Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, (29 Sep 1810 – 12 Nov 1865), was a British novelist and short story writer of the Victorian era. Gaskell’s works are picturesque portraits of live of dwellers of various layers and levels of society, from the poorest to the richest. The most know work of her are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1867) and Wives and Daughters (1865).

The Moorland Cottage is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. The plot follows Maggie and Edward Browne, a brother and a sister, children of the late curate of Combehurst. Despite the fact, that they are siblings and grew together, there is a chasm of difference between them. Maggie is loving and caring and doing whatever she can for her family. Edward is selfish and shallow. And that difference they have to carry through their life with their mother in the moorland cottage.