ABSTRACT
The circumstances that prompted EG to write a Preface to a translation of Colonel Augusto Vecchj’s Garibaldi at Caprera (Cambridge and London: Macmillan and Co., 1862) are unclear. The task of editing the book, Gaskell told Henry Morley, ‘was imposed upon me by force, not adopted of my own free will’ (Letters, p. 680). Whatever the origin of the commission, there is no doubt about EG’s enthusiasm for the cause of Italian nationalism. She kept in touch with contemporary Italian politics through her friends the Shaens, who were among the English supporters of Mazzini. Her interest in the political scene no doubt intensified during her visit to Rome early in 1857. Meta Gaskell described a conversation about ‘Italian affairs’ between her mother and the Revd Patrick Brontë at Haworth after the publication of thebiography, and later recounted her father’s custom of reading aloud the news of Garibaldi’s campaign at the breakfast table in 1860 (Sharps, p. 425). Further evidence of her concern was WG’s addition of her name to a committee of ladies, backed by Lord Shaftesbury and Florence Nightingale, to provide help for Garibaldi’s injured troops after his victory over the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860. WG was careful to add that his wife could not become an active member of the committee (see Sharps, p. 341, n. 3).
