Elizabeth Gaskell《（转载）评论》

Elizabeth Gaskell - The Early Years is a book of scholarly excellence using new evidence in order to portray the cultural background in which Elizabeth Stevenson grew up. Extensive footnoting at the end of each chapter plus sixty pages at the end of the work provide us with of various notes and bibliographical detail demonstrating the painstaking research which John Chapple must have carried out in order to produce this book.

However after reading the book the reader feels as if she knows the relatives and friends of Elizabeth Stevenson better than the writer herself. The sad life of William Stevenson the father of Elizabeth comes across clearly. The place and development of Unitarianism within the growing industrialism of northern England is detailed well. Much of this information has more to do with the life of William Stevenson at the end of the nineteenth century rather than in the period of the subject's lifetime which began in 1810.

Elizabeth's maternal family the Hollands are dealt with at length. The social networks of the Holland family take the biography into areas quite unconnected with Elizabeth.

Although the above may seem critical of the work in that the subject of the book rarely occupies centre stage the book is a valuable addition for anyone interested in the social life of the figures involved in the changing culture of a nation rapidly industrialising. A group of society who were influential way beyond their numbers. A dynamic group interested in all branches of education farming and industry which would benefit society at large.

These networks spread from Scotland down through the north of England and into the capital itself. Even as a child Elizabeth moved between Knutsford where she lived with Aunt Lumb her 'more than mother' and London where she visited her father and step-family. She met other young girls when she boarded at 'The Byerleys' School for Young Ladies Avonbank' (an excellent illustration of the school being on the front cover of the dust-jacket). On leaving school and before marriage Elizabeth made long visits to her relative William Turner the longstanding Unitarian minister in Newcastle and also a man keen to promote education. The details of these various places and the characters who directly or indirectly influenced Elizabeth are depicted in detail.

The author must be applauded for the amount of new information which he has brought together and which he uses to demonstrate the web of relationships and friendships which existed between this educated circle of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. For this reason I would highly recommend this book but would alert the reader who wishes to get to know the young Elizabeth Stevenson well to be prepared to immerse themselves in the social and cultural context preceding her life and until just following her marriage to William Gaskell. Other biographies which take us into her life through her novels are perhaps easier reading but what John Chapple has done for us is to uncover the social and cultural context which Elizabeth Stevenson would have moved in her formative years. Without seeming churlish the reader might conclude that the title as it stands is being used encourages greater sales of the book than would otherwise be the case. This remark is not intended to deter those readers interested in the life of Elizabeth Gaskell but rather to encourage those who might be interested in the wider context with which the book deals.