Elizabeth Gaskell – English novelist, born on 29 September 1810

HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Elizabeth Gaskell, born 29 September 1810

“I’ll not listen to reason… reason always means what someone else has got to say.” (Cranford)

I adore Gaskell’s novels. She has such sympathy for her characters, is so good at seeing both sides of a question, and writes with such clarity and exactness of emotion. Her North and South is one of my very favourite Victorian novels, and the TV version starring Richard Armitage as John Thornton is possibly my favourite TV serial of all time!

Cranford, Mary Barton and Wives and Daughters are all fantastic novels. The only one of hers I’m not keen on is Sylvia’s Lovers – it is too gloomy and sad, though I do love the setting of Whitby in Yorkshire. Cranford is a gem of a book. It was an extraordinary achievement of Gaskell’s in making Miss Matty into a lovable heroine – she is middle-aged, not especially bright, a little stubborn, and she leads a very dull life, and yet Elizabeth Gaskell makes us love Miss Matty and admire her.

Elizabeth Gaskell is one of England’s great novelists and is well worth getting to know. She aged 55, on 12 November 1865.

Tell me your thoughts in the comment area below.

   Susannah Fullerton: A Readers Guide to North and South
  Susannah Fullerton: Companion Guide – Elizabeth Gaskell

  The Gaskell Society
  Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

   North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
   The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell
   Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
   Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
   Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
   Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
   Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

I only recommend books I have read and know. Some of these links are my affiliate links. If you buy a book by clicking on one of these links I receive a small commission. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but does help cover the cost of producing my free newsletter.

 

Leave a comment.

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until approved.

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_PLUS]

Body image credit- Elizabeth Gaskell: 1851 portrait by George Richmond [cropped] by User Phrood, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=260569

Elizabeth Gaskell