Introduction

This introduction traces how, since the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell (2007) , scholarship on Gaskell has burgeoned to reflect her status as an eminent Victorian woman of letters, and her expanded appeal as an author ripe for adaptation into multiple popular cultural forms. It considers recent work in Gaskell studies on the shorter fiction, cultural reception and legacy, materiality, ecocriticism, religion, and on the intersections between race, class, and gender. It concludes by considering Gaskell's legacy in creative critical reflections and media, and by offering a summary of the twenty-five chapters included in this volume.