Category: Biographies
Among women writers of the nineteenth century, none deserve more grateful remembrance than Mrs. Gaskell. Though it is forty-six years since she passed away, her stories are still eagerly read, and there is a growing interest in her life, as was shown by the almost universal ap...
“Yes,” said that lady, “such lace cannot be got now for either love or money; made by the nuns abroad they tell me. They say that they can’t make it now, even there. But perhaps...
10. Part 10“Lad! thou hast borne a deal for me. It’s the meanest thing I ever did to leave thee to bear the brunt. Thou, who wert as innocent of any knowledge of it as the babe unborn. I’l...
18. Part 18“No, it’s not all,” said her husband. “Thou must get sixpennyworth of rum to warm the tea; thou’ll get it at the ‘Grapes.’ And thou just go to Alice Wilson; he says she lives ju...
17. Part 17“Why,” replied Sally slowly and emphatically, “I’ve saved thirty pound! But that’s not it. I’ve getten a lawyer to make me a will; that’s it, wench!” said she, slapping Ruth on...
14. Part 14And here I must not forget to name an odd incident at the conclusion of the prayer, and before we had risen from our knees (indeed, before Betty was well awake, for she made a n...
22. Part 22“A tell yo’ what, lads,” said Daniel, recovering his breath, but speaking in gasps. “We were a pack o’ cowards to let ’em carry off yon chaps as easy as they did, a’m reckoning!”
12. Part 12“And may I say you do not know the North?” asked he, with an inexpressible gentleness in his tone, as he saw that he had really hurt her. She continued resolutely silent; yearni...
23. Part 23The solemn excitement of the services had left its traces upon her countenance and in her mind. There was a spiritual light in her usually shadowed eyes, and a slight flush on h...
5. Part 5February 16th, 1863.—Again in Paris! and, as I remember a young English girl saying with great delight, “we need never be an evening at home!” But her visions were of balls; our...
13. Part 13“He will have it, will he?” thought Mr. Gibson to himself; and he girded up his loins for the battle. He did not follow Molly and Miss Eyre into the drawing-room as he usually d...
9. Part 9But the masters did not choose to make all these circumstances known. They stood upon being the masters, and that they had a right to order work at their own prices, and they be...
8. Part 8They were, first, withdrawing the proposal just made, and declaring all communication between the masters and that particular Trades Union at an end; secondly, declaring that no...
27. Part 27Few beyond that circle of hills knew that she, whom the nations praised far off, lay dead that Easter morning. Of kith and kin she had more in the grave to which she was soon to...
11. Part 11“I’m loth to vex you, sir, just now; but it was not the want of power I was talking on; what we all feel sharpest is the want of inclination to try and help the evils which come...
21. Part 21Mary wondered if the dear grandfather heard all this, for Margaret did not speak in an undertone; but no! he was far too deep and eager in solving a problem. He did not even not...
20. Part 20He drew back his head; and the eager inquiries, the shouts, the sea-like murmurs of the moving rolling mass began again to be heard—but only for an instant. In far less time tha...
26. Part 26It is Anglo-Saxon descent which makes us both so undemonstrative, or perhaps I should rather say, so ready to express our little dissatisfaction with each other, while the deepe...
19. Part 19The chapel was up a narrow street, or rather _cul-de-sac_, close by. It stood on the outskirts of the town, almost in fields. It was built about the time of Matthew and Philip H...
25. Part 25Our party consisted of two grown-up persons and four children, the youngest almost a baby, who had to be carried the greater part of that weary length of way. We passed through...
3. Part 3Almost all her articles and sketches were written for _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_, though Mrs. Gaskell’s fame rests on her novels. Charles Dickens eagerly secured...
6. Part 6Attar of roses, again, she disliked. She said it reminded her of the city and of merchants’ wives, over-rich, over-heavy in its perfume. And lilies of the valley somehow fell un...
15. Part 15“Cynthia is not a dunce either,” said Mrs. Gibson, afraid lest her daughter’s opinion of herself might be taken seriously. “But I have always observed that some people have a ta...
4. Part 4“Then the number of the people whom you receive is another consideration. I should say not less than twelve or more than twenty,” continued the gentleman. “The evenings should b...
24. Part 24I went along the lane, I recollect, switching at all the taller roadside weeds, till, after a turn or two, I found myself close in front of the Hope Farm. There was a garden bet...
7. Part 7At all times it is a bewildering thing to the poor weaver to see his employer removing from house to house, each one grander than the last, till he ends in building one more mag...
2. Part 2The marriage was an ideal one. The young wife at once threw herself into her husband’s work, helping in the Sunday School and visiting the sick and needy. Her beauty and winning...
1. Part 1Among women writers of the nineteenth century, none deserve more grateful remembrance than Mrs. Gaskell. Though it is forty-six years since she passed away, her stories are stil...
28. Part 28“If you ask for the normal type of English novel in the highest degree of perfection to which it ever attained, I should certainly be inclined to say take _Mary Barton_, _North...
29. Part 29‘Five stories instinct with mystic charm, with grace, beauty and reverence. They are told by the tall, emaciated, suffering Hermit, and they seem to bring the three worlds—the P...