Letters of Mrs Gaskell's Daughters

Irene Wiltshire

Jan 2012 · Humanities-Ebooks

About this ebook

The letters of the four Gaskell daughters open a door into the social and cultural lives of a well-connected middle-class Victorian family. Events that impinged on the lives and the letters of these women include the Indian Mutiny, the assassination of Lincoln, the Franco-Prussian War, the Boer Wars and Fenian agitation. They witnessed the effects in England of the American Civil War, and engaged in the religious controversies of the day. They take a close interest in the impact of Darwin's discoveries, discuss the latest news, Ruskin's lectures on Venice, the Pre-Raphaelites, and what it is like to play Beethoven's piano pieces under Sir Charles Halle's tuition. They also shed light on the network of Unitarian friends and scholars who undertook the stewardship of Elizabeth Gaskell's writing. This richly annotated edition will appeal to anyone interested in Transatlantic relations, in Mrs Gaskell, in women's networking, in Victorian ideas and social life, and in the intellectual culture of dissenting circles.

About the author

Irene Wiltshire took a PhD from Salford University in 2002. The title of her doctoral thesis is Elizabeth Gaskell and Romanticism: The Romantic Inheritance and Her Shorter Works. Irene, an M.A. from Salford and a B.A. (Hons) degree from Manchester Metropolitan University. Gaining her doctorate Irene had essays published in scholarly journals and in an anthology edited by Sandro Jung for the Gaskell Bicentenary in 2010. Irene presented research papers at the Wordsworth Summer Conference and at conferences organized by the British Association of Victorian Studies.