As Gaskell scholar Alan Shelston wrote in a 2013 essay, Gaskell is “arguably the most diverse of the earlier Victorian novelists”. 

Anthony looks into this statement and shows us a rich variety of genres represented in Gaskell’s novels, novellas and short stories.  Sections include Manchester & the North; Manchester Stories; Village Tales; the Industrial Novel; the Social Problem Novel; Family Sagas; Historical Fiction, and Crime &  Ghost Stories.  

Gaskell’s literary canon, created during a career of less than twenty years, spans all of these genres and more – she was a prolific writer, with a far-reaching appetite for telling stories from all walks of life.