1. Elizabeth Gaskell's novels offer detailed studies of Victorian society, including the lives of the very poor.
26 Facts About Elizabeth Gaskell
1. 2.
Elizabeth Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London, now 93 Cheyne Walk.
3.
Elizabeth Gaskell was the youngest of eight children; only she and her brother John survived infancy.
4.
Elizabeth Gaskell moved to London in 1806 on the understanding that he would be appointed private secretary to James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale, who was to become Governor General of India.
5.
Much of Elizabeth Gaskell's childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, the town she immortalized as Cranford.
6.
Elizabeth Gaskell grew to be a beautiful young woman, well-groomed, tidily dressed, kind, gentle, and considerate of others.
7.
Elizabeth Gaskell's temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life.
8.
Elizabeth Gaskell's aunts gave her the classics to read, and she was encouraged by her father in her studies and writing.
9.
Elizabeth Gaskell spent some time in Newcastle upon Tyne and from there made the journey to Edinburgh.
10.
On 30 August 1832 Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell married Unitarian minister William Elizabeth Gaskell, in Knutsford.
11.
Manchester's industrial surroundings and books borrowed from the library influenced Elizabeth Gaskell's writing in the industrial genre.
12.
In March 1835 Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell began a diary documenting the development of her daughter Marianne: she explored parenthood, the values she placed on her role as a mother; her faith, and, later, relations between Marianne and her sister, Meta.
13.
Elizabeth Gaskell brought the teeming slums of manufacturing in Manchester alive to readers as yet unacquainted with crowded narrow alleyways.
14.
In Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell wrote her remaining literary works, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study.
15.
In early 1850 Elizabeth Gaskell wrote to Charles Dickens asking for advice about assisting a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison.
16.
In June 1855, Patrick Bronte asked Elizabeth Gaskell to write a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and consequently she published The Life of Charlotte Bronte in 1857, a significant development in Elizabeth Gaskell's literary career.
17.
In 1859 Elizabeth Gaskell travelled to Whitby to gather material for Sylvia's Lovers, which was published in 1863.
18.
Elizabeth Gaskell died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in Holybourne, Hampshire.
19.
Elizabeth Gaskell's grave is near the Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford.
20.
Elizabeth Gaskell became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words.
21.
Elizabeth Gaskell usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters.
22.
Elizabeth Gaskell was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen, especially in North and South, which borrows liberally from the courtship plot of Pride and Prejudice.
23.
Elizabeth Gaskell's style is notable for putting local dialect words into the mouths of middle-class characters and the narrator.
24.
Elizabeth Gaskell used the dialect word "nesh", which goes back to Old English, in Mary Barton:.
25.
In 2010, a memorial to Elizabeth Gaskell was unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
26.
Manchester City Council have created an award in Elizabeth Gaskell's name, given to recognize women's involvement in charitable work and improvement of lives.