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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St AN ASSESSMENT OF THE REVIEWS OF MRS GASKELL'S NOVELS Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Greenup, Gary Dean, 1936- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 10/10/2021 20:36:54 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289651 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 77-32,270 GREENUP, Gary Dean, 1936- AN ASSESSMENT OF THE REVIEWS OF MRS. GASKELL'S NOVELS. The University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1977 Literature, English University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 AN ASSESSMENT OF THE REVIEWS OF MRS. GASKELL'S NOVELS by Gary Dean Greenup A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 7 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Gary Dean Greenup entitled An Assessment of the Reviews of Mrs. Gaskell's Novels be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Director /)ate As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read this dissertation and agree that it may be presented for final defense. M. Hj ..JLisrryPh^.. — 1) If 77 /P /3, /111 Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense thereof at the final oral examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to bor­ rowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or re­ production of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the in­ terests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. FOR DANA iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my deep appreciation to Professor Carl Ketcham for his unstinting assistance in the completion of this paper. Without his professional guidance and personal encouragement, this work never would have been accomplished. In addition, I wish to express my thanks to Professor Billie Jo Inman, whose suggestion led to the devel­ opment of this topic, and Professor Alan Burke for their sensible crit­ icism and sound suggestions. To all three, I owe immense gratitude for their patience and tolerance in leading a somewhat halting student and scholar. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT vi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. THE EMPHASIS ON AUTHENTICITY »5 Theory of Authenticity .... 5 Mary Barton: The Value of Direct Observation ...... 16 Ruth: The Painful Realities of Everyday Life 29 Later Works: The Air of Perfect Reality .... 38 3. THE SOCIO-MORAL EMPHASIS 50 The Literary Climate 50 Mary Barton: The Predominance of Matter 54 Ruth: A Very Plain and Earnest Truth 70 Later Works: A Lessening of Enthusiasm 83 4-. THE EFFECTS OF ANTI-FEMINISM 89 Women in Society 89 Women and Literature 95 Anti-Feminism and the Reviews of Mrs. Gaskell's Works . 104 Later Works: Proper Subjects in Proper Form 120 5. THE COMPONENTS OF MODERN ASSESSMENT 125 The Obituaries: Toward A Critical Imbalance 126 Posthumous Surveys: The Force of Common Assumptions . 132 Modern Commentary: Enduring Prejudices and Fresh Perceptions 144 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 168 v ABSTRACT The sizeable amount of recent criticism of Mrs. Gaskell's work reveals that her critical reputation is steadily undergoing change. A traditional assessment of her work as flawed by her conventional femi­ ninity and by her commitment to typically Victorian values has been re­ asserted by Margaret Ganz. Re-evaluations have been attempted, notably by Edgar Wright, Coral Lansbury, and W. A. Craik. However, none of this criticism has discussed the development of Mrs. Gaskell's critical repu­ tation and the components of the modern assessment of her canon. Mrs. Gaskell's critical reputation is a product of the biases and prejudices of the periodical reviewers who first assessed her work. The critical response comprised three main emphases: authenticiy, socio- moralism, and anti-feminism. The reviewers were appreciative of Mrs. Gaskell's authentic representative of everyday life in the early novels (Mary Barton and Ruth), and this appreciation carried through the re­ viewer's assessment of all of the novels. At the same time, an accen­ tuation by the reviewers of the socio-moral effects of novels led to a perception of Mrs. Gaskell as a crusading writer who wished to promote a particular social doctrine. The emotionalism and misconceptions that some reviewers found in Mrs. Gaskell were, they supposed, a result of her commitment to socio-moralism in fiction. These faults were, in turn, typically feminine characteristics. The third emphasis, by which Mrs. Gaskell was established as a conventionally Victorian woman, devoted to home and family, and guilty of emotionalism and misconceptions, led to a supposition by the reviewers that she thereby was excused from serious vi vii consideration as a novelist. This assessment culminated in David Cecil's description of Mrs. Gaskell as one of the "placid dovecotes of Victorian womanhood." Recent criticism has attempted a redefinition of Mrs. Gaskell's achievement. The traditional conception of her that had been transmitted through several generations of critics has come under scrutiny. Unper- ceived virtues in the social-problem novels are now being explored. The result is a fuller understanding of the extent of Mrs. Gaskell's artistry in the novel. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION By the middle of the nineteenth century, the novel had gained a measure of respectability that it had previously lacked. And, during this period, reviewers for periodicals became highly influential in establishing and molding a writer's reputation. There were a great many periodicals, committed to a full spectrum of political and social beliefs; and they were avidly read by everyone who pretended to an intellectual or artistic interest in life. The overwhelming influence of Blackwood's and the Quarterly Review had passed; but their influence had been appropriated by the host of periodicals that arose in the nineteenth century: Eraser's, the Edinburgh Review, the Athanaeum, the Saturday Review, the North British Review, the British Quarterly, Sharpe's London Magazine, Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, and innumerable others. The overall reaction to a writer's work, consequently, could be immensely significant. Mrs. Gaskell provides an excellent case study of the critical reaction to a writer's work during this period, not only because her career was so decidedly a mid-century one, lasting from 1848 until 1865, but also because her first novel received such an enormous reaction from the reviewers and because, as I propose in this study, the initial reviews had such an important effect on later evaluations of her work. 1 Mrs. Gaskell has been the subject of a sizable amount of recent criticism. Among the books that have appeared in the last decade or so are Mrs. Gaskell: Novelist and Biographer, by Arthur Pollard (Manchester Manchester Univ. Press, 1965); Mrs. Gaskell: The Basis for Reassessment, by Edgar Wright (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1965); The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, ed.
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