Reading, Writing, Working, Playing

The Sultan Pardons Scheherazade , Arthur Boyd Houghton (1836-1875) I finished W&D this evening, having two plane rides over the past thr...

I love this description of Robert Preston that Cynthia gives in chapter 43, "Cynthia's Confession": ...for he is cruel in h...

Another George du Maurier illustration for the Wives and Daughters , The Cornhill , 1864. From Chapter 34, "A Lover's Mistake"...

I can't tell you how disappointed I was to read this passage (Chapter 35, "The Mother's Manoeuvre,") in which Mr. Gibson h...

A George du Maurier illustration for Wives and Daughters when it was published in "The Cornhill" in 1865. From Project Gutenberg...

I meant to make this posting on W&D about the passive aggressiveness of both Mr. and Mrs. Gibson (don't you just "love" ho...

Ever since I read Gaskell's bizarre story, Curious if True , I have been noticing her very frequent references to fairy tales and folk l...

I just got back from a spring break trip to NYC and Cooperstown (for the Baseball Hall of Fame ), which is why I haven't posted in awhi...

I'm just about to start rereading Gaskell's last, unfinished novel, Wives and Daughters (Penguin Classics) , and so last night start...

If you haven't read Gaskell's Cousin Phillis yet, be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. However, if you're like me, y...

Last week I read a marvelous paper in the latest Gaskell Society Journal entitled "Elizabeth Gaskell's Legacy from Romanticism,...

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

I finished Gaskell's Moorland Cottage yesterday. The parallels to Wives and Daughters didn't totally play out with regards to the p...

I just started The Moorland Cottage , one of Gaskell's novellas, last night. She wrote it fairly early in her career, about the same ti...

Mr. Harrison's Confessions is a sweet, funny, charming novella whose basic characters and plot line were incorporated into the BBC Cranf...