Yesterday I was reading the blog of my sister from another mother Meg Cabot, when I picked up what I thought was some juicy gossip about Elizabeth Gaskell, the author of Cranford (starring the awesome Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Imelda Staunton), and North and South (starring the dishy and delicious Richard Armitage, moi's newest Britcrush). According to mystic Meg, she heard from a friend that Elizabeth had a passionate affair for years with her lover in Italy whose arms she died in.I was flabbergasted, how had I missed this gossipy morsel? This would totally put Elizabeth Gaskell on my list of Scandalous Women (which grows longer by the day). Of course I immediately scoured the web for more information. Wikipedia, nuthin, the Victorian web, nuthin, finally I found the Gaskell Society which is devoted to the works and life of the woman who wrote the first biography of her good friend Charlotte Bronte. Still nada.
Finally I found an article in the Daily Mail with the dishy title of the Secret Life of Elizabeth Gaskell, which didn't live up to the title. Apparently she did have flirtation in Italy with an American named Charles Norton who was at 30, 20 years her junior. But it was just that a flirtation, no clandestine meetings abroad while her husband and children were back at home in England. No dying in her lover's arms. Meg, like my other goddess Oprah, had been sold a bag of goods. Still, despite leading me down the garden path to nowhere, I still went out and bought Princess Mia: Princess Diaries 9.
Sigh! And it was such juicy gossip too.
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