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Elizabeth Gaskell
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Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
[According to Flora Thompson], "Modern writers who speak of the booklessness of the poor at that time must mean books as possessions...there were always books to borrow"... One could borrow Pamela and the Waverley novels from a neighbour, Christies Old Organ from the Sunday School library. Her uncle, a shoemaker, had once carted home from a country-house auction a large collection of books that no-one would buy: novels, poetry, sermons, histories, dictionaries. She read him Cranford while he worked in his shop... Later she could borrow from her employer (the village postmistress) Shakespeare and Byron's Don Juan, as well as Jane Austen, Dickens and Trollope from the Mechanics' Institute library.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
'Your biography will always be a model work, & one of wh. the Interest is perpetual'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Caroline Clive Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
'I was reading of Charlotte Bronte the other day, and could not help comparing myself with the picture more or less as I read. I don't suppose my powers are equal to hers - my work to myself looks perfectly pale and colourless beside hers - but yet I have had far more experience and, I think, a fuller conception of life'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Oliphant Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
'[Helen Crawfurd] derived lessons in socialism and feminism from Carlyle, Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, Ibsen's Ghosts and A Doll's House, Dickens, Disraeli's Sybil, Mary Barton, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tennyson's The Princess, Longfellow, Whitman, Burns, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, George Sand, the Brontes, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Crawfurd Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Ruth
Charlotte Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, 12 January 1853, regarding timings of publications of her and Gaskell's new works: ' ... I had felt and expressed to Mr Smith -- reluctance to come in the way of "Ruth". Not that I think she -- (bless her very sweet face! I have already devoured vol.1st) would suffer from contact with "Villette" ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : novels
Patrick Bronte to Elizabeth Gaskell, June 1853, regarding Gaskell's planned visit to Haworth: 'From what I have heard my Daughter say of you, and from the perusal of your literary works, I shall give you a most hearty welcome, whenever you may come --'
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Patrick Bronte Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : [unknown]
[Communist activists often displayed hostility to literature, including Willie Gallacher. However his 'hostility to literature abated' in later years and in his later memoirs] 'he confessed a liking for Burns, Scott, the Brontes, Mrs Gaskell, children's comics and Olivier's film of Hamlet... Of course he admired Dickens, and not only the obvious Oliver Twist: the communist MP was prepared to admit that he appreciated the satire of the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Gallacher Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'Reading aloud from "Cranford" one evening ... [Mary Crawford Fraser's] aunt [Elizabeth Sewell] came to a sudden full stop [on coming to episode unfit for children] ... skipped a little, and took up the story later on.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'Mary Crawford Fraser recalled how a contemporary at the boarding-school run by her aunt, with a background in trade, was expelled for reading from unsuitable passages of "Cranford" in copy left in drawing-room used for music practice.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosie Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
H. J. Jackson notes pencilled marginalia by Harriet Martineau in her copy of Elizabeth Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857), which include "corrections and contradictions" to Gaskell's text.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'we spent the evening pleasantly, in spite of ailing bodies, reading Mrs Gaskell's pretty "Cranford".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford - 'Poor Peter' section
'Reading, in the evening, "Poor Peter".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot and G.H. Lewes Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
'In the evening I began the "Life of Charlotte Bronte" aloud. Deeply interesting.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
'We are reading aloud Huber's "History of Bees", and the "Life of Charlotte Bronte" for the second time.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot (pseud) and G.H. Lewes Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
'I think my introduction to the authoress of that fine book Mary Barton must be postponed.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Ruth
'I hope some woman will arise who, with power like, or equal to, C.B.'s [Charlotte Bronte's], will bring us up to high art again, and not help to sink us in the subjective slough as she is doing. - "Ruth" won't help us. All strewn with beauties as it is, it is sadly feeble and
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : [possibly the story, 'Stopped Payment, at Cranford' in Household Words, April 1853]
'I hope some woman will arise who, with power like, or equal to, C.B.'s [Charlotte Bronte's], will bring us up to high art again, and not help to sink us in the subjective slough as she is doing. - "Ruth" won't help us. All strewn with beauties as it is, it is sadly feeble and
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'In another house I found a tattered copy of Scott's "Kenilworth" and a quite new copy of "Cranford". Among some old books in my grandmother's cottage I found a curious one entitled "Adam's First Wife". This was a sort of history of the Garden of Eden which rather discounted the "rib theory" and raised some doubt in my mind as to Adam's innocence in the pre-apple days.' [continuation of discussion of Adam etc]
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Hannah Mitchell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
''A grand old book, "The Pilgrim's Progress"! But I've something here you'll like better. "Cranford". Ever heard of it Laura? No, I thought not. Well you've got a treat in store.' They sampled "Cranford" that afternoon.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Thompson Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell's Journal, 'Tuesday Evening, 9th June [1857]': 'I have just finished Mrs. Gaskell's [italics]Life of Miss Bronte[end italics]. Years ago, when [italics]Jane Eyre[end italics] came out I read it. People said it was coarse, and I felt it was, but I felt also that the person who wrote it was not necessarily coarse-minded, that the moral of the story was intended to be good; but that it failed in detail. The life is intensely, painfully interesting. A purer, more high-minded person it seems there could scarcely be, wonderfully gifted, and with a man's energy and power of will and passionate impulse; and yet gentle and womanly in all her ways [goes on to reflect upon Bronte's depressive temperament, and to characterise her religious feeling as 'abstract belief not personal love']'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
Mrs Hugh Fraser, describing life at the select girls' boarding school she attended, run by Elizabeth Missing Sewell and her sisters at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight: 'the only unpleasant incident of my whole stay in Bonchurch was connected with the evening readings. The book in question was "Cranford," and we were all electrified when Aunt Elizabeth [the pupils' name for Sewell] came to a full stop in the beginning of the part where the nephew plays a practical joke -- something connected with a baby -- on the old ladies. "I will leave this out," said Miss Sewell, looking quite stern. The she turned the page and took up the story further on. [goes on to relate how a new girl who was caught looking for the offending passage in the book was subsequently expelled]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Missing Sewell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
Mrs Hugh Fraser, describing an incident at the select girls' boarding school she attended, run by Elizabeth Missing Sewell and her sisters at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, after Elizabeth Sewell had omitted a passage of Gaskell's Cranford as unsuitable to be read aloud to her pupils: '"Cranford" was left on the table in the drawing room [...] Alas, poor Rosie [a new girl from what Fraser describes as a 'a family in business'] could not resist the temptation. When I came into the room the next morning I found her devouring the forbidden page [goes on to report how the girl had to leave the school, and how Sewell and her sisters acknowledged themselves as having been to blame for admitting a child who, 'with her bar sinister of trade, had had no opportunity of knowing what honour meant.']'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: 'Rosie' Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Wives and Daughters
Thursday 30 Auguust: 'My goodness, the wind! Last night we looked at the meadow trees, flinging about [...] I read such a white dimity rice puddingy chapter of Mrs Gaskell in the gale "Wives and Daughters"'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
'In looking over the book I see numerous errors regarding the part written in the Lancashire dialect; 'gotten' should always be 'getten'; &c. - In the midst of all my deep & great annoyance, Mr Carlyle's letter has been most valuable; and has given me almost the only unmixed pleasure I have yet received from MB.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Libbie Marsh's Three Eras
''Libbie Marsh' I send too; one of my cousins liked it so much that I gave it to her, and she published it on her own behalf'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Fanny Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Ruth
'I am so glad you liked 'Ruth'. I was so anxious about her, and took so much pains over writing it, that I lost my own power of judging, and could not tell whether I had done it well or ill. I only knew how very close to my heart it had come from'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: R. Monckton Milnes Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
'you are not coming up to a certain Mr Hibbert who is now reading Mary Barton for the [italics] fourteenth [end italics] time.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mr Hibbert Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : North and South
'I'm glad she [Charlotte Bronte] likes 'North and South'. I did not think Margaret was so over good. What would Miss B. say to Florence Nightingale? I can't imagine!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Bronte Print: Serial / periodical
Elizabeth Gaskell : Ruth
'[A. Stanley] told me something I liked to hear, & so I shall tell it to you. In Moscow he had seen a good deal of a priest of the Greek Church, - a pure Muscovite - but a very intelligent man. Speaking of forms of religion in England this priest was so well acquainted with the position of dissenting ministers with regard to their congregations that A S was surprised, & enquired where & how he got his knowledge. 'From an English novel. Ruth.''
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'about "Cranford" I am so much pleased you like it. It is the only one of my own books that I can read again; - but when I am ailing or ill, I take "Cranford" and - I was going to say, [italics] enjoy [end italics] it! (but that would not be pretty!) laugh over it afresh! [...] I am so glad your mother likes it too! [Gaskell then relates an anecdote that she 'dared not' put in the book]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Margaret Ruskin Print: Book
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell : Bessy's Troubles at Home
'The children who like Bessy's Troubles are great geese, & no judges at all, which children generally are, for it is complete rubbish I am sorry to say'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: 'children', presumably known to Marianne Gaskell Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 13 December 1850: 'For Mary Barton, I am a little, little disappointed, do you know. I have just done reading it. There is power & truth -- she can shape & she can pierce -- but I wish half the book away, it is so tedious every now & then, -- and besides I want more beauty, more air from the universal world -- these class-books must always be defective as works of art [...] Then the style of the book is slovenly, and given to a kind of phraseology which would be vulgar even in colloquial English. Oh -- it is a powerful book in many ways -- You are not to set me down as hypercritical. Probably the author will write herself clear of many of her faults: she has strength enough.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Unknown
Elizabeth Gaskell : Sylvia's Lovers
'Sylvia's Lovers 1863, though I have not finished it, has been an eye-opener after the twitterings of Cranford. The sensuousness of the sailor, the characterisation, without fuss, of S's parents, the amusing deterioration of S's friends after marriage. And the wisdom in this account of old-fashioned country mentality: [quotes passage from chapter 7 of text, opening 'Taken as a general rule, it may be said that few knew what manner of men they were,' before commenting further on text]'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
'So I turned, as often, for help and advice to Mrs.Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Bronte", which Winifred and I had read and admired together.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vera Brittain Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell :
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Stansfield Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cousin Phillis
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Celia Burrow Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte, The
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Evans Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Cranford
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : North and South
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Rawlings Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Mary Barton
'The subject of Mrs Gaskell was then taken & Chas E. Stansfield gave an interesting account of her life & work. Following this Miss Stevens showed us some pictures of Mrs Gaskell and her homes, Mrs Burrow read from "Cousin Phillis" and Mrs Evans from the "Life of Charlotte Bronte". A dramatic reading from Cranford by Helen Rawlings, Janet Rawlings, Muriel B. Smith & Howard R. Smith followed. Alfred Rawlings read from "North & South" & Howard R. Smith read from Mary Barton.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
[From letter to Clement Shorter from the niece of John Nunn:] 'In 1857 I was staying with Mr Nunn at Thorndon, in Suffolk, of which place he was rector. The good man had never read a novel in his life, and of course had never heard of the famous Bronte books. I was reading Mrs Gaskell's Life [of Charlotte Bronte] with absorbed interest, and one day my uncle said, "I have heard lately a name mentioned with which I was well familiar. What is it all about?" He was told, when he added, "Patrick Bronte [father of Charlotte] was once my greatest friend. Next morning my uncle brought out a thick bundle of letters and said, "These were written by Patrick Bronte. They refer to his spiritual state. I have read them once more, and now I destroy them."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte
[Sidney Biddell to Ellen Nussey, 15 February 1885:]
'I am having a great treat in Cross's "Life of George Eliot." Most wonderful woman! [...] Of Mrs Gaskell's "Life" she writes to a friend in 1857: "But there is one new book we have been enjoying [...] the "Life of Charlotte Bronte"'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot Print: Book
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell : Cranford
'My reader is a great success. It is ''Cranford'', and ''D-n Dr Johnson'' comes in. She stopped dead and said ''a slang expression''. I can't perceive she is ever amused.'
