In the last few decades Elizabeth Gaskell has become a figure of growing importance in the field of Victorian literary studies. She produced work of great variety and scope in the course of a highly successful writing career that lasted for about twenty years from the mid-1840s to her unexpected death in 1865. The essays in this Companion draw on recent advances in biographical and bibliographical studies of Gaskell and cover the range of her impressive and varied output as a writer of novels, biography, short stories, and letters. The volume, which features well-known scholars in the field of Gaskell studies, focuses throughout on her narrative versatility and her literary responses to the social, cultural, and intellectual transformations of her time. This Companion will be invaluable for students and scholars of Victorian literature, and includes a chronology and guide to further reading.

Chronology of Elizabeth Gaskell Nancy Weyant; 1. Introduction Jill L. Matus; 2. The life and letters of E. C. Gaskell Deirdre d'Albertis; 3. Mary Barton and North and South Jill L. Matus; 4. Cranford and Ruth Audrey Jaffe; 5. Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë Linda Peterson; 6. Sylvia's Lovers and other historical fiction Marion Shaw; 7. Cousin Phillis, Wives and Daughters, and modernity Linda K. Hughes; 8. Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter pieces Shirley Foster; 9. Gaskell, gender, and the family Patsy Stoneman; 10. Gaskell and social transformation Nancy Henry; 11. Unitarian dissent John Chapple; 12. Gaskell then and now Susan Hamilton; Guide to further reading Natalie Rose; Index.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, also known as Mrs Gaskell, was an English author, biographer, and short story writer. Her stories provide a vivid image of many levels of Victorian society, including the very impoverished. Her debut work, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. The first biography of Charlotte Bronte was The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1857. In her biography, she wrote solely about the moral and sophisticated portions of Bronte's life; the rest she left out, concluding that some, more lurid aspects were better kept buried. Gaskell's best-known novels include Cranford (1851-1853), North and South (1854-1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864-1866), all of which were adapted for television by the BBC. Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on September 29, 1810, in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London (now 93 Cheyne Walk). Anthony Todd Thomson delivered her, and his sister Catherine eventually became Gaskell's stepmother. She was the youngest of eight children, and only she and her brother John survived infancy. Her father, William Stevenson, a Unitarian from Berwick-upon-Tweed, was preacher at Failsworth, Lancashire, but resigned on ethical reasons. He traveled to London in 1806 with the aim of heading to India after being appointed private secretary to the Earl of Lauderdale, who would later become Governor General of India.