Elizabeth Gaskell died on this day, 12th November, in 1865. She was described by the press after her death as ‘one of the greatest female novelists of all time’. Although we may sometimes think of her as matronly Victorian, she was only 55 years old when she died suddenly of heart failure, leaving her her classic novel 'Wives and Daughters' unfinished. Elizabeth’s writing is remarkably varied and includes almost forty short stories, ranging from social realism to ghost stories. Her Life of Charl