It  is  also  a  mistake  to  say  that  the  pain  and  anxiety
brought  upon  her  by  her  biography  of  Charlotte  Bronte
led  her  to  abandon  all  intentions  of  writing  any  other
biographies.  At  the  time  of  her  death,  she  and  her
daughter  Meta  had  collected  a  large  amount  of
material  with  a  view  to  writing  the  life  of  Madame  de
Sevigne,  much  on  the  same  lines  as  the  Life  of
Madame  Recamier,  by  Madame  Mohl.  Far  from
regretting  that  she  had  written  the  Life  of  Charlotte
Bronte,  Mrs.  Gaskell  rejoiced  in  the  work,  and  was
just  as  proud  of  it  as  of  her  own  novels.
Some  writers  have  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  Mrs.
Gaskell  was  not  capable  of  appreciating  to  the  full
the  novels  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  but  if  ever  the  letters
which  Mrs.  Gaskell  wrote  to  Charlotte  Bronte  are
published,  the  world  will  know  how  justly  the  author
of  Cranford  estimated  those  works  of  genius  which
few  at  that  time  were  able  to  appreciate  at  their
right  value.
