Description Described by the press after her death as ‘one of the greatest female novelists of all time’, Elizabeth Gaskell’s literary fame has risen and fallen over the years. Now this special introduction reveals the woman behind classic novels like North and South and Cranford. Elizabeth Gaskell, once better-known as ‘Mrs Gaskell’, mastered a huge range of genres from ‘Condition of England’ novels to Gothic horror, short stories, biography, historical fiction and the rural comedy of Cranford. She met many Victorian writers and celebrities from Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens to Harriet Beecher Stowe and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Speaker Gail Fosbrook gives an intriguing introduction to the classic writer. How did this Victorian wife of a Unitarian minister become such an icon of her time? What was she like in person? What do her letters tell us about her lifestyle and her passions? Does she sit in the shadow of contemporaries like the Brontës and George Eliot? ‘It was absolutely superb – very informative and delivered with authority.’ Visitor to previous online event Recorded February 2026. On purchase, you will be sent a link to this talk. Please note, due to the file size it may take a few minutes for the talk to load.
