Mary Barton A Tale of Manchester Life

- By Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
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English novelist, biographer, and short story writer (1810–1865) Elizabeth GaskellElizabeth Gaskell: 1832 miniature by William John ThomsonBornElizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson(1810-09-29)29 September 1810Chelsea, London, EnglandDied12 November 1865(1865-11-12) (aged 55)Holybourne, Hampshire, EnglandOccupationNovelistPeriod1848–1865Spouse William Gaskell ​(m. 1832)​Children5 Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she omitted, deciding certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851–1853), North and South (1854–1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864–1866), all of which were adapted for television by the BBC. Early life[edit] Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London, now 93 Cheyne Walk.[1] The doctor who delivered her was Anthony Todd Thomson, and Thomson's sister Catherine later became Gaskell's stepmother.[2] She was the youngest of eight children; only she and her brother John survived infancy. Her father, William Stevenson, a Unitarian from Berwick-upon-Tweed, was minister at Failsworth, Lancashire, but resigned his orders on conscientious grounds. He moved to London in 1806 with the intention of going to India after he was appointed private secretary to the Earl of Lauderdale, who was to become Governor General of India. That position did not materialise, however, and Stevenson was nominated Keeper of the Treasury Records.[citation needed] His wife, Elizabeth Holland, came from a family established in Lancashire and Cheshire that was connected with other prominent Unitarian families, including the Wedgwoods, the Martineaus, the Turners and the Darwins. When she died 13 months after giving birth to Gaskell,[3] her husband sent Gaskell to live with her mother's sister, Hannah Lumb, in Knutsford, Cheshire.[4] Her father remarried to Catherine Thomson, in 1814. They had a son, William, in 1815, and a daughter, Catherine, in 1816. Although Elizabeth spent several years without seeing her father, to whom she was devoted, her older brother John often visited her in Knutsford. John was destined for the Royal Navy from an early age, like his grandfathers and uncles, but he did not obtain preferment into the Service and had to join the Merchant Navy with the East India Company's fleet.[5] John went missing in 1827 during an expedition to India.[6] Character and influences[edit] A beautiful young woman, Elizabeth was well-groomed, tidily dressed, kind, gentle, and considerate of others. Her temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life.[7] Much of Elizabeth's childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, the town she immortalized as Cranford. They lived in a large red-brick house called The Heath (now Heathwaite).[8][9] From 1821 to 1826 she attended a school in Warwickshire run by the Misses Byerley, first at Barford and from 1824 at Avonbank outside Stratford-on-Avon,[3] where she received the traditional education in arts, the classics, decorum and propriety given to young ladies from relatively wealthy families at the time. Her aunts gave her the classics to read, and she was encouraged by her father in her studies and writing. Her brother John sent her modern books, and descriptions of his life at sea and his experiences abroad.[10] After leaving school at the age of 16, Elizabeth travelled to London to spend time with her Holland cousins.[10] She also spent some time in Newcastle upon Tyne (with the Rev William Turner's family) and from there made the journey to Edinburgh. Her stepmother's brother was the miniature artist William John Thomson, who in 1832 painted a portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell in Manchester (see top right). A bust was sculpted by David Dunbar at the same time.[10] Married life and writing career[edit] Elizabeth Gaskell: 1851 portrait by George Richmond On 30 August 1832 Elizabeth married Unitarian minister William Gaskell, in Knutsford. They spent their honeymoon in North Wales, staying with her uncle, Samuel Holland, at Plas-yn-Penrhyn near Porthmadog.[11] The Gaskells then settled in Manchester, where William was the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel and longest-serving Chair of the Portico Library. Manchester's industrial surroundings and books borrowed from the library influenced Elizabeth's writing in the industrial genre. Their first daughter was stillborn in 1833. Their other children were Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily, known as Meta (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), and Julia Bradford (1846). Marianne and Meta boarded at the private school conducted by Rachel Martineau, sister of Harriet, a close friend of Elizabeth.[12] Florence married Charles Crompton, a barrister and Liberal politician, in 1863.[3] In March 1835 Gaskell began a diary documenting the development of her daughter Marianne: she explored parenthood, the values she placed on her role as a mother; her faith, and, later, relations between Marianne and her sister, Meta. In 1836 she co-authored with her husband a cycle of poems, Sketches among the Poor, which was published in Blackwood's Magazine in January 1837. In 1840 William Howitt published Visits to Remarkable Places containing a contribution entitled Clopton Hall by "A Lady", the first work written and published solely by her. In April 1840 Howitt published The Rural Life of England, which included a second work titled Notes on Cheshire Customs.[3] In July 1841, the Gaskells travelled to Belgium and Germany. German literature came to have a strong influence on her short stories, the first of which she published in 1847 as Libbie Marsh's Three Eras, in Howitt's Journal, under the pseudonym "Cotton Mather Mills". But other influences including Adam Smith's Social Politics enabled a much wider understanding of the cultural milieu in which her works were set. Her second story printed under the pseudonym was The Sexton's Hero. And she made her last use of it in 1848, with the publication of her story Christmas Storms and Sunshine.[citation needed] For some 20 years beginning in 1843, the Gaskells took holidays at Silverdale on Morecambe Bay, and in particular stayed at Lindeth Tower.[13][14] Daughters Meta and Julia later built a house, "The Shieling", in Silverdale.[15] A son, William, (1844–45), died in infancy, and this tragedy was the catalyst for Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton. It was ready for publication in October 1848,[3] shortly before they made the move south. It was an enormous success, selling thousands of copies. Ritchie called it a "great and remarkable sensation." It was praised by Thomas Carlyle and Maria Edgeworth. She brought the teeming slums of manufacturing in Manchester alive to readers as yet unacquainted with crowded narrow alleyways. Her obvious depth of feeling was evident, while her turn of phrase and description was described as the greatest since Jane Austen.[16] In 1850, the Gaskells moved to a villa at 84 Plymouth Grove.[17] She took her cow with her. For exercise, she would happily walk three miles to help another person in distress. In Manchester, Elizabeth wrote her remaining literary works, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The Gaskells' social circle included writers, journalists, religious dissenters, and social reformers such as William and Mary Howitt and Harriet Martineau. Poets, patrons of literature and writers such as Lord Houghton, Charles Dickens and John Ruskin visited Plymouth Grove, as did the American writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton, while the conductor Charles Hallé, who lived close by, taught piano to one of their daughters. Elizabeth's friend Charlotte Brontë stayed there three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet the Gaskells' other visitors.[18][19] Gaskell House, Plymouth Grove, Manchester In early 1850 Gaskell wrote to Charles Dickens asking for advice about assisting a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison. Pasley provided her with a model for the title character of Ruth in 1853. Lizzie Leigh was published in March and April 1850, in the first numbers of Dickens's journal Household Words, in which many of her works were to be published, including Cranford and North and South, her novella My Lady Ludlow, and short stories.[citation needed] In June 1855, Patrick Brontë asked Gaskell to write a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published in 1857. This played a significant role in developing Gaskell's own literary career.[3] In the biography, Gaskell chose to focus more on Brontë as a woman than as a writer of Romantic fiction.[20] In 1859 Gaskell travelled to Whitby to gather material for Sylvia's Lovers, which was published in 1863. Her novella Cousin Phyllis was serialized in The Cornhill Magazine from November 1863 to February 1864. The serialization of her last novel, Wives and Daughters, began in August 1864 in The Cornhill.[3] She died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in Holybourne, Hampshire. Wives and Daughters was published in book form in early 1866, first in the United States and then, ten days later, in Britain.[3] Her grave is near the Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford.[citation needed] Reputation and re-evaluation[edit] Gaskell's reputation from her death to the 1950s was epitomised by Lord David Cecil's assessment in Early Victorian Novelists (1934) that she was "all woman" and "makes a creditable effort to overcome her natural deficiencies but all in vain" (quoted in Stoneman, 1987, from Cecil, p. 235). A scathing unsigned review of North and South in The Leader accused Gaskell of making errors about Lancashire which a resident of Manchester would not make and said that a woman (or clergymen and women) could not "understand industrial problems", would "know too little about the cotton industry" and had no "right to add to the confusion by writing about it".[21] Gaskell's novels, with the exception of Cranford, gradually slipped into obscurity during the late 19th century; before 1950, she was dismissed as a minor author with good judgment and "feminine" sensibilities. Archie Stanton Whitfield said her work was "like a nosegay of violets, honeysuckle, lavender, mignonette and sweet briar" in 1929.[22] Cecil (1934) said that she lacked the "masculinity" necessary to properly deal with social problems (Chapman, 1999, pp. 39–40). However, the critical tide began to turn in Gaskell's favour when, in the 1950s and 1960s, socialist critics like Kathleen Tillotson, Arnold Kettle and Raymond Williams re-evaluated the description of social and industrial problems in her novels (see Moore, 1999[23] for an elaboration), and—realising that her vision went against the prevailing views of the time—saw it as preparing the way for vocal feminist movements.[24] In the early 21st century, with Gaskell's work "enlisted in contemporary negotiations of nationhood as well as gender and class identities",[25] North and South – one of the first industrial novels describing the conflict between employers and workers – was recognized as depicting complex social conflicts and offering more satisfactory solutions through Margaret Hale: spokesperson for the author and Gaskell's most mature creation.[26] In her introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell (2007), a collection of essays representing the current Gaskell scholarship, Jill L. Matus stresses the author's growing stature in Victorian literary studies and how her innovative, versatile storytelling addressed the rapid changes during her lifetime.[citation needed] Literary style and themes[edit] A scene from Cranford, illustrated by Sybil Tawse. Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1851–1853), North and South (1854–1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864–1866). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.[citation needed] Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works were highly influenced by the social analysis of Thomas Carlyle and focused on factory work in the Midlands.[27] She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters.[28] Gaskell was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen, especially in North and South, which borrows liberally from the courtship plot of Pride and Prejudice.[29] She was an established novelist when Patrick Brontë invited her to write a biography of his daughter, though she worried, as a writer of fiction, that it would be "a difficult thing" to "be accurate and keep to the facts."[30] Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers.[31] Themes[edit] Unitarianism urges comprehension and tolerance toward all religions and even though Gaskell tried to keep her own beliefs hidden, she felt strongly about these values which permeated her works; in North and South, "Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm."[32][33] Dialect usage[edit] Gaskell's style is notable for putting local dialect words into the mouths of middle-class characters and the narrator. In North and South Margaret Hale suggests redding up (tidying) the Bouchers' house and even offers jokingly to teach her mother words such as knobstick (strike-breaker).[34] In 1854 she defended her use of dialect to express otherwise inexpressible concepts in a letter to Walter Savage Landor: ... you will remember the country people's use of the word "unked". I can't find any other word to express the exact feeling of strange unusual desolate discomfort, and I sometimes "potter" and "mither" people by using it.[34][35] She also used the dialect word "nesh" (a person who feels the cold easily or often feels cold is said to be 'nesh'), which goes back to Old English, in Mary Barton: Sit you down here: the grass is well nigh dry by this time; and you're neither of you nesh folk about taking cold.[36] also in "North and South": And I did na like to be reckoned nesh and soft,[37] and later in "The Manchester Marriage" (1858): Now, I'm not above being nesh for other folks myself. I can stand a good blow, and never change colour; but, set me in the operating-room in the Infirmary, and I turn as sick as a girl. and: At Mrs Wilson's death Norah came back to them, as a nurse to the newly-born little Edwin; into which post she was not installed without a pretty strong oration on the part of the proud and happy father; who declared that if he found out that Norah ever tried to screen the boy by falsehood, or to make him nesh either in body or mind, she should go that very day.[38] Publications[edit] Elizabeth Gaskell, c. 1860 Source:[39] Novels[edit] Mary Barton (1848) Cranford (1851–1853) Ruth (1853) North and South (1854–1855) My Lady Ludlow (1858–1859) A Dark Night's Work (1863) Sylvia's Lovers (1863) Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story (1864–1866) Novellas and collections[edit] The Moorland Cottage (1850) Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1851) Lizzie Leigh (1855) Round the Sofa (1859) Lois the Witch (1859; 1861) Cousin Phillis (1863–1864) The Grey Woman and Other Tales (1865) Short stories[edit] "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras" (1847) "The Sexton's Hero" (1847) "Christmas Storms and Sunshine" (1848) "Hand and Heart" (1849) "Martha Preston" (1850) "The Well of Pen-Morfa" (1850) "The Heart of John Middleton" (1850) "Disappearances" (1851) "Bessy's Troubles at Home" (1852) "The Old Nurse's Story" (1852) "Cumberland Sheep-Shearers" (1853) "Morton Hall" (1853) "Traits and Stories of the Huguenots" (1853) "My French Master" (1853) "The Squire's Story" (1853) "Company Manners" (1854) "Half a Life-time Ago" (1855) "The Poor Clare" (1856) "The Doom of the Griffiths" (1858) "An Incident at Niagara Falls" (1858) "The Sin of a Father" (1858), later republished as "Right at Last" "The Manchester Marriage" (1858)[40] "The Haunted House" (1859)[41] "The Ghost in the Garden Room" (1859), later "The Crooked Branch" "The Half Brothers" (1859) "Curious If True" (1860) "The Grey Woman" (1861) "Six weeks at Heppenheim" (1862)[42] "The Cage at Cranford" (1863)[42] "How the First Floor Went to Crowley Castle" (1863), republished as "Crowley Castle"[42] "A Parson's Holiday" (1865) Non-fiction[edit] "Notes on Cheshire Customs" (1840) An Accursed Race (1855) The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) "French Life" (1864) "A Column of Gossip from Paris" (1865) Poetry[edit] Sketches Among the Poor (with William Gaskell; 1837) Temperance Rhymes (1839) Legacy[edit] The house on Plymouth Grove remained in the Gaskell family until 1913, after which it stood empty and fell into disrepair. The University of Manchester acquired it in 1969 and in 2004 it was acquired by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, which then raised money to restore it. Exterior renovations were completed in 2011 and the house is now open to the public.[43][44] In 2010, a memorial to Gaskell was unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The panel was dedicated by her great-great-great-granddaughter Sarah Prince and a wreath was laid.[45] Manchester City Council have created an award in Gaskell's name, given to recognize women's involvement in charitable work and improvement of lives.[46] A bibliomemoir Mrs. Gaskell and me: Two Women, Two Love Stories, Two centuries Apart, by Nell Stevens was published in 2018.[47][48] Her novel Wives and Daughters aired on BBC television in 1999. In 2004, a television film miniseries aired on BBC television of her 1854 novel North and South. In 2007, her three part novella Cranford starring Judi Dench aired on BBC television. The Gaskell Memorial Hall, Silverdale's village hall, is so named because while funds were being raised for the building of the hall in 1928 a donor offered £50, or £100 if it was named thus: the conversation is recorded by novelist Willie Riley in his autobiography.[49] See also[edit] Illegitimacy in fiction Elizabeth Carter Notes[edit] ^ "Elizabeth Gaskell Biography - The Gaskell Society". Gaskellsociety.co.uk. Retrieved 9 December 2017. ^ Uglow, Jenny. "Gaskell [née Stevenson], Elizabeth Cleghorn". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10434. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ a b c d e f g h Weyant, Nancy S. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell; Chronology. Cambridge University Press. pp. xi–xx. ISBN 978-0-521-60926-5. ^ Pollard, Arthur (1965). Mrs. Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer. Manchester University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-674-57750-7. ^ Gérin, Winifred (1976). Elizabeth Gaskell. Oxford University Press. pp. 10–17. ISBN 0-19-281296-3. ^ "Gaskell [née Stevenson], Elizabeth Cleghorn (1810–1865), novelist and short-story writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10434. Retrieved 22 January 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn (1858). The Doom of the Griffiths (annotated). Interactive Media. pp. introduction. ISBN 978-1-911495-12-3. OCLC 974343914. ^ Jenny Uglow (1993). Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber & Faber. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0-571-20359-0. ^ Heathside (now Gaskell Avenue), which faces the large open area of Knutsford Heath. ^ a b c Michell, Sheila (1985). Introduction to The Manchester Marriage. UK: Alan Sutton. pp. iv–viii. ISBN 0-86299-247-8. ^ "The prominent house Plas yn Penrhyn …. at the top of Penrhyn itself was the home of Samuel Holland ..." Gwynedd Archaeological Trust http://www.heneb.co.uk/hlc/ffestiniog/ffest27.html ^ "The Gaskell Society Journal, Volume 22". The Gaskell Society. 2008. p. 57. Retrieved 25 April 2017. Meta (Margaret Emily), the second daughter, was sent at about the same age as Marianne to Miss Rachel Martineau, ... {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help) ^ "Silverdale Tower - Elizabeth Gaskell's Lancashire inspiration". Great British Life. 13 June 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2022. ^ "An Elizabeth Gaskell staycation". elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2022. ^ "The house of a forgotten writer". The Westmorland Gazette. 8 February 2002. Retrieved 27 September 2022. ^ Ritchie, p. xviii. ^ Uglow J. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (Faber and Faber; 1993) (ISBN 0-571-20359-0) ^ Nurden, Robert (26 March 2006). "An ending Dickens would have liked". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. ^ "Miss Meta Gaskell". The Spectator. 1 November 1913. Retrieved 25 April 2017. LORD HOUGHTON once said that the conversation and society to be met within the house of the Gaskells at Manchester were the one thing which made life in that city tolerable for people of literary tastes. Miss Meta Gaskell, (daughter of Elizabeth Gaskell) who died last Sunday... ^ Stone, Donald D. The Romantic Impulse in Victorian Fiction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980, p. 141. ^ Chapman, Alison, ed. (1999). Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton North and South. Duxford: Icon Books. ISBN 9781840460377. ^ Whitfield, Archie Stanton (1929). Mrs. Gaskell, Her Life and Works. G. Routledge & sons. p. 258. ^ "Drury University: Victorian Age Literature, Marxism, and Labor Movement". Archived from the original on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2012. ^ Stoneman, Patsy (1987). Elizabeth Gaskell. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253301031, p. 3. ^ Matus, Jill L., ed. (2007). The Cambridge companion to Elizabeth Gaskell (repr. ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521846769., p. 9. ^ Pearl L. Brown. "From Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton To Her North And South: Progress Or Decline For Women?" Victorian Literature and Culture, 28, pp. 345–358. ^ Grasso, Anthony R. (2004). "Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn". In Cumming, Mark (ed.). The Carlyle Encyclopedia. Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 186–188. ISBN 978-0-8386-3792-0. ^ Excluding reference to Gaskell's Ghost Stories, Abrams, M. H., et al. (eds), "Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810–1865". The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century, 7th ed., Vol. B. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97304-2. DDC 820.8—dc21. LC PR1109.N6. ^ Sussman, Matthew (March 2022). ""Austen, Gaskell, and the Politics of Domestic Fiction"". Modern Language Quarterly. 83 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1215/00267929-9475004. S2CID 247141954. Retrieved 5 June 2023. ^ Easson, Angus (1996). "Introduction" to The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xi. ISBN 978-0-19-955476-8. ^ PHILLIPS, V. (1 August 1978). "Children in Early Victorian England: Infant Feeding in Literature and Society, 1837-1857". Journal of Tropical Pediatrics. 24 (4): 158–166. doi:10.1093/tropej/24.4.158. PMID 364073. ^ Gaskell, Elizabeth (1854–55). North and South. Penguin Popular Classics. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-14-062019-1. ^ Easson, Angus (1979). Elizabeth Gaskell. Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 12–17. ISBN 0-7100-0099-5. ^ a b Ingham, P. (1995). Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of North and South. ^ Chapple JAV, Pollard A, eds. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Mandolin (Manchester University Press), 1997 ^ Gaskell, E. (1848). "1". Mary Barton.. ^ Gaskell, Elizabeth (1854–55). North and South. Penguin Popular Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-062019-1. ^ Stories of Successful Marriages. Victorian Short Stories. The Project Gutenberg.. ^ Nancy S. Weyant (2007), "Chronology", in Jill L. Matus (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-60926-5 ^ A chapter of A House to Let, co-written with Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Adelaide Anne Procter. ^ Co-written with Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Proctor, George Sala and Hesba Stretton. ^ a b c Jenny Uglow (1999), "First Publication of Elizabeth Gaskell's Works", Elizabeth Gaskell (2nd ed.), Faber and Faber, pp. 617–19, ISBN 0-571-20359-0 ^ "Elizabeth Gaskell's House". www.elizabethgaskellhouse.org. Retrieved 1 December 2018. ^ "Elizabeth Gaskell's house damaged after lead theft". BBC News. 11 May 2011. ^ "Elizabeth Gaskell". www.westminster-abbey.org. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2017. ^ "Veteran CND campaigner wins Elizabeth Gaskell award at age of 92". Manchester Evening News. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2017. ^ "A Funny Heartfelt Tribute to a Literary Giant", Irish Times, 29 September 2018. ^ Stevens, Nell (2018). Mrs Gaskell and me : two women, two love stories, two centuries apart. London: Picador. ISBN 978-1509868186. ^ Riley, W. (1957). Sunset Reflections. London: Herbert Jenkins. p. 154. A Harrogate gentleman, Sir Norman Rae, ... told me ... he had opened a village hall in Nidderdale. "I gave them fifty pounds," he remarked, casually. This roused me and I said "We in this village are desperately anxious to build a hall of that kind... Will you give us fifty pounds?" We had been talking of Mrs Gaskell's connection ... "Shall we call it a Memorial Hall to that lady?" ... "If you'll do that... I'll give you a hundred." External links[edit] Library resources about Elizabeth Gaskell Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elizabeth Gaskell. Wikisource has original works by or about:Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Wikiquote has quotations related to Elizabeth Gaskell. Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn". Digital collections Works by Elizabeth Gaskell in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell at Project Gutenberg Works by Elizabeth Gaskell at Faded Page (Canada) Works by or about Elizabeth Gaskell at Internet Archive Works by Elizabeth Gaskell at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Physical collections "Archival material relating to Elizabeth Gaskell". UK National Archives. Elizabeth Gaskell Manuscripts at the John Rylands Library, Manchester Elizabeth Gaskell Archived 18 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library Archival material at Other resources The Gaskell Society The Gaskell Society of Japan (Japanese) Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell at Library of Congress, with 189 library catalogue records Mrs. Gaskell at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Elizabeth Gaskell's House Brook Street Unitarian Chapel and the Gaskell Grave A Hyper-Concordance to the Works of Elizabeth Gaskell The Gaskell Web The Victorian Web The Visual Life of Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Gaskell at Find a Grave "Elizabeth Gaskell". Radio 4 Great Lives. BBC. 20 May 2005. Retrieved 2 July 2014. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Cranford Walk Around Knutsford, Past and Present (YouTube) The Grave of Elizabeth Gaskell, Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford (YouTube) vteElizabeth GaskellNovels Mary Barton (1848) Cranford (1851–1853) Ruth (1853) North and South (1854–1855) My Lady Ludlow (1858–1859) A Dark Night's Work (1863) Sylvia's Lovers (1863) Cousin Phillis (1863–1864) Wives and Daughters (1864–1866) Short story collections Round the Sofa (1859) Lois the Witch (1861) Short stories Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1851) The Poor Clare (1856) "The Haunted House" (1858) "A House to Let" (1858) Non-fiction "The Last Generation in England" (1849) The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) Related Elizabeth Gaskell house William Gaskell (husband) William Stevenson (father) vteBrontë sistersCharlotte Jane Eyre (1847) Shirley (1849) Villette (1853) The Professor (1857) Emily "Lines" (1837) "To a Wreath of Snow" (1837) "F. De Samara to A. G. A." (1838) "Come hither child" (1839) "A Death-Scene" (1844) Wuthering Heights (1847) Anne "Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day" (1846) Agnes Grey (1847) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) Collaborative work Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846) List of Brontë poems Juvenilia A Book of Ryhmes Glass Town The Young Men's Magazine Gondal Family Patrick Brontë (father) Maria Branwell (mother) Branwell Brontë (brother) Maria Brontë (sister) Elizabeth Brontë (sister) Elizabeth Branwell (aunt) Arthur Bell Nicholls (Charlotte's husband) John Kingston (uncle-in-law) William Morgan (husband of first cousin once removed) Locations Haworth (village which was home to and is greatly associated with the Brontës) Brontë Birthplace (house in Thornton, birthplace of the Brontë sisters) Thornton (village which was home to the Brontës) Hartshead (village which was home to the Brontës) Brontë Country (landscape portrayed in the Brontë novels) Brontë Parsonage Museum (former home and now museum of the Brontës) Brontë Waterfall (waterfall associated with the Brontë sisters) Brontë Way (footpath associated with the Brontë sisters) Cowan Bridge School (school attended by the Brontë sisters) St Michael and All Angels' Church (church of which Patrick Brontë was pastor) Associates Ellen Nussey (lifelong friend and correspondent of Charlotte Brontë) Elizabeth Gaskell (lifelong friend and biographer of Charlotte Brontë) Mary Taylor (lifelong friend of Charlotte Brontë) Constantin Héger (teacher who was loved by Charlotte Brontë) George Smith (publisher of the Brontës) Cultural legacy Devotion (1946 film) Les Sœurs Brontë (1979 film) Brontë (2005 play) To Walk Invisible (2016 film) Emily (2022 film) Victorian literature Category Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Chile Spain France BnF data Catalonia Germany Italy Israel Finland Belgium United States Sweden Latvia Japan Czech Republic Australia Greece Korea Croatia Netherlands Poland Portugal Russia 2 Vatican Academics CiNii Artists MusicBrainz ULAN People Deutsche Biographie Trove Other SNAC IdRef
CHAPTER II. A MANCHESTER TEA-PARTY.
Polly, put the kettle on, And let's have tea! Polly, put the kettle on, And we'll all have tea.
"Here we are, wife; didst thou think thou'd lost us?" quoth hearty-voiced Wilson, as the two women rose and shook themselves in preparation for their homeward walk. Mrs. Barton was evidently soothed, if not cheered, by the unburdening of her fears and thoughts to her friend; and her approving look went far to second her husband's invitation that the whole party should adjourn from Green Heys Fields to tea, at the Bartons' house. The only faint opposition was raised by Mrs. Wilson, on account of the lateness of the hour at which they would probably return, which she feared on her babies' account.
"Now, hold your tongue, missis, will you," said her husband, good-temperedly. "Don't you know them brats never goes to sleep till long past ten? and haven't you a shawl, under which you can tuck one lad's head, as safe as a bird's under its wing? And as for t'other one, I'll put it in my pocket rather than not stay, now we are this far away from Ancoats." "Or I can lend you another shawl," suggested Mrs. Barton. "Ay, any thing rather than not stay."
The matter being decided, the party proceeded home, through many half-finished streets, all so like one another that you might have easily been bewildered and lost your way. Not a step, however, did our friends lose; down this entry, cutting off that corner, until they turned out of one of these innumerable streets into a little paved court, having the backs of houses at the end opposite to the opening, and a gutter running through the middle to carry off household slops, washing suds, &c. The women who lived in the court were busy taking in strings of caps, frocks, and various articles of linen, which hung from side to side, dangling so low, that if our friends had been a few minutes sooner, they would have had to stoop very much, or else the half-wet clothes would have flapped in their faces; but although the evening seemed yet early when they were in the open fields-among the pent-up houses, night, with its mists, and its darkness, had already begun to fall.
Many greetings were given and exchanged between the Wilsons and these women, for not long ago they had also dwelt in this court. Two rude lads, standing at a disorderly looking house-door, exclaimed, as Mary Barton (the daughter) passed, "Eh, look! Polly Barton's gotten a sweetheart." Of course this referred to young Wilson, who stole a look to see how Mary took the idea. He saw her assume the air of a young fury, and to his next speech she answered not a word.
Mrs. Barton produced the key of the door from her pocket; and on entering the house-place it seemed as if they were in total darkness, except one bright spot, which might be a cat's eye, or might be, what it was, a red-hot fire, smouldering under a large piece of coal, which John Barton immediately applied himself to break up, and the effect instantly produced was warm and glowing light in every corner of the room. To add to this (although the coarse yellow glare seemed lost in the ruddy glow from the fire), Mrs. Barton lighted a dip by sticking it in the fire, and having placed it satisfactorily in a tin candlestick, began to look further about her, on hospitable thoughts intent. The room was tolerably large, and possessed many conveniences. On the right of the door, as you entered, was a longish window, with a broad ledge. On each side of this, hung blue-and-white check curtains, which were now drawn, to shut in the friends met to enjoy themselves. Two geraniums, unpruned and leafy, which stood on the sill, formed a further defence from out-door pryers. In the corner between the window and the fire-side was a cupboard, apparently full of plates and dishes, cups and saucers, and some more nondescript articles, for which one would have fancied their possessors could find no use-such as triangular pieces of glass to save carving knives and forks from dirtying table-cloths. However, it was evident Mrs. Barton was proud of her crockery and glass, for she left her cupboard door open, with a glance round of satisfaction and pleasure. On the opposite side to the door and window was the staircase, and two doors; one of which (the nearest to the fire) led into a sort of little back kitchen, where dirty work, such as washing up dishes, might be done, and whose shelves served as larder, and pantry, and storeroom, and all. The other door, which was considerably lower, opened into the coal-hole-the slanting closet under the stairs; from which, to the fire-place, there was a gay-coloured piece of oil-cloth laid. The place seemed almost crammed with furniture (sure sign of good times among the mills). Beneath the window was a dresser with three deep drawers. Opposite the fire-place was a table, which I should call a Pembroke, only that it was made of deal, and I cannot tell how far such a name may be applied to such humble material. On it, resting against the wall, was a bright green japanned tea-tray, having a couple of scarlet lovers embracing in the middle. The fire-light danced merrily on this, and really (setting all taste but that of a child's aside) it gave a richness of colouring to that side of the room. It was in some measure propped up by a crimson tea-caddy, also of japan ware. A round table on one branching leg really for use, stood in the corresponding corner to the cupboard; and, if you can picture all this with a washy, but clean stencilled pattern on the walls, you can form some idea of John Barton's home.
The tray was soon hoisted down, and before the merry chatter of cups and saucers began, the women disburdened themselves of their out-of-door things, and sent Mary up stairs with them. Then came a long whispering, and chinking of money, to which Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were too polite to attend; knowing, as they did full well, that it all related to the preparations for hospitality; hospitality that, in their turn, they should have such pleasure in offering. So they tried to be busily occupied with the children, and not to hear Mrs. Barton's directions to Mary.
"Run, Mary dear, just round the corner, and get some fresh eggs at Tipping's (you may get one a-piece, that will be five-pence), and see if he has any nice ham cut, that he would let us have a pound of." "Say two pounds, missis, and don't be stingy," chimed in the husband. "Well, a pound and a half, Mary. And get it Cumberland ham, for Wilson comes from there-away, and it will have a sort of relish of home with it he'll like,-and Mary" (seeing the lassie fain to be off), "you must get a pennyworth of milk and a loaf of bread-mind you get it fresh and new-and, and-that's all, Mary."
"No, it's not all," said her husband. "Thou must get sixpennyworth of rum, to warm the tea; thou'll get it at the 'Grapes.' And thou just go to Alice Wilson; he says she lives just right round the corner, under 14, Barber Street" (this was addressed to his wife), "and tell her to come and take her tea with us; she'll like to see her brother, I'll be bound, let alone Jane and the twins." "If she comes she must bring a tea-cup and saucer, for we have but half-a-dozen, and here's six of us," said Mrs. Barton.
"Pooh! pooh! Jem and Mary can drink out of one, surely." But Mary secretly determined to take care that Alice brought her tea-cup and saucer, if the alternative was to be her sharing any thing with Jem.
Alice Wilson had but just come in. She had been out all day in the fields, gathering wild herbs for drinks and medicine, for in addition to her invaluable qualities as a sick nurse and her worldly occupation as a washerwoman, she added a considerable knowledge of hedge and field simples; and on fine days, when no more profitable occupation offered itself, she used to ramble off into the lanes and meadows as far as her legs could carry her. This evening she had returned loaded with nettles, and her first object was to light a candle and see to hang them up in bunches in every available place in her cellar room. It was the perfection of cleanliness: in one corner stood the modest-looking bed, with a check curtain at the head, the whitewashed wall filling up the place where the corresponding one should have been. The floor was bricked, and scrupulously clean, although so damp that it seemed as if the last washing would never dry up. As the cellar window looked into an area in the street, down which boys might throw stones, it was protected by an outside shelter, and was oddly festooned with all manner of hedge-row, ditch, and field plants, which we are accustomed to call valueless, but which have a powerful effect either for good or for evil, and are consequently much used among the poor. The room was strewed, hung, and darkened with these bunches, which emitted no very fragrant odour in their process of drying. In one corner was a sort of broad hanging shelf, made of old planks, where some old hoards of Alice's were kept. Her little bit of crockery ware was ranged on the mantelpiece, where also stood her candlestick and box of matches. A small cupboard contained at the bottom coals, and at the top her bread and basin of oatmeal, her frying pan, tea-pot, and a small tin saucepan, which served as a kettle, as well as for cooking the delicate little messes of broth which Alice sometimes was able to manufacture for a sick neighbour.
After her walk she felt chilly and weary, and was busy trying to light her fire with the damp coals, and half green sticks, when Mary knocked. "Come in," said Alice, remembering, however, that she had barred the door for the night, and hastening to make it possible for any one to come in.
"Is that you, Mary Barton?" exclaimed she, as the light from her candle streamed on the girl's face. "How you are grown since I used to see you at my brother's! Come in, lass, come in." "Please," said Mary, almost breathless, "mother says you're to come to tea, and bring your cup and saucer, for George and Jane Wilson is with us, and the twins, and Jem. And you're to make haste, please."
"I'm sure it's very neighbourly and kind in your mother, and I'll come, with many thanks. Stay, Mary, has your mother got any nettles for spring drink? If she hasn't I'll take her some." "No, I don't think she has." Mary ran off like a hare to fulfil what, to a girl of thirteen, fond of power, was the more interesting part of her errand-the money-spending part. And well and ably did she perform her business, returning home with a little bottle of rum, and the eggs in one hand, while her other was filled with some excellent red-and-white smoke-flavoured Cumberland ham, wrapped up in paper.
She was at home, and frying ham, before Alice had chosen her nettles, put out her candle, locked her door, and walked in a very foot-sore manner as far as John Barton's. What an aspect of comfort did his houseplace present, after her humble cellar. She did not think of comparing; but for all that she felt the delicious glow of the fire, the bright light that revelled in every corner of the room, the savoury smells, the comfortable sounds of a boiling kettle, and the hissing, frizzling ham. With a little old-fashioned curtsey she shut the door, and replied with a loving heart to the boisterous and surprised greeting of her brother.
And now all preparations being made, the party sat down; Mrs. Wilson in the post of honour, the rocking chair on the right hand side of the fire, nursing her baby, while its father, in an opposite arm-chair, tried vainly to quieten the other with bread soaked in milk. Mrs. Barton knew manners too well to do any thing but sit at the tea-table and make tea, though in her heart she longed to be able to superintend the frying of the ham, and cast many an anxious look at Mary as she broke the eggs and turned the ham, with a very comfortable portion of confidence in her own culinary powers. Jem stood awkwardly leaning against the dresser, replying rather gruffly to his aunt's speeches, which gave him, he thought, the air of being a little boy; whereas he considered himself as a young man, and not so very young neither, as in two months he would be eighteen. Barton vibrated between the fire and the tea-table, his only drawback being a fancy that every now and then his wife's face flushed and contracted as if in pain.
At length the business actually began. Knives and forks, cups and saucers made a noise, but human voices were still, for human beings were hungry, and had no time to speak. Alice first broke silence; holding her tea-cup with the manner of one proposing a toast, she said, "Here's to absent friends. Friends may meet, but mountains never." It was an unlucky toast or sentiment, as she instantly felt. Every one thought of Esther, the absent Esther; and Mrs. Barton put down her food, and could not hide the fast dropping tears. Alice could have bitten her tongue out.
It was a wet blanket to the evening; for though all had been said and suggested in the fields that could be said or suggested, every one had a wish to say something in the way of comfort to poor Mrs. Barton, and a dislike to talk about any thing else while her tears fell fast and scalding. So George Wilson, his wife and children, set off early home, not before (in spite of mal-à-propos speeches) they had expressed a wish that such meetings might often take place, and not before John Barton had given his hearty consent; and declared that as soon as ever his wife was well again they would have just such another evening. "I will take care not to come and spoil it," thought poor Alice; and going up to Mrs. Barton she took her hand almost humbly, and said, "You don't know how sorry I am I said it." To her surprise, a surprise that brought tears of joy into her eyes, Mary Barton put her arms round her neck, and kissed the self-reproaching Alice. "You didn't mean any harm, and it was me as was so foolish; only this work about Esther, and not knowing where she is, lies so heavy on my heart. Good night, and never think no more about it. God bless you, Alice."
Many and many a time, as Alice reviewed that evening in her after life, did she bless Mary Barton for these kind and thoughtful words. But just then all she could say was, "Good night, Mary, and may God bless you."

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Word Lists:

Stencil : a thin sheet of cardboard, plastic, or metal with a pattern or letters cut out of it, used to produce the cut design on the surface below by the application of ink or paint through the holes

Crockery : plates, dishes, cups, and other similar items, especially ones made of earthenware or china.

Nettle : a herbaceous plant which has jagged leaves covered with stinging hairs.

Kettle : a container or device in which water is boiled, having a lid, spout, and handle; a teakettle.

Nondescript : lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics

Stingy : unwilling to give or spend; ungenerous

Larder : a room or large cupboard for storing food.

Culinary : of or for cooking

Festoon : a chain or garland of flowers, leaves, or ribbons, hung in a curve as a decoration.

Scrupulously : in a very careful and thorough way

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Additional Information:

Rating: C Words in the Passage: 2646 Unique Words: 893 Sentences: 116
Noun: 695 Conjunction: 290 Adverb: 153 Interjection: 8
Adjective: 180 Pronoun: 211 Verb: 450 Preposition: 315
Letter Count: 11,141 Sentiment: Positive / Positive / Positive Tone: Neutral Difficult Words: 484
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