Gaskell and the Law

This book explores how Elizabeth Gaskell’s writing is rich with insights into the law of her time, and to read her work with a lawyer’s eye deepens and enriches the experience of that work.

Elizabeth Gaskell wrote against the backdrop of the mid-19th century, a period of rapid industrialisation and democratic reform. Her place in the canon of English literature is well-established and secure. She is best known today for her two industrial novels, Mary Barton (1848) and North and South (1855), and for the charming vignettes of Cranford (1853). She was, however, a far more prolific, and more adventurous author than these works might suggest. Her other writings include three further novels, Ruth (1853), Sylvia’s Lovers (1863) and Wives and Daughters (1866, posthumous), a biography of Charlotte Brontë (1857), novellas such as Cousin Phillis (1864) and Six Weeks at Heppenheim (1862) and extensive shorter fiction.

Her work goes beyond the immediate contemporary context and engages with profound questions about obedience to law, and law’s place among multiple systems of obligation and incentive.

Her work shows a skilled, accurate and critical handling of legal rules and a sensitivity to law’s personal and social effects. Part of Gaskell’s genius as novelist is that she manages to integrate this sophisticated engagement with law seamlessly.

As a leading scholar of Victorian legal history Paul Mitchell brings an in-depth knowledge of the law to his reading of Gaskell. He has unearthed a wealth of fascinating material which reveals the richness and sophistication of Gaskell’s engagement with the law across her writing.