Elizabeth Gaskell

<p>Tremendously popular in her lifetime, the books of the English author Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) have often been overshadowed by her contemporaries the Brontës and George Eliot. Yet the reputation of her long-neglected masterpiece <i>Wives and Daughters</i> continues to grow. Gaskell wrote six novels in all — of which <i>North and South</i> and <i>Cranford</i> remain two of the best known — as well as numerous short stories, novellas, and a biography of her great friend Charlotte Bront&iocy;.</p>