In her review of Ruskin’s ‘Modern Painters 3’, George Eliot writes: ‘The truth of infinite value that he teaches is realism- the doctrine that all truth and beauty are to be attained by a humble and faithful study of nature, and not by substituting vague forms, bred by imagination on the mists of feeling, in a place of definite, substantial reality.’ Through the nineteenth-century, Ruskin, Eliot and a number of Victorian reformers sought to clarify the divine and human sources of, and the connections between, goodness, truth, and beauty. This conference will offer the opportunity to explore how belief in the inextricability of these concepts informed understandings of the self, the other, and the world and to investigate the shifts in perception witnessed later in the century.

This free conference is hosted by the Gaskell Society’s very good friend, Dr Lizzie Ludlow, who spoke so wonderfully at our own conference in July. She is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at ARU.  The event will include plenary lectures from Andrew Tate (Lancaster) and Rachel Dickinson (Manchester Metropolitan University).

The conference is free to attend, but please reserve your ticket using the link below – and inform Lizzie Ludlow of any dietery requirements before 29th August.