Elizabeth Gaskell
Gaskell was a compassionate social novelist who brought the lives of industrial workers and the northern poor before a middle-class reading public. Her later novels show a mastery of psychological realism that ranks her among the greatest Victorian writers.
Works
- North and SouthNovel contrasting industrial North with rural South through family's relocation
- Mary BartonNovel of working-class life and industrial unrest in Manchester
- Wives and DaughtersNovel of provincial life and family relationships in Victorian England
- CranfordNovel of gentle provincial life in a small, declining English town
- RuthNovel exploring themes of a fallen woman and religious redemption