(1810-1865)
[Illustration: ELIZABETH S. GASKELL]
Critics agree in placing the novels of Mrs. Gaskell on a level with
the works of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. It is more than
probable that future generations will turn to her stories for correct
pictures of simple every-day life that must fade in the swift
succession of years. She has been compared to a naturalist who knows
intimately the flora and fauna of his native heath.
Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson was born in Chelsea, England, September
29th, 1810, the daughter of William Stevenson, a literary man,
who was keeper of the records of the Treasury. She lived with her
aunt at Knutsford in Cheshire, was sent to a private school in
Stratford-on-Avon, and visited London and Edinburgh, where her beauty
was much admired. In 1832 she was married to the Rev. William Gaskell,
minister of a Unitarian chapel in Manchester. Mrs. Gaskell did not
begin to write until she had reached middle age, and then chiefly to
distract her thoughts after the death of their only son in 1844. Her
first book, 'Mary Barton,' published anonymously in 1848, achieved
extraordinary success. This was a "novel with a purpose," for Mrs.
Gaskell believed that the hostility between employers and employed,
which constantly disturbed the manufacturing beehive of Manchester,
was caused by mutual ignorance. She therefore set herself the task of
depicting faithfully the lives of the people around her. It must be
remembered, too, that the social types chosen by her were at that
moment peculiarly interesting to a public weary of the novel of
fashionable high life. The story provoked much public discussion; and
among other critics, the social economist Mr. W. R. Greg, in his
'Essay on Mary Barton,' published in 1849, took the part of the
manufacturer. 'Mary Barton' has been translated into French, German,
and other languages, including Hungarian and Finnish. The story has
for its central theme the gradual degeneration of John Barton, a
workman who has a passionate hatred of the classes above him, and who,
embittered by poverty and the death of his son and wife, joins the
law-breakers of the town, and finally murders Henry Corson, a master
manufacturer. 'North and South,' published in 1855, was written from
the point of view of the masters, an admirable contrast to Barton
being found in Thornton, the hero of this novel.
In 1850, when Dickens was about to establish Household Words, he
invited Mrs. Gaskell to contribute. This magazine contained her story
'Lizzie Leigh' and those immortal pictures of village life known as
'Cranford.' Mrs. Gaskell's other novels are: 'Ruth,' the tragical
story of a pretty young milliner's apprentice; 'Sylvia's Lovers,'
whose scene is Monkhaven (Whitby), at the end of the last century;
'Cousin Phillis,' a simple story of a farmer's daughter, which
appeared first in the Cornhill Magazine in 1863-64; and 'Wives and
Daughters,' also contributed to the Cornhill, and left unfinished by
her death in Manchester, November 12th, 1865. By many persons the last
novel is considered her best work, owing to its strength of
characterization. Molly Gibson, the heroine; Cynthia, a heartless
coquette; Squire Hamley and his sons Roger and Osborne, of Hamley
Hall; and the Earl of Cumnor and his family at the Towers,--all are
treated with impartial skill. Her famous 'Life of Charlotte Bronte'
appeared in 1857. She became acquainted with Miss Bronte in 1850, and
they were friends at once.
A collected edition of Mrs. Gaskell's works, published in seven
volumes in 1873, includes the short stories 'The Grey Woman,' 'Morton
Hall,' 'Mr. Harrison's Confessions,' 'A Dark Night's Work,' 'The
Moorland Cottage,' 'Round the Sofa,' 'The Old Nurse's Story,' 'The
Well of Pen-Morfa,' 'The Sexton's Hero,' 'Lois the Witch,' and others.
Cranford is identified as the town of Knutsford. Its population
consists of widows and maiden ladies, in bonds to their ancient
gentility. With deft touch Mrs. Gaskell brings out the humor and
pathos of these quaint characters, her finest creation being Miss
Matty Jenkyns.