Elizabeth Gaskell: a voice of the Victorians

While not the most famous novelist of her generation, 'Mrs Gaskell' helped bring the unpleasant implications of industrialisation to the public consciousness. But what motivated her to speak out?

- JONNY WILKES

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's journey to becoming one of the most celebrated authors of the Victorian age was borne from an intensely difficult time in her life. In 1845, she lost her infant son to scarlet fever and, at her husband's encouragement, turned to writing for nothing more than an outlet for her grief and a possible path out of depression. The result was her first novel, and an instant success: Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life.

About a desperate working-class family, it vividly portrayed the slums of Manchester and the plight of the poor. "I had always felt a deep sympathy with the care-worn men," Gaskell said in the preface; a sympathy that had been nurtured throughout a childhood surrounded by progressive thinkers, reformers and humanitarians. Born Elizabeth Stevenson on 29 September 1810, she was raised, following her mother's death when she was only one, by her "more than mother" aunt, Hannah Lumb, who made sure she received a good education and introduction to Unitarianism.

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