Elizabeth Gaskell, "We are not angels"
Subtitle: realism, gender, values
By: Terence Wright.
Publisher: Macmillan Press; St. Martin's Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
Subjects: Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810-1865 -- Criticism and interpretation.; Literature and society -- England -- History -- 19th century.; Women and literature -- England -- History -- 19th century.; Gender identity in literature.; Social values in literature.; Realism in literature.
Description: In this close reading of her fiction, Terence Wright shows how Mrs Gaskell's poetic realism illuminates human, and particularly female, psychology, including the need for self-creating values if women are to retain their integrity in a society which seeks to label them as 'angels', 'witches' or 'martyrs'. Gaskell also deals with issues of concern to both sexes - the relation of the contingent and the absolute, the power of words, and the need to see a meaning in the shape of our lives.

But above all Gaskell's voice speaks for the loving and suffering individual, and her trust that we have 'all one human heart'.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-214) and index.