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Elizabeth Gaskell

34 audiobooks

Elizabeth Gaskell was one of the finest English novelists of the Victorian era, whose work combined social commentary with psychological insight, humour, and compassion. Born Elizabeth Stevenson in London in 1810, she was raised by her aunt in Knutsford, Cheshire — the town that would later inspire Cranford. She married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister, and settled in Manchester, where the poverty and industrial conditions she witnessed deeply influenced her writing. Gaskell's novels include Mary Barton, which exposed the suffering of Manchester's working class; North and South, which dramatised the clash between industrial and rural England; Cranford, an affectionate portrait of a small country town; and Wives and Daughters, considered her masterpiece. She also wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë, who was her friend. Her shorter works, including Cousin Phillis and My Lady Ludlow, demonstrate her gift for creating complex characters and emotional nuance in compressed form. Gaskell died suddenly in 1865 at the age of fifty-five, leaving Wives and Daughters unfinished. Her audiobooks and books have been rediscovered by modern audiences, who find in her work a writer of remarkable range — equally at home with social realism, ghost stories, romance, and comedy.

A BBC Christmas

  • A BBC Christmas Collection

    Rachel Joyce, Alexander McCall Smith, Stella Duffy, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Anderson, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jeremy Front & more

    $13.95

BBC Classics

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