This chronology will set Elizabeth Gaskell in her historical, social and literary contexts. It will focus on her career as a writer but will also underline her interactive roles as wife, mother, practical and tolerant Christian, radical sympathizer. Graham Handley discusses her early life, her marriage, the beginnings of her writing, the years of achievement, her social, humanitarian concerns, love of travel and its influence, with the balance of domesticity and creativity which is the key to her character.
Graham Handley is a retired lecturer and has published widely on nineteenth-century fiction, particularly on George Eliot, Trollope and Elizabeth Gaskell. He has edited Wuthering Heights for students.