1. An Uneasy Relationship?: Different Features of Social Criticism in Four Victorian Novels by Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell Hrafnhildur Haldorsen

2. The Spark Gendered perspectives. Researching historical novels by Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. An article by Annette B. Hopkins titled “Dickens and Mrs. Gaskell.”

3. The Article – 1 Explores their relationship as editor and contributor through correspondence. Lasted from 1850-1863. Spanned two magazines: –Household Words –All the Year Round Gaskell’s letters of response missing.

4. The Article – 2 Mutual interest in social conditions. Dickens eager to secure Gaskell as contributor. Suggesting “a frank interchange of critical opinion” between them (Hopkins 359). His involvement in her works visible from the start.

5. The Article – 3 1852: Dickens suggests an alteration to “The Old Nurse’s Story” – Gaskell refuses. Gaskell shows increased concern for how her works were presented in Dickens’ journal. North and South: practicality at the expense of artistic freedom.

6. The Article – 4 “[A] contest of wills” (Hopkins 372). Gaskell becomes her own editor. North and South was Gaskell’s only novel to be published in a magazine under Dickens’ rule. The Cornhill from 1860, free from “Dickens’ Procrustean bed of serialization” (Hopkins 375).

7. Aspects Worth Looking Into The relationship between editor and contributor, esp. in the male dominant publishing business of the Victorian age. Critical accounts from Dickens and Gaskell’s contemporaries concerning male influences on female writers. Second wave feminism, esp. Elaine Showalter: –Women’s literature as a literary subculture showing signs of “imitation” and “internalization” (11).

8. Research Topics Compare and contrast the authors as writers of social novels: –Bleak House and Hard Times by Dickens –North and South and Mary Barton by Gaskell Gaskell influenced by Dickens? Imitation? Further feminist ground for the comparison of ‘androtexts’ and ‘gynotexts’? Any ideas?

9. Thank you!