Elizabeth Gaskell: The Early Years - Softcover

Chapple, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719082420 ISBN 13: 9780719082429

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2009

Synopsis

This absorbing study of Elizabeth Gaskell's early life up to her marriage in 1832, is based almost entirely on new evidence, marriage settlements, property transfers, wills, record office documents, letters, journals and private papers, John Chapple has recreated the background of one of the nineteenth century's greatest novelists. The widely differing lives of her father, brother and the aunt who raised her are illuminated at length from original documents. Chapple has discovered a number of letters written by close relations that shed new light on her upbringing, and he analyses three hitherto unknown travel journals by her Knutsford cousins which prove that she grew up in a literary milieu. The careers of the more important figures in her early life have been re-traced: the Turners of Newcastle, the Robberds of Manchester and the Byerley sisters. The relationship with Katharine Thomson (nee Byerley), herself a prolific novelist, has been fleshed out to reveal how she provided a model of literary production during the younger writer's teens and early twenties.

About this title

Review:

'This is an astonishing book. That Professor Chapple was working on it and something of its intention and scales have been well known for some time, but the work itself is even more impressive than expected - The range of material, the new information, the new interpretations offered here are amazing, but never, thanks to Professor Chapple's authoritative and eloquent handling, overwhelming.' Professor Angus Easson

About the Author:

John Chapple is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hull -- .

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0719082420
• ISBN 13: 9780719082429
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 520