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Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
1810–1865
A sharp-eyed Victorian storyteller, she wrote novels that bring industrial England and small-town life vividly to life. Her books balance social criticism with warmth, humor, and a deep sympathy for ordinary people.
44 Audiobooks
The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 1
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Cranford
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Complete
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
North and South
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Mary Barton
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 2
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
My Lady Ludlow
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Poor Clare
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Ruth
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Cousin Phillis
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Wives and Daughters
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Half-Brothers
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
An Accursed Race
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Round the Sofa
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 3
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Doom of the Griffiths
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 2
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Grey Woman and other Tales
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A Dark Night's Work
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A House to Let
by Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Adelaide Anne Procter
Cranford
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
North and South
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Mary Barton
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Wives and Daughters
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 2
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Ruth
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Complete
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
My Lady Ludlow
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Round the Sofa
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A House to Let
by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Adelaide Anne Procter
The Poor Clare
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Cousin Phillis
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Moorland Cottage
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Half a Life-Time Ago
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Lizzie Leigh
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Half-Brothers
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A Dark Night's Work
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
An Accursed Race
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 1
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
The Doom of the Griffiths
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 2
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Sylvia's Lovers — Volume 3
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
About the author
Born in Chelsea on September 29, 1810, Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson lost her mother as a baby and grew up mainly in Knutsford, Cheshire, with her aunt. That early mix of loss, family life, and provincial England later fed directly into her fiction. In 1832 she married the Unitarian minister William Gaskell and settled in Manchester, where the city’s rapid industrial growth and stark social divisions gave her powerful material.
She began publishing fiction in midlife, and her first novel, Mary Barton (1848), quickly established her as an important voice on the lives of working people in Victorian Britain. She went on to write beloved books including Cranford, North and South, and Wives and Daughters, as well as many short stories. Her writing is still admired for its memorable characters, lively detail, and ability to show social conflict without losing sight of kindness and human complexity.
Gaskell was also a friend of Charlotte Brontë and wrote The Life of Charlotte Brontë in 1857, a book that helped shape Brontë’s reputation for generations. She died on November 12, 1865, leaving Wives and Daughters unfinished. Today she remains one of the most approachable and rewarding major novelists of the Victorian age.