Bibliography

Selig, Robert L. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Reference Guide, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1977, 431 p.

A comprehensive bibliography of critical commentary on Gaskell's life and works published from 1848 to 1974.

Criticism

Duthie, Enid L. The Themes of Elizabeth Gaskell. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980, 217 p.

Thematic study of Gaskell's works that includes chapters on nature, society, family, religion, and industry.

Easson, Angus. Introduction to Cousin Phillis and Other Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell, pp. vii-xiv. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Summary of contemporary critical response to Gaskell's fiction.

——, ed. Elizabeth Gaskell: The Critical Heritage. New York: Routledge, 1991, 595 p.

Compilation of the enormous body of early criticism on Gaskell.

Fisher, Benjamin Franklin, IV. Review of Mrs. Gaskell's Tales of Mystery and Horror. Studies in Short Fiction 18, No. 1 (Winter 1981): 110-11.

Briefly evaluates several of Gaskell's genre stories, noting that "none of these tales is likely to enhance Mrs. Gaskell's literary standing."

Laun, Ellen M. "A Missing Gaskell Tale Found." Studies in Short Fiction 15, No. 2 (Spring 1978): 177-83.

Investigates "The Poor Clare" as "an important story for scholars interested in tracing Elizabeth Gaskell's growth as a writer."

Low, Frances H. "Mrs. Gaskell's Short Tales." Fortnightly Review LXVI (1899): 633-43.

Includes favorable estimations of Cousin Phillis, "The Crooked Branch," and "Mr. Harrison's Confessions."

Lumpkin, Ramona. "(Re)visions of Virtue: Elizabeth Gaskell's Moorland Cottage and George Eliot's The Mill on the Flossr Studies in the Novel 23, No. 4 (Winter 1991): 432-42.

Traces affinities between Gaskell's novella and Eliot's later novel.

McVeagh, John. "Notes on Mrs. Gaskell's Narrative Technique." Essays in Criticism 18 (1968): 461-70.

Examines Gaskell's use of a "static narrative technique," which eliminates the necessity of undue structural organization in her works.

——. Elizabeth Gaskell. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970, 104 p.

Provides a series of key extracts from Gaskell's complete works.

Schor, Hilary M. Scheherezade in the Marketplace: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Victorian Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, 236 p.

Examines Gaskell's position as a woman writing at a time of intense social upheaval and traces the figure of the heroine throughout her fiction.

Williams, Merryn. "Elizabeth Gaskell." In Women in the English Novel 1800-1900, pp. 106-18. London: Macmillan Press, 1984.

Summarizes Gaskell's oeuvre, including brief discussions of her short stories "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras," "The Well of Pen-Morfa," and "Lizzie Leigh."

Wolfreys, Julian. "Critical Nationalism and the Truth' of (Identity in) Elizabeth Gaskell." In Being English: Narratives, Idioms, and Performances of National Identity from Coleridge to Trollope, pp. 81-102. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Argues that Gaskell's writings cannot be read from any single political position, and illustrates this statement by using her short texts "Round the Sofa," "An Accursed Race," and Cousin Phillis.

Additional coverage of Gaskell's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Gale Research: Concise Dictionary of Literary Biography, 1832-1890; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 21, 144, 159; DISCovering Authors; and Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 5.