Elizabeth Gaskell's Home



Title page of Gaskell's Cranford from my library
designed by Reginald Knowles in the style of William Morris.

Elizabeth Gaskell (1820 - 1865)became one of my favorite writers a decade or so ago after I read this charming little edition of Cranford A Tale. I had bought it as a decorative item for its gold embossed
"maroon leatherette cover" with gilded pages and the phrase hidden in the gold on the cover and repeated on the lovely end papers of this volume: "Everyman: I will go with thee and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thy side."  


Everyman's Library maroon leatherette cover.

It is an early volume of Everyman's Library edited by Ernest Rhys #318 with  "Forewords" by May Sinclair.
Here is a link to Rhys's obituary by Robert Lynd.
"This binding has a spine that is identical to the standard flat spine, with an additional floral gilt design on the cover. The corners of the binding are rounded, and the top edge of the pages is gilt. A silk book marker is also bound in. It originally sold for two shillings--twice the price of the standard cloth. This binding was phased out near the time that the quarter pigskin binding was discontinued." So my volume was published between 1906 and 1918. Here is a link to collecting Everyman's Library where I found the binding information and other delightful meanders: http://www.everymanslibrarycollecting.com/site_index.html

I started  meandering because one of my favorite bloggers, Catherine Pope - Victorian Geek, noted that Elizabeth Gaskell's house in Manchester has been extensively renovated and is now open to the public. "Oh, to be in England..." but I'm not.  I am instead enjoying a warm and sunny winter's day in Houston--screen door open to the fresh air and a happy dog napping on the patio, quite lovely--and I can make do with a virtual tour.
http://www.elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/house
Oh, my! Who wouldn't want to visit a house where Charlotte Bronte once hid "behind the curtains to avoid making small talk with other guests." Gaskell wrote an 1857 biography of Bronte just two years after her death. Gaskell's only published non-fiction, I think, created so much controversy that she vowed that no biography of herself should ever be written.

In Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign, A book of appreciations 1897, Edna Lyall wrote the chapter about Gaskell, available on the Victorian Web, and credited her with "a mind as delicately pure as a child's, wedded to that true mother's heart which is wide enough to take in all the needy." A phrase that caused me to laugh aloud since "delicate purity" is not necessarily an attribute of childhood and, even it were, could not long survive within "a true mother's heart" encountering "all the needy" while visiting prison and writing about social ills and issues, in particular those of fallen womanhood.
Sometime ago I stumbled upon this delightful reference: Revoking Victorian Silences: Redemption of fallen women through speech in Elizabeth Gaskell's fiction  by Comanchette Rene McBee, 2012, Iowa State University, and revisited it today.

Another favorite blogger, Catherine Hawley at Juxtabook contributes a few details to my virtual tour as she describes her October visit to 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, to hear Carolyn Lambert discuss her book, Elizabeth Gaskell and the Meaning of Home, published by Victorian Secrets. Here is a link to their catalogue entry: http://www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/catalogue/the-meanings-of-home-in-elizabeth-gaskells-fiction/

I have downloaded a sample of Lambert's book and am seriously considering buying it. Here is the Amazon link:
Download a sample. Lambert's Meaning of Home... Gaskell's fiction.

 Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte is in the public domain and widely available as a digital book free. I purchased  this two volume Kindle edition from Amazon for $0.99 each because I thought the illustrations were worth a couple of bucks. Volume one (Illustrated) and Volume two (illustrated)

I  highly recommend reading Cranford or enjoying the excellent BBC production.
If you enjoy it, you'll probably also like Lark Rise to Candleford based on the semi-autobiographical novels of Flora Thompson.

Gaskell is a great favorite and I have twice her been mentioned in my blog. These postings date to a time when I was doing a much better job of maintaining my reading list than I have done of late.
Quoting those blogs:

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn:  Mary Barton. 1848. Kindle. Project Gutenberg.   This book is essentially a love story with characters about whom it is easy to care.  That empathy is the snare to engage the reader in a discussion of capitalism and the conflict between mill owners and workers and in an investigation of power, money, and faith.

Gaskell, Elizabeth:  North and South.  1854.  Kindle.  Project Gutenberg.  First published in serial form in Household Words 1854-1855 and in volume form in 1855.  The story concerns a dissenting Anglican minister and his family (wife and daughter) who move from their parish in the South to the cotton textile manufacturing city in the North and interact with both the owner of a mill and the men and women who work in the mills.  Well-crafted characters and social interaction, especially between classes, are Gaskell's strong points.   A compelling read. Highly recommended.

What I'm Reading...

The list for this month is much shorter than usual.
As I have noticed before when I'm writing I read less.

I've been thinking about what I learned at BWWA 2010 and exploring websites related to Victorian literature.  I've been reading technical stuff on archives, libraries, and website design.  I've been exploring HASTAC - Humanities, Arts, Science Technology Advanced Collaboratory which I had not been aware of until I was interviewed (link on the sidebar) but this subject is fascinating to me.  link:  Bridget Draxler's current blog on the future of thinking. 

I've been catching up on periodicals and catalogs.  Shopping on-line for clothes;  they've quit making my trousers!  I hate to shop so it's a good thing that my view on fashion is:  "Fashion is for those who have no sense of personal style."

Probably spending too much time on Facebook but I'm enjoying reconnecting with my cousins, classmates, and kids I know & loved from my Sunday School classes.  

Fiction:

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn:  Mary Barton. 1848. Kindle. Project Gutenberg.   This book is essentially a love story with characters about whom it is easy to care.  That empathy is the snare to engage the reader in a discussion of capitalism and the conflict between mill owners and workers, in an investigation of power, money, and faith.
Bedside book:

Brueggemann, Walter:  The Prophetic Imagination.  2nd edition.  Minneapolis:  Fortress Press, 2001.   Brueggemann is never boring but his texts are incredilbly rich;  I expect to linger over this reading.   The first edition (1978) is the "first publication in which" Brueggemann says he "more or less found my own voice as a teacher in the church."  I am an admirer of Brueggemann and my mature views of scripture have been significantly shaped by his writings.  In this early book I recognize the roots of some of the later works--particularly Message of the Psalms.  Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth, the prayers of Walter Brueggman lives on my bedside shelf so that he prays for me when I cannot pray for myself.  In February 2005, Bobbie and I attended his lecture:  Psalms:  the good, the hard, the surprising.  Some quotes from my notes:  "The Psalms invite  us to push the edges of our emotional alertness to the reality around us."  "...faith requires candid entry into suffering..."  "good authoritative speech... generates a new world... why our speech must be imaginative and not cliched."  "Breath is a gift; it is not a possession.  Breath is the property of the life-giving God."  "There is nothing in your life that you cannot bring to the presence (orientation) to the absence (disorientation) of God."  "Biblical faith traffics not in certitude but in relationship."   "Church... too much an echo of the culture...  need to recover our idenitity...  as  ...the place where the truth is told and things are called by their right names..." " God responds to authentic trouble..."  the purpose of  worship is "to re-preform creation... people come to church overwhelmed by chaos... liturgy transforms chaos into creation."  "...the promise of new orientation is not a quiet deal between me and Jesus.  It is a BIG cosmic event in which I may participate."
link: some of Brueggemann's texts available on-line

What I'm reading...

I've been spending a lot of time working on my Victorian author project.  Newly unearthed:

• a new work of short fiction in an Anglican parish publication and credited to Evelyn Whitaker.  I've long suspected that she first published in religious press.  I also have hints of a couple of other similar publications to chase.
• a listing of her name in a church history: Christ Church, Saint Pancras, London
• which strongly suggests an association with Cristina and Maria Rossetti which accounts for the presence of painters in a number of Whitaker's writings and perhaps for the Pre-
  Raphaelite illustration on the cover of the 1886 Walter Smith edition of Tip Cat bookbinding exhibit of library University North Texas
• the repository of records for Roberts Brothers (Boston) who were the authorized publishers of Evelyn Whitaker's works in the USA.  Catalog information notes re. endorsed royalty checks indicate a variant spelling "Whittaker" which may facilitate biographical research.  A trip to Boston is in my future.
• so I'll have a lot of updating of my website:   http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/index.html

I've done a major review of the medical literature re. myasthenia gravis for a private client.

I'm reading a lot of Britsh Women Authors preparing for the BWWA conference at TAMU in April:

• Mary Augusta Ward 1851-1920 a prolific and best selling writer of novels with religious themes and Victorian ideals.  She was one of the founders of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League.  For more information:  Wikipedia Mary Augusta Arnold (Mrs. Humphry Ward)

Ward, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry):  Robert Elsmere. 1888.  Kindle. Project Gutenberg. The best known of Ward's novels is this story of a young Anglican minister married to an orthodox wife with a "spiritual" sensibility.  His reason/intellect leads to doubt and he resigns his pulpit.  He struggles (they struggle) as he seeks a new path to faith and ministry through a historical Christ.  This book is an excellent presentation of the religious and philosophical discussions which grew out of the higher criticism (the biblical textual criticism) of the late 19th Century.  Ward, through Elsmere, attempts to answer both traditional faith and "positivism"  e.g. the philosphy of August Comte.  Fiction is my favorite way to read philosophy and theology and this book was interesting, engaging, informative, and a wonderful love story.  "Where and when and how you will, but somewhen and somehow, God created the heavens and the earth!"  "The decisive events in the world take place in the intellect.  It is the mission of books that they help one remember it."  "It is the education of God! Do not imagine it will put you farther from Him!  He is in criticism, in science, in doubt, so long as the doubt is a pure and honest doubt...  He is in all life, in all thought."  "All things change,--creeds and philosophies and outward systems,--but God remains." 

Ward, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry):  The Mating of Lydia. 1913.  Kindle.  Project Gutenberg.  Is friendship without romantic love possible between men and women?  A look at the New Woman who turns out to be the old Victorian ideal of woman as "redeemer" of man.  Like Robert Elsmere this book has a strong villan, an older man attempting to destroy the faith/self of a younger/better man.

•  Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, 1810-1865, biographer of Charolotte Bronte and author of the delightful Cranford which was popularized in the 2007 BBC production, has been one of my  favorite authors for some time now.  Her religious views are Unitarian in the best sense as one who seeks common ground and unity among people of good will.    Victorian Web: Elizabeth Gaskell  Wikipedia Elizabeth Gaskell beautiful portraits of her

Gaskell, Elizabeth:  North and South.  1854.  Kindle.  Project Gutenberg.  First published in serial form in Household Words 1854-1855 and in volume form in 1855.  The story concerns a dissenting Anglican minister and his family (wife and daughter) who move from their parish in the South to the cotton textile manufacturing city in the North and interact with both the owner of a mill and the men and women who work in the mills.  Well-crafted characters and social interaction, especially between classes, are Gaskell's strong points.   A compelling read. Highly recommended.

• Marie Corelli, 1855 -1924,  the People's Choice of her time, the best-selling author in both Britian and  America, although not greatly admired or appreciated by academic readers.  Her writing style is over-the-top, laden with  sensationalism and emotionalism. She presents an odd mix of religion/Christianity with theories of parallel universes, astral projection, and reincarnation.  I find Corelli's scientific knowledge shallow and pretentious.   Any writer who was so widely read and wildly popular must be considered interesting, but I did not much enjoy nor do I recommend Corelli.         VictorianWeb Marie Corelli   mariecorelli.org/

Corelli, Marie:  The Mighty Atom. 1896.  Kindle.  Project Gutenberg.  A quick read with an interesting view of childhood, faith, education.  Depressing in the same way that Joyce Carol Oates, Emily Bronte, Sylvia Plath are often depressing to me.

Corelli, Marie:  A Romance of Two Worlds. 1886  Kindle. Project Gutenberg. The author's first novel deals with art and music and parallel universes.  She attributes much (too much) to ELECTRICITY, particularly to "human electricity"   This book reminds me of John Fowles The Magus and Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights and magical realism, best represented by Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I download books free of charge, directly to my Kindle (.mobi format for Kindle 1) from http://manybooks.net/  which offers thousands of books preformatted in many formats for computer, smartphone, electronic books, ipod etc. etc.

Non-fiction:

Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. I'm still nibbling this book.  In addition to being helpful to students preparing to attend or taking college literature classes, I think it would be helpful to writers.