Title: Elizabeth Gaskell, "We Are Not Angels"
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'.
Subjects: Gaskell, elizabeth cleghorn, 1810-1865, Women and literature, Literature and society, Realism in literature, Criticism and interpretation, History, Gender identity in literature, Social values in literature, Criticism and interpretationgaskell, elizabeth cleghorn , 1810-1865, Literature and society--history, Literature and society--england--history--19th century, Women and literature--history, Women and literature--england--history--19th century, Pr4711 .w75 1995, 823/.8