Overview

An engaging storyteller who explored village life, industrial problems, travel experiences, gothic aspects, biography, historical fiction, and domestic scenarios, Elizabeth Gaskell has steadily gained canonical status, as her novels are regularly taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and interest continues to grow in her relationship to the Bronte family. Scholarship on Gaskell discusses topics ranging from gender, marriage, and parenting to trauma, class, privilege, and more. Her robust internet presence is manifest, as fans share their responses to Gaskell's works, and enthusiasts find Gaskell-themed products. Cinematic treatments of Gaskell's works, available through streaming services, introduce Gaskell to new generations of readers. This companion includes a brief biography; a timeline; and an alphabetical list of entries on works, concepts, places, events, and people who were important in the period and who had some connection to Gaskell. Each entry provides an overview of the topic and includes further reading suggestions for those seeking further details.

Full Product Details

9781476688220

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Robin Colby's Elizabeth Gaskell: A Companion provides rich contexts for students, scholars, and general readers of Gaskell's increasingly appreciated writings. Concise overviews of Gaskell's life and literary reputation open the volume, while the closing bibliography and index enable targeted searches of the Companion's 350+ pages. The individual entries, alphabetically arranged, are dominated by critical synopses of Gaskell's publications....well-written, engaging entries...Colby's comprehensive, well-proportioned Companion will serve Gaskell's readers equally well for study and for pleasurable browsing.""--Ann D. Wallace, professor emerita, UNC Greensboro

""A comprehensive guide to Gaskell's complete works with a wealth of background information and recommended further reading. A must-have for students and the general reader alike.""--Joanne Shattock, University of Leicester UK ""Elizabeth Gaskell: A Companion is a lucid and engaging resource for readers approaching her oeuvre for the first time or returning to explore it in more detail. Astute critical summaries of individual works illuminate connections to Gaskill's domestic life as well as her contributions to the often-heated public discourse on the role of women, industrialization, social hierarchies, and marginalized individuals. Additional entries on contemporary people, places, issues, and events situate Gaskell in relation to other influential Victorians and provide further insight into the social and cultural contexts of her writing. At the end of each alphabetized entry, judicious suggestions for further reading represent the variety of critical perspectives that have generated renewed interest in Gaskell's writing among readers in the 21st century.""--Sharon Setzer, North Carolina State University ""Robin Colby's Elizabeth Gaskell: A Companion provides rich contexts for students, scholars, and general readers of Gaskell's increasingly appreciated writings. Concise overviews of Gaskell's life and literary reputation open the volume, while the closing bibliography and index enable targeted searches of the Companion's 350+ pages. The individual entries, alphabetically arranged, are dominated by critical synopses of Gaskell's publications....well-written, engaging entries...Colby's comprehensive, well-proportioned Companion will serve Gaskell's readers equally well for study and for pleasurable browsing.""--Ann D. Wallace, professor emerita, UNC Greensboro

Author Information

Robin B. Colby is a professor of English at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina and has a lifelong interest in the works of nineteenth-century women writers.

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