Publications
“I look at [books] as a child looks at cakes - with glittering eyes and a watering mouth, imagining the pleasure that awaits him.”
Elizabeth Gaskell
The Gaskell Society runs a bookstall at major meetings, where you can pick up Elizabeth Gaskell’s works, books on related subjects and our own, regular publications. We also sell postcards, notelets, badges and paperweights. Selected books are also available to buy in the basement tea room at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester.
The Gaskell Journal
Our Journal is a peer-reviewed scholarly publication dedicated to disseminating the most authoritative, dynamic and agenda-setting research in Gaskell Studies. Its editors are Dr Rebecca Styler of the University of Lincoln and Dr Ben Moore of the University of Amsterdam. The reviews editor is Dr Tristram Burke, University of Bangor. The Journal invites essays on all aspects of Gaskell studies and welcomes reviews and shorter articles of biographical interest. Visit the Gaskell Journal website for information about submissions, and to see the full list of journals.
The Journal is published annually and distributed to academic libraries across the UK, US, Canada, Australia and Japan; and sent to all members of the Society. It is also available online in libraries which subscribe to JSTOR and the Literature Online package through Proquest. Find out more.
Selected back copies are available – please contact us.
The Gaskell Society Newsletter
Our newsletter is published twice a year: Spring and Autumn. Articles cover Elizabeth Gaskell, her life and works, her friends and relatives and issues of the time. You’ll also find details of forthcoming Society events/meetings, book reviews, news and other general information about the Society, including reports on recent special events/study tours etc.
Editor Anthony Burton welcomes articles from both members and non-members.
Elizabeth Gaskell: Homes & Haunts
Borrowing a popular nineteenth-century literary form, Anthony Burton looks at Elizabeth Gaskell’s life in terms of the places she knew and loved. He visits not only Knutsford and Manchester, but also Wales, the Lake District, rural Lancashire and elsewhere, through archives, her literary locations and her letters. He also tells the story of the careful restoration of her beautiful, Grade II* listed Regency home on Plymouth Grove Manchester, now a museum celebrating her life and work.
Passion and Propriety – Elizabeth Gaskell: Dress and Textiles
Elizabeth Gaskell’s letters demonstrate a keen interest in fashion, but also practicality. Her novels and stories, meanwhile, make use of clothing as a device that reveals much more about a character than mere appearance. In this entertaining, illustrated guide, Margo Singer describes the fashions of the time, exploring Gaskell’s attitude to clothes and Manchester’s role at heart of this rapidly-expanding industry. You can buy the book here (ebook format). Print format (UK only)
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Knutsford
This booklet (24pp) includes a biography of Elizabeth Gaskell, including her early life in Knutsford, as well as her later, married life in Manchester. The book also features a comprehensive walking tour and map of the town, which was the inspiration for her much-loved novel, Cranford.
Christmas with the Gaskells
This booklet (24pp) includes a biography of Elizabeth Gaskell, including her early life in Knutsford, as well as her later, married life in Manchester. The book also features a comprehensive walking tour and map of the town, which was the inspiration for her much-loved novel, Cranford.
Elizabeth Gaskell: Manchester’s Versatile Storyteller
Anthony Burton examines the different facets of Gaskell’s storytelling and presents a brief overview on Manchester and the North, Manchester Stories, Village Tales, the Industrial Novel, the Social Problem Novel, Family Sagas, Historical Fiction and finally, Crime and Ghost Stories. There are works by Elizabeth Gaskell that could be said to represent sit within all of these genres, some in more than one. This booklet is free of charge
The Gaskell Journal Index to Volumes 1-30 (1987-2017)
Published in 2019, this book carries a comprehensive index of our first thirty Gaskell Journals. With forewords by Libby Tempest, Alan Shelston and Jo Pryke, the index split into author, subject and book reviews. It’s an essential companion to the Journal and a valuable aid for Gaskell researchers and students.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s works
Elizabeth Gaskell’s longer works are all available in paperback. The “Knutsford” edition of her collected works (8 vols, 1906), while not entirely complete or textually reliable, was produced by her original publisher, Smith Elder & Co., and thus maintains a link with her lifetime. The “Pickering Masters’ Edition (General Editor Joanne Shattock, 10 vols, 2005-6) is a complete scholarly edition, with introduction by individual Gaskell scholars, textual variations and notes.
You can find a full list of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels and short stories here.