Anyone ever read anything by Elizabeth Gaskell?

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  • 2 September, 2011 at 11:15 pm #47591
    linda
    Participant

    I saw her name in conjunction with something and was curious if anyone has any opinion on her books?

    2 September, 2011 at 11:23 pm #690378
    AZDEBRA 5/27 & crew
    Participant

    Sorry not me.

    2 September, 2011 at 11:26 pm #690379
    linda
    Participant

    no worries Deb, but thanks for replying! 🙂

    3 September, 2011 at 1:28 am #690380
    CheetahBoysmommy
    Participant

    I’m really bad with author’s names (with everyone’s name if the truth be told). What genre does she write; I might have read something but I won’t remember it by author name.

    3 September, 2011 at 1:43 am #690381
    jcat
    Participant

    Elizabeth Gaskell (or Mrs Gaskell, as she used to be known) was a Victorian author, friend and biographer of Charlotte Bronte. Probably her best known novel is Cranford, it’s absolutely delightful and very funny if you like light Victorian novels (I LOVE Victorian novels) but she also wrote many others and was very popular. Cranford, along with some of her other novels, was recently turned into one of the most popular BBC drama serials of recent years, with fabulous actors like Judi Dench, Francesca Annis, Michael Gambon and Eileen Atkins in it, it was and is a massive hit.

    So, if you like funny, old-fashioned, light Victorian novels or you love funny, poignant BBC costume dramas, I can thoroughly recommend Mrs Gaskell. (The BBC series mashes several novels together so if you read Cranford first, you’ll wonder where all the other plotlines came from.) Completely family-friendly. I can imagine, with her love of Jane Austen, Emma might enjoy them very much 🙂

    3 September, 2011 at 1:46 am #690382
    jcat
    Participant

    Links on the show: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1236622/Dame-Judi-Dench-boots-bonnets-gossipy-village-biddies-make-Cranford-hit.html

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/6730166/Dame-Judi-Dench-BBCs-Cranford-actresses-say-secret-to-success-is-no-Botox.html

    The Wikipedia entry has spoilers in it so I’d avoid reading the chapter summaries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranford_(TV_series)

    3 September, 2011 at 1:55 am #690383
    CheetahBoysmommy
    Participant

    They sound really fun. I’ll have to check out the local library.

    4 September, 2011 at 12:52 pm #690384
    jcat
    Participant

    bump for Linda.

    5 September, 2011 at 5:31 pm #690385
    linda
    Participant

    Thanks jcat! I do like Victorian novels, love me some Dickens! I had seen the name of her novel North and South, and it sounds good like her others. I didn’t know she was Bronte’s biographer, tho. I’ll be off to the library too!

    5 September, 2011 at 5:52 pm #690386
    jcat
    Participant

    Ohhhh, I’d forgotten all about North and South! The BBC did the most WONDERFUL adaptation of it in four parts, it’s swoony, Linda, you must see it. I had to rush out and get the DVD, I loved it so much. Check it out on Youtube:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN58WAmuuqI

    Much more dramatic than Cranford, that’s why I’d forgotten she’d written it, all grim Northern hero (very Mr Rochester in the BBC series) and prim Southern vicar’s daughter, suddenly thrust from her country vicarage into the ‘dark Satanic’ cotton mills of Manchester. They hate each other on first sight (of course). I haven’t read that one but I LOVED the DVD! So did most of the female population of the UK, I believe, lol.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/love-in-a-cold-climate-535653.html

    5 September, 2011 at 6:34 pm #690387
    linda
    Participant

    Well, that clip sold me! I was looking up Richard Armitage for some reason and that led to North and South and Gaskell! I think now I should watch the series first, then read the book. Thanks for the clip…I never occurred to me to look on youtube!

    5 September, 2011 at 6:49 pm #690388
    jcat
    Participant

    Ooh, Linda, he’s starring as Thorin Oakenshield, chief dwarf, in the The Hobbit so he’s living in Welly at the moment. Alas, I have never seen him wandering down Cuba Mall… but I live in hope…

    5 September, 2011 at 6:53 pm #690389
    Khom
    Participant

    i saw BBC’s North and South two yrs back. that started my love affair (albeit one-sided) with the dishy Richard Armitage. I read the book after watchign the movie. I cn’t decide which is better. If u like gritty period stories with strong heroines…u should like her books.

    5 September, 2011 at 7:02 pm #690390
    linda
    Participant

    jcat, I saw that! but I’m wondering how that will affect his “dishyness”? John Rhys Davies looked soooo different as a dwarf! and you should keep living in hope! You never know 🙂 I wonder if there are pics of him in Dwarf mode? prob not, too hush-hush, but can’t wait for the movie!

    thanks khom! I do like gritty period stories with strong heroines! oh, and btw, your avatar is adorable!!!

    5 September, 2011 at 7:11 pm #690391
    Khom
    Participant

    Thanks Linda. They were initially strays i used to feed, living in the back alley. These two are siblings…the only surviving ones of a family of 6 including momma. Momma and two siblings were killed by wild dogs when they were approx 2mths old(before I knew we hd wild dogs in the neighbourhood) and another sibling was poisoned about two weeks later (I hv monsters as neighbours here who think it’s perfectly ok to deal with strays by poisoning them). That’s when I decided to intervene and take them both in even though my house is overrun with kittehs. Oh well, what’s another two? 🙂

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