Synopses & Reviews
For much of her own century, Elizabeth Gaskell was recognized asa voice of Victorian convention&emdash;-the loyal wife, good mother, andrespected writer&emdash;-a reputation that led to her steady decline in theview of twentieth-century literary critics. Recent scholars, however, have begun torecognize that Mrs. Gaskell's high standing in Victorian society allowed her toeffect change in conventional ideology. Linda K. Hughes and Michael Lund focus thisreevaluation on issues pertaining to the Victorian literarymarketplace.
Victorian Publishing and Mrs.Gaskell's Work portrays an elusive and self-aware writer whose refusal to grantauthority to a single perspective even while she recirculated the fundamentalassumptions and debates of her era enabled her simultaneously to fulfill and deflectthe expectations of the literary marketplace. While she wrote for money, producingperiodical fiction, major novels, and nonfiction, Mrs. Gaskell was able to maintaina tone of warmth and empathy that allowed her to imagine multiple social andepistemological alternatives. Writing from within the established rubrics of gender, narrative, and publication format, she nevertheless performed important culturalwork.