Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell

Highly influential among her peers, Gaskell was the author of more than six novels—including the critically acclaimed North and South and Cranford—and was a regular contributor for Dickens’ periodicals. She forged friendships with many contemporary authors—most famously, perhaps, with Charlotte Brontë. Brontë’s biography, written by Gaskell, is regarded as one of the finest examples of life-writing to this day. Famed for her adeptness at capturing local dialect and the voices of middle-class characters, Gaskell skillfully imbued all her writing with a sense of the intimate and everyday. Due to her prolific letter writing, impeccable records remain of her own daily experiences and thoughts. In this new biography, a brilliant light is shed on the life of the woman behind the writing—including her writing themes, her literary successes, her marriage, and her humanitarian work.