Elizabeth Gaskell
BIOGRAPHIES
1. Elizabeth Gaskell - The Early Years by John Chapple
2. Elizabeth Gaskell by Jenny Uglow
3. The Gypsy - Batchelor of Manchester
ELIZABETH GASKELL - The Early Years
by John Chapple
Published in 1997 by Manchester University Press
Available from Amazon ISBN 0-7190-2550-8
Elizabeth Gaskell - The Early Years is a book of scholarly excellence
using new evidence in order to portray the cultural background in which
Elizabeth Stevenson grew up. Extensive footnoting at the end of each chapter
plus sixty pages at the end of the work provide us with of various notes and
bibliographical detail demonstrating the painstaking research which John Chapple
must have carried out in order to produce this book.
However, after reading the book, the reader feels as if she knows the
relatives and friends of Elizabeth Stevenson better than the writer herself. The
sad life of William Stevenson, the father of Elizabeth, comes across clearly.
The place and development of Unitarianism within the growing industrialism of
northern England is detailed well. Much of this information has more to do with
the life of William Stevenson at the end of the eighteenth century rather than
in the period of the subject's lifetime which began in 1810.
Elizabeth's maternal family, the Hollands, are dealt with at length. The
social networks of the Holland family take the biography into areas quite
unconnected with Elizabeth.
Although the above may seem critical of the work in that the subject of the
book rarely occupies centre stage, the book is a valuable addition for anyone
interested in the social life of the figures involved in the changing culture of
a nation rapidly industrialising. A group of society who were influential way
beyond their numbers. A dynamic group interested in all branches of education,
farming and industry which would benefit society at large.
These networks spread from Scotland, down through the north of England and
into the capital itself. Even as a child Elizabeth moved between Knutsford,
where she lived with Aunt Lumb, her 'more than mother' and London where she
visited her father and step-family. She met other young girls when she boarded
at 'The Byerleys' School for Young Ladies, Avonbank', (an excellent illustration
of the school being on the front cover of the dust-jacket). On leaving school
and before marriage Elizabeth made long visits to her relative, William Turner,
the longstanding Unitarian minister in Newcastle and also a man keen to promote
education. The details of these various places and the characters who directly
or indirectly influenced Elizabeth are depicted in detail.
The author must be applauded for the amount of new information which he has
brought together and which he uses to demonstrate the web of relationships and
friendships which existed between this educated circle of the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries. For this reason I would highly recommend this
book but would alert the reader who wishes to get to know the young Elizabeth
Stevenson well to be prepared to immerse themselves in the social and cultural
context preceding her life and until just following her marriage to William
Gaskell. Other biographies which take us into her life through her novels are
perhaps easier reading but what John Chapple has done for us is to uncover the
social and cultural context which Elizabeth Stevenson would have moved in her
formative years. Without seeming churlish the reader might conclude that the
title as it stands is being used encourages greater sales of the book than would
otherwise be the case. This remark is not intended to deter those readers
interested in the life of Elizabeth Gaskell but rather to encourage those who
might be interested in the wider context with which the book deals.
ELIZABETH GASKELL
by Jenny Uglow
First published in 1993 - edition
reviewed published 1999
Publisher faber & faber
Available from Amazon ISBN 0-571-20359-0.
This thoroughly well researched and comprehensive biography of Elizabeth
Gaskell (1810-1865) consisting of 616 pages of text, 8 pages of illustrations
and 73 pages of notes/index is excellent value for money being priced at only
£6.39 in paperback.
The first section of 188 pages deals with the early life of Elizabeth giving
us a good basis from which to read her novels. We learn of the early death of
her mother resulting in Elizabeth being parted from her father eventually living
with Aunt Lumb, her mother's sister. In this first section of the biography it
is interesting to note her Unitarian credentials from her mother's side of the
family. Growing up she moved amongst many of the leading Unitarians in the North
of England, many to whom she was related. This biography takes us into the world
of Unitarianism and we see the networks of able men and women who are committed
to the improvement of society, especially those of the lower classes. Not only
is education seen as valuable for every sector of society but the Unitarian
community encouraged advances in science and technology and had a keen interest
in literature and philosophy setting up various societies for the different
strata of society.
Throughout, Jenny Uglow depicts Elizabeth as a complex character, a woman who
is committed to the nineteenth century ideal of marriage and family with her
role as 'angel in the home' yet also as a woman with another aspect to her
character which needs the freedom to escape. Her marriage to William Gaskell,
Minister at the Unitarian Chapel at Cross Street in Manchester, is shown to
follow the ideal yet increasingly her need to get away from the city and all the
social expectations and duties which went along with being a Minister's wife
resulted in extended holidays and visits to relatives.
Like Fanny Trollope, Elizabeth loved to travel mostly accompanied by one or
more of her four children. Like Fanny Trollope she too had experienced the loss
of a child, a loss which was helped by her writing. Unlike Fanny Trollope who
did not begin writing until the age of 53, Elizabeth Gaskell only lived to be 55
but being a prolific writer also left us with a wealth of material. Sadly, like
much of the work of Fanny Trollope, many of the works are no longer available
although there is much ongoing interest in the life and works of Gaskell which
may well result in some of the less well-known writings to be published.
Not only does Jenny Uglow give us a comprehensive biography of Elizabeth
Gaskell but she also weaves the actual life with the material which was produced
by the author. We gain some idea of the dilemmas which Elizabeth faced between
speaking up for the downtrodden classes of Manchester whilst wanting to maintain
a belief in the laissez-faire precepts of the Manchester mill owners, many of
whom would be members of the Cross Street Chapel congregation. These were the
men who would ensure the progress of the city. Yet Elizabeth could see the
unfairness of a world which denied basic sustenance to the out-of-work factory
workers. She also attempted to work out the nature of being a woman by
recognising the passionate and sexual aspects which were deemed sinful in the
religious climate of the nineteenth century. It is in this area of consideration
where we see the struggle to live within the cultural norms of the time which
denied half of the female person. In Mary Barton we see Esther, the
fallen woman, acting unselfishly. We have sympathy with her situation rather
than an outright condemnation. The humanity of Elizabeth Gaskell's characters
reflect the complexity inherent in life demonstrating the need to be wary of
hasty judgment and facile explanations.
In the second and third sections of the book, 'Speaking Out: 1848-56' and
'the Sound of Time: 1857-65', Jenny Uglow offers valuable commentary on the
writings of Elizabeth Gaskell, a commentary which is embedded in and grows out
of the biographical details of her life. These sections demonstrate the linking
of literary criticism and biographical detail through a fresh interpretation of
both. Like Felicia Bonaparte in The Gypsy-Bachelor of Manchester - The Life
of Mrs. Gaskell's Demon , Jenny Uglow moves away from the traditionally held
view of Elizabeth Gaskell as a dutiful and typical Minister's wife who was happy
only in that role even discarding her Christian name in favour of her married
title as 'Mrs Gaskell' the respectable Minister's wife and author. Instead we
see a woman who constantly struggled between commitment to duty and a need to
write and tell stories. This new way of examining nineteenth century women
writers says as much about contemporary ways of interpreting women's past using
concepts from feminist scholarship as about the nineteenth century. New ways of
understanding both ourselves and women from the past have opened up exciting
ways of re-reading novelists like Elizabeth Gaskell.
Elizabeth wrote right up until her unexpected death in November 1865. She was
enjoying writing Wives and Daughters, a novel which was almost complete.
Throughout her writing career she had examined the nature of relationships
within family and community. Jenny Uglow demonstrates the importance of the
mother within the family. Is it a coincidence that Elizabeth Gaskell was not
alone amongst women writers of that time in having lost her mother at a very
young age? Fanny Trollope, Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot too were all
motherless. Strangely enough this last novel selects the roles of wife and
daughter, yet it is surely about the whole range of relationships which arise
initially from the absence of a mother.
Jenny Uglow's book will encourage the reader to explore the main novels in a
fresh way and also prompt the reader to find and read some of the lesser
well-known stories.
An excellent book and to be highly recommended in spite of the illustrations
not being securely fixed in the reviewer's copy.
THE GYPSY- BACHELOR OF MANCHESTER
The Life of Mrs. Gaskell's Demon
by Felicia Bonaparte
Published by University Press of
Virginia 1992 - Hardcover
Available from Amazon ISBN 081391390X
This book of 352 pages is not a biography in the accepted understanding of
the word but rather an attempt to learn about the inner person of Elizabeth
Gaskell through treating her letters and fiction as a poetic text which takes us
into her private world.
Felicia Bonaparte demonstrates how Elizabeth Gaskell uses her writing to
explore the unacceptable aspects of being a woman in the Victorian world.
Although she was outwardly the ideal 'angel in the home' being a good mother and
wife, married to William Gaskell, the Unitarian Minister of Cross Street Chapel
in Manchester, she nevertheless expressed, through her fictional characters,
another side which wanted to be free from conformity to a woman's role.
Unlike George Elliot, who stood as narrator outside the text, an author in
control of her fiction, Mrs. Gaskell as narrator was also part of the
development of story-line and character. Felicia Bonaparte succeeds in tracing
her inner life through metaphor and sub-text.
This book in taking up current criticism of a world built on dualities of
thought fits in well with feminist scholarship. Through a consideration of the
literature of Mrs. Gaskell written in the nineteenth century Felicia Bonaparte
takes us into a world where certain expectations of acceptable female behaviour
was considered good and 'womanly'. She shows how Mrs. Gaskell is able to come to
terms with another side of her nature through writing fiction and developing her
demonic self through metaphor, sub-text and character. The choice of being known
as Mrs. Gaskell the author rather than Elizabeth Gaskell points to her need for
security in which to write.
Having read The Gypsy-Bachelor of Manchester, past readers of Mrs.
Gaskell's novels will wish to read them again with fresh eyes. For many women
who continue their own struggle to live an integrated female life within a
society which continues to carry much of the cultural baggage based on the dual
concept of what woman ought to be, this book will make refreshing reading.
The book is highly recommended being well researched, clearly written and
successful in showing the relationship between Mrs. Gaskell's literature and
life and the links between the inner and outer life of the author.