Happy Birthday to Elizabeth Gaskell, author of “The Life of Charlotte Brontë”
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (September 29, 1810 – November 12, 1865), often referred to as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer.
- Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.
- Her first novel, “Mary Barton”, was published in 1848.
- Gaskell’s “The Life of Charlotte Brontë,” published in 1857, was the first biography of Brontë.
- Some of Gaskell’s best known novels are “Cranford” (1851–53), “North and South” (1854-55), and “Wives and Daughters” (1865).
