
Op mijn weblog over de brontesisters plaats ik regelmatig informatie over haar. Zoals bijvoorbeeld over haar huis in Manchester wat is onlangs opgeknapt.
She met Charlotte Brontë in August 1850 at the Lake District summer home of social reformer James Kay-Shuttleworth, and they instantly became friends. Charlotte wrote of Elizabeth that she was "a woman of whose conversation and company I should not soon tire. She seems to me kind, clever, animated and unaffected". elizabeth-gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell schreef meerdere boeken en 1 ervan heb ik nu gelezen. Ik heb van het boek genoten. Het is geschreven in een vlotte, leesbare stijl. Het is dat mensen zich verplaatsen in een omnibus en koetsjes, anders had ik kunnen denken een modern boek te lezen. De thematiek is wel van die tijd. Margaret Hale woont met haar ouders in een prachtige, landelijke omgeving. Het leven is rustig en goed. Haar vader, die predikant is, krijgt gewetenswroeging. Ik begrijp niet helemaal waarover hij wroeging krijgt, misschien dat mensen uit die tijd dit beter konden begrijpen. Hij geeft zijn predikanten plaats op en verhuist met vrouw en dochter naar het industriële Noorden. In de 19-e eeuw komen de eerste textiel machines die het vroegere handwerk overnamen, met arbeiders zonder rechten. De stoom van de fabrieken vervuilen de stad, de stad is lawaaiig, er heerst onder de arbeiders veel woede, het verkeer is druk, het is er vies en het stinkt.

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In Mary Barton and North and South, Gaskell uses the form of the typical Victorian romance novel to bring to the fore certain important social issues, such as industry, the role of women, and the differences between our internal and external behaviours in different settings. It is in how she strays from the traditional superficiality of the style, that much of the interest in her novels lies. She sets these novels in a socially acceptable way to the audience of her day, but deliberately turns the work round so that it is by no means a simple romance. Her ability and willingness to do this is a credit to her writing skills, and should not be used to denigrate her work.
Gaskell's ability to combine an apparently superficially attractive writing style with serious attitudes, something which can be argued works more in her favour than against her, is particularly apparent in North and South (1854
There was her charity work, too - visiting the poor and taking up cases of abused children. Elizabeth would also involve herself in other peoples' lives, such as advising Charlotte Bronte on whether or not to marry a man she didn't love.
Elizabeth became part of several social circles. There were her Unitarian friends - informed, clever and concerned. There was a sisterhood of free-thinking women, including Florence Nightingale and Charlotte Bronte.
But it was the literary circles into which she was invited that gave her greatest joy and in which she would find herself most at home. The-amazing-secret-life-Cranford-creator-Elizabeth-Gaskell
List of Key Works by Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton (1848) Takes the perspective of mill workers in the 1840's in Manchester, England. Addresses the issues of working class life and struggle while maintaining a sentimental attitude throughout.
Cranford (1853) Gaskell's most famous work of nonfiction. Tells of the uneventful lives of the inhabitants of a small country town in Victoria. She uses irony to examine the diverse experiences of both men and women.
North and South (1855) Almost the opposite of Mary Barton in that it take the role of the upper class sense and sensibility.
The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857) Gaskell is most known for this biography. Though she attempts to let Bronte tell her own story through her letters, Gaskell gives the highest honor to one of her best friends. literature/elizabeth-gaskell