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Dear all,

Numerous middle-class literary figures of the time, including Dickens
and Gaskell, would feel their own power base undermined if they did not
defend the socio-economic status quo as a necessary evil, without which
a second French Revolution would plunge Victorian England into chaos and
confusion. Does anyone there know any Victorian "middle-class" writer
who was not interested in the preservation of the current social order
but did treat the Victorian ideology of laissez-faire as an unequivocal
evil without considering his/her own social class?

Today is the 150th anniversary of Gaskell's death. Unfortunately, she
died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack on November 12, 1865,
while having afternoon tea with three of her daughters in the living
room of a house named “The Lawn” near Alton in Hampshire.

In order to commemorate the sesquicentennial of her death, I have
published a critical anthology of contributions by 32 scholars from 16
countries. This volume addresses the theme of evil, reevaluating her
works as an integral part of the Victorian literary cannon. It is
foreworded by Professor J. Hillis Miller, whose Ph.D. dissertation was
on Dickens, and prefaced by Dr. Shirley Foster, President of the Gaskell
Society. Many of the essays refer to Dickens in them. The table of
contents is here:

http://grayswoodpress.web.fc2.com/gaskell-sesquicentennial.pdf

This volume can be ordered from Grayswood Press, whose main publication
is _The Dickens Magazine_, with a 33% discount for everyone on the
"dickns-l" list as well as Gaskell Society members. Here is a tip for
those interested:

http://grayswoodpress.web.fc2.com/

Mitsu Mitsuoka, Nagoya University, Japan