Elizabeth Gaskell : an historical perspective

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorPalumbo, Steven Louisen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T17:13:47Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T17:13:47Z
dc.date.copyright1975en_US
dc.date.issued1975
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractIn her novels, Elizabeth Gaskell provides a picture of what life was like in early Victorian England. The novels deal chiefly with two aspects of nineteenth century England: the effects of urban industrialism and the changing pattern of rural life. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate Elizabeth Gaskell's portrayal, to determine how well it re­flects the actual history of the period. Elizabeth Gaskell's representation of Manchester and its ethos, of the conditions of working-class life and la­bour, of working-class consciousness, of trade unionism, of Chartism, and of the industrial middle class when compared to the various parliamentary papers, to other official documents and to the remarks of social critics, such as Taine and Tocqueville, is accurate and comprehensive. Her por­trayal of country life and the aristocratic ideal, if less grim than her picture of urban life, is no less correct within its limits. The changing role of the professional middle class, the effects of Evangelicalism and scientific farming, and the elaborate lines of social demarcation in rural England as described in Elizabeth Gaskell's novels are well documented in reliable historical source materials. Of course she could not cover all the multifarious aspects of either the industrial city or the country. Her concern is with social rather than political or economic history, and she writes from what in the twentieth century would be called a liberal middle- class perspective. Within these boundaries, Elizabeth Gaskell's novels are a valuable source for any student of the early Victorian period.en_US
dc.format.extent312 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19216
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleElizabeth Gaskell : an historical perspectiveen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
PALUMBO_STEVEN_MA_1975_395490.pdf
Size:
12.25 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.