I thought a thread might be in order since I'm reading a collection of her short fiction, and JD just bought the same book. I'm sure that Gollum and others among us who appreciate 19th century fiction are familiar with her work as well.
She is probably best known as a novelist and for her biography of Charlotte Brontë (the two ladies were friends). I've liked those of her novels I've read,North and South and Wives and Daughters, and particularly enjoyed the excellent BBC dramatization of the latter. (Sort of like Jane Austen with a touch of soap opera. Very entertaining stuff. With great costumes and many fine British character actors.)
But where Mrs. Gaskell probably reaches the most readers in the 20th and 21st centuries (and where she fits in here) is through her often anthologized ghost stories and gothic tales. For those who have a passion for that sort of story, it would be hard to miss "The Old Nurse's Tale" which turns up again and again in anthologies and collections (justifiably so, I should add).
The collection I'm reading now, Gothic Tales, includes a lot of stories I've read before. However, "The Poor Clare" was new to me. It's a bit rambling, and some of the "surprises" aren't really (it's the nature of these stories that you expect some sort of fatal twist or dreadful coincidence, and if you expect them it's easy enough to anticipate them), but there are several very powerful passages in the course of this story. One of the final scenes in Antwerp -- how the people behave at the ringing of the bell -- literally brought floods of tears to my eyes. But then, I am as sentimental a soul as any you might meet among Mrs. Gaskell's original Victorian readers. It's possible that more cynical modern readers wouldn't be moved at all.
She is probably best known as a novelist and for her biography of Charlotte Brontë (the two ladies were friends). I've liked those of her novels I've read,North and South and Wives and Daughters, and particularly enjoyed the excellent BBC dramatization of the latter. (Sort of like Jane Austen with a touch of soap opera. Very entertaining stuff. With great costumes and many fine British character actors.)
But where Mrs. Gaskell probably reaches the most readers in the 20th and 21st centuries (and where she fits in here) is through her often anthologized ghost stories and gothic tales. For those who have a passion for that sort of story, it would be hard to miss "The Old Nurse's Tale" which turns up again and again in anthologies and collections (justifiably so, I should add).
The collection I'm reading now, Gothic Tales, includes a lot of stories I've read before. However, "The Poor Clare" was new to me. It's a bit rambling, and some of the "surprises" aren't really (it's the nature of these stories that you expect some sort of fatal twist or dreadful coincidence, and if you expect them it's easy enough to anticipate them), but there are several very powerful passages in the course of this story. One of the final scenes in Antwerp -- how the people behave at the ringing of the bell -- literally brought floods of tears to my eyes. But then, I am as sentimental a soul as any you might meet among Mrs. Gaskell's original Victorian readers. It's possible that more cynical modern readers wouldn't be moved at all.
