Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell: English Writer

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
English writer
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson, (born Sept. 29, 1810, Chelsea,

London, Eng.—died Nov. 12, 1865, near Alton, Hampshire), English novelist,
short-story writer, and first biographer of Charlotte Brontë. She was a
daughter of a Unitarian minister. When her mother died, she was brought up
by a maternal aunt in the Cheshire village of Knutsford in a kindly atmosphere
of rural gentility that was already old-fashioned at the time. In 1832 she
married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, and settled in the overcrowded,
problem-ridden industrial city of Manchester, which remained her home for
the rest of her life. Domestic life—the Gaskells had six children, of whom four
daughters lived to adulthood—and the social and charitable obligations of a
minister’s wife claimed her time but not all her thoughts. She did not begin her
literary career until middle life, when the death of her only son had intensified
her sense of community with the poor and her desire to “give utterance” to
their “agony.” Her first novel, Mary Barton, reflects the temper of Manchester
in the late 1830s. It is the story of a working-class family in which the father,
John Barton, lapses into bitter class hatred during a cyclic depression and
carries out a retaliatory murder at the behest of his trade union. Its timely
appearance in the revolutionary year of 1848 brought the novel immediate
success, and it won the praise of Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle.
Dickens invited her to contribute to his magazine, Household Words, where
her next major work, Cranford (1853), appeared. This social history of a
gentler era, which describes, without sentimentalizing or satirizing, her
girlhood village of Knutsford and the efforts of its shabby-genteel inhabitants
to keep up appearances, has remained her most popular work.
The conflict between Mrs. Gaskell’s sympathetic understanding and the

strictures of Victorian morality resulted in a mixed reception for her next social
novel, Ruth (1853). It offered an alternative to the seduced girl’s traditional
progress to prostitution and an early grave. Among the many friends attracted
by Mrs. Gaskell was Charlotte Brontë, who died in 1855 and
whose biography Charlotte’s father, Patrick Brontë, urged her to write.
The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857), written with warmhearted admiration,
disposed of a mass of firsthand material with unforced narrative skill. It is at
once a work of art and a well-documented interpretation of its subject. Among
her later works, Sylvia’s Lovers (1863), dealing with the impact of
the Napoleonic Wars upon simple people, is notable. Her last and longest
work, Wives and Daughters (1864–66), concerning the interlocking fortunes
of two or three country families, is considered by many her finest. It was left
unfinished at her death.
Victorian Era Timeline
The period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 1837 until her death in 1901 was
marked by sweeping progress and ingenuity.
It was the time of the world’s first Industrial Revolution , political reform
and social change, Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin , a railway boom
and the first telephone and telegraph. But the Victorian Era—the 63-year
period from 1837-1901 that marked the reign of England’s Queen Victoria—
also saw a demise of rural life as cities rapidly grew and expanded, long
and regimented factory hours, the start of the Crimean War and Jack the
Ripper .
Victoria , who ascended the throne at age 18 following the death of her
uncle, William IV, is Britain’s second-longest reigning monarch (surpassed
by Queen Elizabeth II ). At just 4-feet-11-inches tall, her rule during one of
Britain’s greatest eras saw the country serving as the world’s biggest
empire, with one-fourth of the global population owing allegiance to the
queen.
Here is a timeline of innovations and events that helped define the

Victorian Era.
Aug. 1, 1834 : The British empire abolishes slavery , and more than 800,000
slaves in the British Caribbean are freed. The government provides
damages to slave owners, but nothing to formerly enslaved people.
June 20, 1837 : Queen Victoria takes the crown at the age of 18. The
granddaughter of King George III, her father died when she was just 8
months old, and her three uncles also died, putting her first in line as heir
to the throne.
July 25, 1837 : The first electric telegraph is sent between English inventor
William Fothergill Cooke and scientist Charles Wheatstone, who went on to
found The Electric Telegraph Company.
May 8, 1838 : The People’s Charter , the result of a political and social

reform protest movement, calls for a more democratic system including six
points: the right to vote for men age 21 and older; no property qualification
to run for Parliament; annual elections; equal representation; payment for
members of Parliament; and vote by secret ballot.
Sept. 17, 1838 : The first modern railroad line, the London-Birmingham
Railway, opens, starting the steam-powered railway boom and
revolutionizing travel.
May 1, 1840 : The Penny Black, the world’s first postage stamp sold for one
penny, is released in Britain, featuring a profile portrait of Queen Victoria.
More than 70 millions letters are sent within the next year, a number tripled
in two years. It’s soon copied in other countries, and the stamp is used for
40 years.
Feb. 10, 1840 : Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-
Gotha, her first cousin. As queen, she was the one to propose. During their
17 years of marriage (until Albert died of typhoid in 1861) Dec. 19, 1843 :
Charles Dickens, one of the era’s greatest writers, publishes A Christmas
Carol. Other works from the author during this period: Oliver Twist, Great
Expectations , David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby , among others.
September 1845 : Ireland’s potato crop begins to rot, causing the four-
year Irish Potato Famine , also known as the Great Hunger, that lead to 1
million deaths and caused 1 million people to emigrate from the country,
landing in various cities throughout North America and Great Britain.
May 1, 1851 : The brainchild of Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition opens in
London’s Crystal Palace, with 10,000-plus exhibitors displaying the world’s
technological wonders—from false teeth to farm machinery to telescopes.
Six million visitors attend what would become the first World’s Fair, before
it closes in October.
Dec. 24, 1853 : The Vaccination Act makes it mandatory for children born
after Aug. 1, 1853, to be vaccinated against smallpox . Parents failing to
comply are fined or imprisoned.
March 28, 1854 : France and Britain declare war on Russia, launching the
Crimean War, which largely surrounds the protection of the rights of
minority Christians in the Ottoman Empire. History’s most famous
nurse, Florence Nightingale , helps reduce the death count by two-thirds by
improving unsanitary conditions.
Nov. 24, 1859 : The controversial On the Origin of Species by Charles
Darwin is published, presenting his theory of natural selection and
questioning the theory of creation.
Dec. 9, 1868 : Liberal William Gladstone defeats Conservative Benjamin

Disraeli to become prime minister, a position he held for four terms. His
legacy includes reform for Ireland, establishing an elementary education
program and instituting secret ballot voting.
March 7, 1876 : Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell is awarded a patent on
his invention of the telephone, and, three days later, famously makes the
first phone call to Thomas Watson, his assistant.
May 1, 1876 : India, which has been under British rule since 1858, declares
Queen Victoria empress, under direction of Prime Minister Benjamin
Disraeli.
Aug.-Nov. 1888 : An unknown killer, named Jack the Ripper , murders and
mutilates five prostitutes in London.
Jan. 22, 1901 : Queen Victoria dies on the Isle of Wight at age 81, ending
the Victorian Era. She is succeeded by Edward VII, her eldest son, who
reigned until his death in 1910.
What Is an Open-Ended Story?
An open-ended story is one in which the ending is left uncertain to one degree or
another. The reader is not told all the answers and is left to figure them out on his own.
Some open-ended stories guide the reader to think one way or another even if the story
does not actually specify certain facts, but other stories just leave the reader hanging.
Some modern authors, Anton Chekhov for example, use the open-ended story as a genre
for sparking their readers' imaginations. Leaving stories open-ended coincides with
Chekhov's beliefs about his vocation. He states, “The task of a writer is not to solve the
problem but to state the problem correctly.” Similarly, he also says, “The role of the artist is
to ask questions, not answer them.”
Some open-ended stories are situational and others are character-based. The reader
makes decisions based on what he knows about either the character or the situation as to
what is the most logical ending to the story. Open-ended stories more closely resemble
real life in which perfectly tied-up endings are rare. Open-ended stories make excellent
writing activities for students. Some teachers choose to take a close-ended story and
leave it open to the students to finish before letting them compare their endings with the
author's ending.

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Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson, (born Sept. 29, 1810, Chelsea,

The conflict between Mrs. Gaskell’s sympathetic understanding and the

Here is a timeline of innovations and events that helped define the

May 8, 1838 : The People’s Charter , the result of a political and social

Dec. 9, 1868 : Liberal William Gladstone defeats Conservative Benjamin

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