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By: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865)

Book cover Wives and Daughters (Dramatic Reading)

Molly and her father have lived alone since the death of her mother. Now Mr Gibson decides it will be in Molly's best interests for him to marry again. The new "Mama" brings to the household many changes, including a glamorous new step-sister. Mrs Gibson starts scheming to have Cynthia marry one of the sons of the local squire, but she does not understand Cynthia's reluctance or why Molly is meeting Mr Preston in the forest. Secrets, love affairs and society gossip abound in this social commentary novel written by Mrs Gaskell ...

Book cover Short Stories (Household Words 1850-53)

Elizabeth Gaskell was a regular contributor to Charles Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, from 1850 through to 1853 In addition to three serialized novels, Cranford, North and South, and My Lady Ludlow, Dickens published 18 shorter works by Gaskell, which made her the major literary contributor to the magazine apart from Dickens himself. This collection brings together all of the short stories and non-fiction pieces that Gaskell published in the magazine between 1850 and 1853. Lizzie Leigh and The Heart of John Middleton are examples of Gaskell's writing on the working classes of the industrial north of England, while the Well of Pen Morfa is set in rural North Wales...

Book cover Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (Version 2)

"Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life" was Mrs Gaskell's first full-length novel. It was published anonymously in that tumultuous year of political change, 1848 - only a few months after the Communist Manifesto co-authored by her fellow Manchester-resident, Friedrich Engels. Engels's experience as agent in his father's cotton-spinning factory motivated him to write "The Condition of the Working Class in England", a classic account of the sufferings of the poor under the factory-system. Elizabeth...

Book cover Mr. Harrison's Confessions

It is asserted that the inspiration for Elizabeth Gaskell's marvellous stories of Cranford was her childhood home of Knutsford, a small town in Cheshire and to where she returned for a while as a young woman. This assertion is born out by an essay she wrote in 1849 entitled The Last Generation in England, in which she writes about "The town in which I once resided ...". There can be little doubt when reading this that it provided her with the template for Cranford.In 1851 the year she began to write Cranford, she also wrote a novella entitled Mr...

Book cover Short stories (Early works 1837-1852)

A collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's early short stories. Following the publication of Mary Barton in 1848, Gaskell published many of her short works for Charles Dickens's Household Words magazine between 1850 and 1858. Her earlier works were published in a variety of venues including Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine , William Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places , Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress , the Sunday School Penny Magazine , Sartain’s Union Magazine and the Ladies Companion and Monthly Magazine . Summary by Phil Benson

Book cover Short Stories (Household Words, 1854-58)

Elizabeth Gaskell published 18 short works in Charles Dickens' Household Words between 1850 and 1858. This collection follows the collection of the 1850-1853 works, with recordings of 7 Household Words pieces published between 1854 and 1858. The collection includes two of Gaskell's most important shorter works: Half a Lifetime Ago, set in the English Lake District, and The Poor Clare, in which the bewitched heroine is pursued by a mischievous double. The Sin of a Father and The Manchester Marriage are both tales with a message. The collection begins with three documentary pieces that emerged from Gaskell's travels in France.

Book cover Short Stories (All the Year Round, 1859-1863)

In 1859 Charles Dickens launched a new weekly journal, All the Year Round, to replace Household Words. Elizabeth Gaskell remained a prolific contributor until 1863. Her fictional contributions feature strong female characters and have a darker tone than her previous works, reflecting the fashion for Gothic fiction of the 1860s and her travels in Europe. They include two of her best known shorter works: Lois the Witch, a heartfelt story of a young English girl who becomes of a victim of the Salem witch trials, and The Grey Woman, a powerful tale of a deceived wife's flight from her husband, a nobleman who turns out to be a leader of the French 'chauffeurs'...


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