I’ve had a love affair with 19th century British
literature most of my life. I discovered Dickens first. I took delight in his
inventive character names and the imaginative way he described people and
things. During college I moved on to the Brontë sisters, and then to Jane Austen.
What I found appealing was their ability to see their own world: the relationships
between men and women, what behavior society would tolerate and what it would
not. Lately I’ve been reading Elizabeth Gaskell. What I find refreshing about
her view is that she sees more than just the well-heeled and well educated of
Austen’s and the Brontës’ sphere, or “deserving poor” of Dickens’ experience. She
understood the struggle between the haves and the have-nots. Either she was the
more mature of these authors, or the reader is herself more mature. The only way to
know for sure is to reread it all. I can live with that.
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