This new study deals with the whole range of Gaskell's fiction,
approaching her as a deeply poetic novelist and short-story writer.
Among topics covered are women and the creation of the self, death and
personal integrity, the status of words as utterance and the shape and
meaning of individual lives. While seeing her as a product of her age,
Wright transcends narrow categorisations of her work to read her 'whole'
as a subtle exponent of the values of a humane realism.