Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810 - 1865) was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Gaskell was born Elizabeth Stevenson on 29 September 1810, at 93 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. She was the eighth child of William Stevenson and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel. They settled in Manchester and had several children: a stillborn daughter in 1833, followed by Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844-1845), and Julia Bradford (1846). They lived in a villa in Plymouth Grove, Manchester.

Gaskell wrote lots of short stories and novels. Her best known novels are: Mary Barton (1848), Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost story writing, aided by her friend Charles Dickens. Gaskell also wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë.

For more information visit The Gaskell Web

You can read Mrs Gaskell’s novels and stories at Project Gutenberg

Visit LibriVox ,which is a digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers.

Watch some BBC trailers:

Wives and Daughters (1999)

North and South (2004)



Cranford (2007)