Disappearances (Unabridged)

Written by Elizabeth Gaskell

Narrated by Rachel Clarke

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her first novel, "Mary Barton", was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are "Cranford" (1853), "North and South" (1854), and "Wives and Daughters" (1865). Gaskell became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine "Household Words". Her supernatural stories are superior examples of the sentimental ghost tale so typical of the Victorian period. They combine a taste for the macabre with a deeply-felt sympathy for the extremes of female experience. "Disappearnces" is one of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Libraudios
• Release date: Sep 30, 2022

Elizabeth Gaskell

Mrs Gaskell was born Elizabeth Stevenson in London in 1810. Her mother Eliza, the niece of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, died when she was a child. Much of her childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with an aunt at Knutsford, a town she would later immortalise as Cranford. In 1832, she married a Unitarian minister, William Gaskell (who had a literary career of his own), and they settled in Manchester. The industrial surroundings offered her inspiration for her novels. Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her other novels are Cranford (1853) and North and South (1855). Elizabeth met Charlotte Brontë in 1850, and they struck up a great friendship. After Charlotte's death in 1855, her father, the Reverend Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell to write her biography to counteract gossip and speculation. The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published in 1857. Gaskell was also a skilled proponent of the ghost story. Her last novel, Wives and Daughters, said by many to be her most mature work remained unfinished at the time of her death in 1865.