Elizabeth Gaskell's novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor.
26 Facts About Elizabeth Gaskell
2.
Elizabeth Gaskell's work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature.
3.
Elizabeth Gaskell was the youngest of eight children; only she and her brother John survived infancy.
4.
Elizabeth Gaskell's future while she was growing up was uncertain, as she had no personal wealth and no firm home, though she was a permanent guest at her aunt and grandparents' house.
5.
Elizabeth Gaskell's temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life.
6.
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.
7.
Elizabeth Gaskell's aunts gave her the classics to read, and she was encouraged by her father in her studies and writing.
8.
Elizabeth Gaskell spent some time in Newcastle upon Tyne and from there made the journey to Edinburgh.
9.
On 30 August 1832 Elizabeth married Unitarian minister William Gaskell, in Knutsford.
10.
Manchester's industrial surroundings and books borrowed from the library influenced Elizabeth Gaskell's writing in the industrial genre.
11.
In March 1835 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.
12.
Elizabeth Gaskell brought the teeming slums of manufacturing in Manchester alive to readers as yet unacquainted with crowded narrow alleyways.
13.
In Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell wrote her remaining literary works, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study.
14.
In early 1850 Elizabeth Gaskell wrote to Charles Dickens asking for advice about assisting a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison.
15.
In June 1855 Patrick Bronte asked Elizabeth Gaskell to write a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and The Life of Charlotte Bronte was published in 1857.
16.
In 1859 Elizabeth Gaskell travelled to Whitby to gather material for Sylvia's Lovers, which was published in 1863.
17.
Elizabeth Gaskell died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in Holybourne, Hampshire.
18.
Elizabeth Gaskell's grave is near the Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford.
19.
Elizabeth Gaskell became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words.
20.
Elizabeth Gaskell usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters.
21.
Elizabeth Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen.
22.
Elizabeth Gaskell then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman.
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.
On 25 September 2010, a memorial to Elizabeth Gaskell was dedicated 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.