Reading Gaskell for the First Time?

Mary-Laure left a comment on the previous blog entry asking for a recommendation on which Gaskell to read first.

Here are my thoughts on the subject. Caveat - I haven't yet read Cousin Phillis, nor have I read ALL the short stories, but I think I've read enough to venture an opinion.

1) North and South - some people have a problem liking Margaret, but I think she is a marvelous Victorian heroine. Not as "on a pedestal" as many of Dickens' heroines, but definitely of the angel variety who stumbles from time to time. N&S is a love story, it's a social problem story, and it has a good cross section of characters, showing Gaskell's range and sympathies.

2) Cranford - her most popular novel, and her personal favorite. Based on reminiscences of her girlhood in Knutsford, it is episodic in nature, gentle in tone and humor, and sweet. Dickens loved Gaskell's Cranford stories, which he published as individual pieces before she collected them into a novel.

3) Wives and Daughters - I think of this as Gaskell's masterpiece, but, tragically, she died just before completing it. It is rich in characters that defy type, rich in detail, rural, and a thumping good read. It lacks the social problem aspect that characterized most of Gaskell's writing, especially her early writing, and drove her to sacrifice so much of her time to writing so I can't say that it is the one Gaskell to read, but it is marvelous.

4) The Grey Woman - a novella that is a wonderful Blackbead type story. If all you know about Gaskell is Cranford, the GW is something completely different.

5) My Lady Ludlow - a fascinating novella that shows Gaskell's ability to weave various stories and themes into a cohesive whole, with variations in narrative technique.

6) Sylvia's Lovers - while I never warmed to the heroine, this is a purely historical novel with all the dialogue delivered in accurate dialect. A monumental feat of historical research, inspired during Gaskell's visit to Whitby with her daughters. Based on true events.

7) The Old Nurse's Story - my favorite of Gaskell's short stories. A classic Victorian ghost story.

8) Ruth - a fascinating moral tale in which Gaskell takes the road not often taken by Victorian authors and champions the unwed mother.

Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow: Final thoughts

I finished this novella last night and ended up liking it quite a bit. Then, it was interesting to read Uglow's commentary in the Gaskell bio that I am reading simulataneously with the stories and novels.

Uglow chose to quote the passage that made me laugh out loud in which Miss Galindo is telling the narrator about her life and how she nearly became a writer:
"Doctor Burney used to teach me music...and his daughter wrote a book, and they said she was but a very young lady, and nothing but a music-master's daughter; so why should I not try...I got paper and half-a-hundred good pens, a bottle of ink, all ready...it ended in my having nothing to say, when I sat down to write. But sometimes when I get a hold of a book, I wonder why I let such a poor reason stop me. It does not others."

This is a definite echo of Austenian humor.

Speaking of Miss Galindo, she is so different in the book than in the Cranford mini-series that all they really took from the book was her name and the fact that she works as a clerk so that the steward (Mr. Carter in the mini-series and Mr. Horner in the book won't have any call to train up Harry Gregson as his clerk). Gaskell's Miss Galindo is truly wonderful and is worth reading the novella just to experience--she's plain-spoken, fading gentry, devoted to Lady Ludlow, but follows her own conscience and heart. There's a bit of Austen's Miss Bates in her, but not as broadly drawn.

Speaking of Austen, near the end, the narrator mentions a letter dated 1811, the year in which Sense & Sensibility was published. Coincidence? Maybe, but Lady Ludlow strikes me as the flip side of Lady Catherine from Austen's Pride & Prejudice.

Framed stories in Gaskell's Lady Ludlow

I just finished the part of My Lady Ludlow in which LL attempts to explain why the lower classes shouldn't be taught to read. Her reason hinges in her distintion between honor and discretion--she discovered that Harry Gregson had been taught to read when he is sent to deliver a written message to her, loses the paper, but can communicate the message because he has read it. This prompts her to relate a very long story about Monsieur de Crequy (aka Clement), a French aristocrat who escaped France with his mother but returned to save his cousin, with whom he was in love. Their doom is sealed when a French peasant boy reads a critical communication between the two and essentially turns them in to be guillotined. Back to honor and discretion and Harry Gregson...at the close of the story of the French aristocrats, LL says that while Harry might be taught to be discreet (i.e., not repeat private messages that he might have occasion to read), he could never be taught honor because that is an innate quality of the upper class.

The interesting thing about this book is that the narrator speaks of LL with deep affection and respect and reports her very archaic and conservative views on class, etc. without damning them, though it's clear that she doesn't agree with them. Again, Gaskell is able to present a character through the eyes of another character with respect and affection and pity for the narrowness of her opinion. She's almost patronizing in her portrayal of LL, which is ironic as LL is herself so patronizing to the world and society at large.

Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow

I really enjoyed the Lady Ludlow part of the recent Cranford BBC production, so I decided to dive into this novella next. Chronologically, she wrote My Lady Ludlow shortly after The Life of Charlotte Bronte, and it's much more comfortable to read than the bio, where I felt that Gaskell was walking on eggshells, either from the fear of offending interested parties or from wanting to portray Charlotte in a certain way.

So far, the book is very quiet, much like Lady Ludlow herself, and it is told in the first person, who then narrates stories told to her by others, including Lady Ludlow.

Mr. Carter from the mini-series appears to be a composite of Mr. Gray, the rector, and Mr. Horner, her steward. The former teaches Harry Gregson to read and the latter is her steward, the role Mr. Carter had in the mini-series.

The book wasn't easy to find--I scanned several different Gaskell collections at Amazon, and found the one I'm reading, which is published by www.BookSurge.com/classics. BookSurge.com is a self-publishing outfit, but the /classics page no longer exists. I don't think I'll go this route again--several typos, and no notes or introduction or afterward.