Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

A revolutionary social and political commentary, North and South solidified Gaskell's place in the company of Victorian England's finest novelists.

North and South

Wives and Daughters

CRANFORD; ED. BY PATRICIA INGHAM.

MARY BARTON; ED. BY SHIRLEY FOSTER.

A ghostly child roams the Northumberland moors, while fairytale characters gather at a strange party, in these two Victorian gothic tales.

Old Nurse's Story

Ruth

'It is in every way worthy of what one great woman should have written of another.' Patrick Bronte Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857) is a pioneering biography of one great Victorian woman novelist by another. Gaskell was a friend of Charlotte Bronte, and, having been invited to write the offical life, determined both to tell the truth and to honour her friend. She contacted those who had known Charlotte and travelled extensively in England and Belgium to gather material. She wrote from a vivid accumulation of letters, interviews, and observation, establishing the details of Charlotte's life and recreating her background. Through an often difficult and demanding process, Gaskell created a vital sense of a life hidden from the world. This edition is based on the Third Edition of 1857, revised by Gaskell. It has been collated with the manuscript, and the previous two editions, as well as with Charlotte Bront'e's letters, and thus offers fuller information about the process of composition than any previous edition.

The Life of Charlotte Brontë

Based on three Elizabeth Gaskell novels The Cranford Chronicles follows the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford, a small Cheshire market town, during one extraordinary year.In this witty and poignant story the railway is pushing its way relentlessly towards the town from Manchester, bringing fears of migrant workers and the breakdown of law and order. The arrival of handsome young Doctor Harrison causes yet further agitation not just because of his revolutionary methods but also because of his effect on the hearts of the ladies. Meanwhile Miss Matty Jenkyns nurses her own broken heart after she was forced to give up the man she loved when she was a young girl.

The Cranford Chronicles

Follows the life story of a very different sister and brother, Maggie and Edward Browne, children of the late curate of Combehurst, who live with their grieving widow mother in the moorland cottage of the novel title. For years Maggie, gentle, dutiful, and loving, does what she can on behalf of her brother, the overbearing and selfish Edward, and yet their mother continues to prefer her son to the very end. A complicated and touching story of familial bonds and the search for happiness by the talented contemporary of Charlotte Brontë. --Publisher.

The Moorland Cottage

"A young English orphan arrives in America to be greeted by an atmosphere of shadowy terror and a wave of Puritan suspicion. She settles with her uncle's family in Salem, Massachusetts, on the eve of the world's most notorious witch hunt." "Lois Barclay is a typical ingenue: a well of affection and understanding waiting to be tapped. The New England she experiences, however, is prey to a host of fears - of Indians, of witches, of the Evil One himself. Lois finds all her attempts at friendship misunderstood, her Anglican upbringing a source of mistrust and censure, and her very attractiveness a potential curse. In this moving novella, Gaskell provides a fictionalised account of one of the victims of the Salem witch trials of 1692, using it to highlight the very human dangers of religious bigotry and sexual repression."--Jacket.

Lois the Witch

Nord e sud

Jenny Uglow

A haunting, beautifully controlled novella, Cousin Phyllis is considered to be among Elizabeth Gaskell's finest short works. Lodging with a minister on the outskirts of London, Paul Manning is initially dismayed to discover that the uncle he must visit in the country is also a churchman. Yet far from the oppressively religious household he envisages, Manning is delighted to meet his genial relations—not least, his cousin Phyllis. But when Phyllis falls for the charms of his more sophisticated colleague, Manning's family ties render him powerless to prevent the inevitable heartbreak that ensues. Collaborator and friend of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865) is a leading figure in Victorian literature.

Cousin Phillis

The haunting novella The Poor Clare is one of Elizabeth's Gaskell's Gothic tales. It tells the story of Bridget Fitzgerald, who unwittingly puts a curse on her own estranged daughter and the granddaughter she did not know existed. When she discovers that the curse has fallen on her own kin, Bridget submits herself to the rituals of an obscure religious sect, hoping to lift the curse. The Poor Clare sensitively treats issues of class and Catholic and Protestant religious tension in Victorian England, making this an innovative and thrilling gem from Gaskell's wide-ranging oeuvre.

The Poor Clare

A poignant tale about illicit love and regrets, ending in delight. It deals with the story of a young girl Lizzie who commits sin and has to face the repercussions. Gaskell brilliantly portrays the deep and true relations of a family and ends the story with a moving reunion. Touching and emotional ...

Lizzie Leigh

Lois the Witch (Hesperus Classics)

Mr. Harrison's Confessions

The Manchester Marriage

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell nee Stevenson (1810-1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Bronte. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. She married William Gaskell, the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel in Manchester. They settled in Manchester, where the industrial surroundings would offer inspiration for her novels. Her first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life, was published anonymously in 1848. The best known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1855), and Wives and Daughters (1866). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost story writing, aided by her friend Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her other works include The Grey Woman (1865), Lois the Witch and The Old Nurse's Story and Other Tales.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

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