C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865)
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn (Stevenson). An English novelist; born in Chelsea, Sept. 29, 1810; died on Nov. 12, 1865. She had been long a wife and mother before she turned her attention to story-writing, which she did to alleviate a domestic grief. ‘Mary Barton,’ a book of the class to which Dickens’s ‘Hard Times’ belongs; ‘Sylvia’s Lovers,’ a revelation of the old press-gang’s doings; ‘Cousin Phillis,’ a story of humor and pathos; ‘Life of Charlotte Brontë’; and ‘Cranford,’ a series of sketches—a seemingly enduring classic—are her best. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).