The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell

The most comprehensive book available for students of this Victorian novelist.

Jill L. Matus (Edited by)

9780521609265, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 February 2007

238 pages
22.8 x 16.7 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'Elizabeth Gaskell has deservedly at last reached the ranks of the top ten Victorian writers.' Reference Reviews

In the last few decades Elizabeth Gaskell has become a figure of growing importance in the field of Victorian literary studies. She produced work of great variety and scope in the course of a highly successful writing career that lasted for about twenty years from the mid-1840s to her unexpected death in 1865. The essays in this Companion draw on recent advances in biographical and bibliographical studies of Gaskell and cover the range of her impressive and varied output as a writer of novels, biography, short stories, and letters. The volume, which features well-known scholars in the field of Gaskell studies, focuses throughout on her narrative versatility and her literary responses to the social, cultural, and intellectual transformations of her time. This Companion will be invaluable for students and scholars of Victorian literature, and includes a chronology and guide to further reading.

Chronology of Elizabeth Gaskell Nancy Weyant
1. Introduction Jill L. Matus
2. The life and letters of E. C. Gaskell Deirdre d'Albertis
3. Mary Barton and North and South Jill L. Matus
4. Cranford and Ruth Audrey Jaffe
5. Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë Linda Peterson
6. Sylvia's Lovers and other historical fiction Marion Shaw
7. Cousin Phillis, Wives and Daughters, and modernity Linda K. Hughes
8. Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter pieces Shirley Foster
9. Gaskell, gender, and the family Patsy Stoneman
10. Gaskell and social transformation Nancy Henry
11. Unitarian dissent John Chapple
12. Gaskell then and now Susan Hamilton
Guide to further reading Natalie Rose
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]