1865)

Collections

• The Moorland Cottage (1850)
• The Old Nurse's Story (1852)
• Lizzie Leigh (1855)
• My Lady Ludlow (1859)
• Round the Sofa (1859)
• Lois the Witch (1861)
• A Dark Night's Work (1863)

Short stories (partial)

• The Squire's Story (1853)
• Half a Life-time Ago (1855)
• An Accursed Race (1855)
• The Manchester Marriage (1858), a chapter of "A House to Let", co-written with Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Adelaide Anne Procter
• The Half-brothers (1859)
• The Grey Woman (1861)
• Christmas Storms and Sunshine
• "The Old Nurse's Story"

Non-fiction

• The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857)

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