Literature
|
| Literature
|
Born to an upper middle class family , and later marrying a clergyman, she saw many different sides of life, and the contrast between the rich and the poor. After the death of her mother when she was still a baby, she was sent from her birthplace, London, to Knutsford in Cheshire to live with an Aunt. From an early age she loved books, and at thirteen was sent to Avonbank Boarding School, at Stratford upon Avon, where she spent enjoyable schooldays.
When her father died she was left with relatively little money, and to support herself she became a governess. She lived in several different parts of the country: London, Newcastle, Edinburgh and finally Manchester. Here she met a young junior minister William Gaskell, who was to become her husband. As a minister’s wife, Elizabeth became very involved in helping the poor, and saw for the first time, the dreadful hovels and cellars in which many workers lived amongst soot and grime.
When she was twenty eight, Elizabeth wrote an article about an old country house, which was printed in a magazine. After losing her baby son to scarlet fever at ten months old, her husband suggested that she should write a book. It took her three years to write, because she always put her other duties to family and friends and those in need, before anything else.
She chose to write about working class life in Manchester and called her book ‘Mary Barton’. It gave a truthful insight into the living conditions of the working people, and of their hardships. She chose a pen name of Cotton Mather Mills, Esq., knowing that the book would meet with disapproval. The book did cause a stir amongst leading industrialists who thought it unfair to employers. But it woke people up to the fact that something must be done to improve living conditions in the overcrowded industrial towns.