The Complete Novels

The Greatest Writers of All Time #29

by Elizabeth Gaskell

Here you will find an extensive biography of Elizabeth Gaskell and all her novels (in the chronological order of their original publication).

- Elizabeth Gaskell: A Biography
- Mary Barton
- Cranford
- Ruth
- North and South
- Sylvia’s Lovers
- Wives and Daughters

Genres: Classics, Ebooks, Collections

3614 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2012

About the author

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.

AKA:
Елізабет Гаскелл (Ukrainian)

Reviews

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the novels contained herein, my favorites were 'North and South, " "Cranford," and " Wives and Daughters, " all reviewed under the individual titles.
I enjoyed reading this 19th Century British author who has mostly been forgotten by popular literature.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read the entire Gaskell collection, I’ve read Wives and Daughters, Cranford and Mary Barton.

It is Mary Barton that this review concerns.
4.25
I enjoyed Gaskell’s first published novel. There were strong social themes of class inequality and the working poor, this felt reminiscent of Dickens. I question why there was a strong focus on death. Perhaps the conditions of the poor caused excessive death?
I enjoyed the novel more than Cranford but not as much as Wives and Daughters. MB seemed to fizzle out a bit at then end.

[Ricki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, took me ages to read though in all fairness I read lots of books in between when I had periodically had enough of the style, subject matter and time. She was very good on local colour and descriptions, local dialect or accent as well as social structures. All in all the books were good reads, perhaps a bit heavily written for modern audiences - they are certainly of their time. But- they are definitely worth reading.

[Critical Sandwich]

I sometimes do "randomizer pick" when choosing my next read, and I DON'T have classics books by big authors on goodreads TBR (cuz otherwise my TBR would be ~200 books higher), so I put a few of these "Complete Works" onto TBR so they'd have a chance to be chosen by randomizer, but I'd still have the freedom to choose whatever work.

[frankbolles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional

Truth and mercy combined as the Good Book reveals if we read its pages.
Fully suggest reading it for our generation.

[Mildred T. Honeycutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good reads!

These books were hard to Put down! Don't start reading at night because you will want to continue. Each book was really good.

[Joanna Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful stories of complex and interesting characters.

Beautiful stories of complex and interesting characters. I enjoyed them all.
Mrs Gaskell's novels are wonderfully written and easy to read.

[Lisa]

North and South
Start: January 24, 2015