Charlotte Brontë is a giant of Victorian literature and the much-loved author of the classic Jane Eyre but what of her lesser-read second novel, Shirley, written in the grief and sadness of family loss? Brontë’s Shirley was set amongst the tumultuous times of the Napoleonic Wars and Luddite machine breakers. Her strong female characters and […]
Using 360-degree photography, expert guides will bring Manchester’s literary heritage to life via an online tour of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. From the Morning Room and Study, to the Drawing and Dining Rooms, you’ll learn about Elizabeth’s family life; how William, her husband, supported her, and how her life in Manchester influenced the books she wrote […]
2023 marks the 170th anniversary of the Preston Lockouts – the historical strikes that informed the plot and themes of Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic romantic novel North and South and provided inspiration for Charles Dickens in Hard Times. When workers demanded a 10% wage increase in Preston in 1853, the factory owners simply locked the gates and left 18,000 people […]
At the start of Queen Victoria’s reign, Christmas meant little to commercial Manchester but during the 1840s-1860s the city came to share in an upsurge of enthusiasm for the festive season. Elizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester saw a boom in the Christmas trade in food, wine and gifts, the expansion of seasonal entertainments like pantomime and the […]
Molly is the moral heart of classic novel Wives and Daughters but it is her flawed step-sister Cynthia who may appeal to readers more. The two girls are a study in comparisons. Molly is concerned with goodness while Cynthia’s relationship with her ghastly mother Mrs Gibson echoes that of Lizzy and Mrs Bennet in Jane […]
Charlotte Brontë is a giant of Victorian literature and the much-loved author of the classic Jane Eyre, but what of her last novel to be published during her lifetime, Villette, about the passion and pain of unrequited love? Brontë’s semi-autobiographical book Villette tells the story of Lucy Snowe as she flees England for a Belgian […]
Join Curator Elinor Camille-Wood as she takes you on a riotous journey through the fabulously outrageous fashions of the 1830s, the time Elizabeth Gaskell set her novel, Wives and Daughters. Discover what the characters would have worn from large sleeves to intricate hairstyles in a period of flamboyant ladies and fashionable gentleman. The talk will […]
Elizabeth Gaskell’s final novel Wives and Daughters explores the Victorian interest in science and logic through the character of Roger Hamley and the gentleman scientist Lord Hollingford. Roger was heavily based on the famous evolutionary scientist, and author of The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin. Wives and Daughters was Darwin’s favourite novel and he […]
Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell are two of the nation’s best-loved authors. Rightly lauded for their classic works, they are often depicted as writing about marriage and the narrow social confines of women’s lives. Now, we look at them afresh as we explore the ‘domestic novel’ of the 19th century. Many Georgian and Victorian stories […]
Two giants of Victorian literature, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot were very different in almost every way. George Eliot was private and intellectual while Elizabeth was outgoing, gossipy and deeply shocked by the scandal of her fellow writer’s personal life. So how did these differences affect their work? How did they approach similar themes such […]
RECORDING: Moss and Mosses in Elizabeth Gaskell's Worlds This year's Joan Leach Memorial Lecture was given by Dr Ingrid Hanson. You can now watch a recording of the talk for a limited time. In Mary Barton, Margaret’s grandfather Job Legh has been out ‘moss-hunting’, Margaret tells Mary, and the elderly Alice, reminiscing about her countryside […]
Edmund Potter is probably most famous for being the grandfather of the author, Beatrix Potter, but he had an illustrious career of his own. Edmund was a Calico Printer who owned a calico print works at Dinting Vale, near Glossop, Derbyshire, that was once the largest calico printing factory in the world. Kate Raine will […]
Elizabeth Gaskell’s last novel, Wives and Daughters, explored the position of women in 19th century society and the pressure on them to marry. Her book had much to say about marriage, including storylines like Mrs Gibson’s marriage of necessity, Cynthia’s secret engagement and Molly’s hoped-for love-match. Now we compare fiction with reality in this special […]
A talk to mark the bi-centary year of Lord Byron. Step into the dark side to look at literary vampires, starting with his unfinished novel The Burial: A Fragment. Byron’s supernatural story may have been the first in English to feature a vampire but it certainly was not the last and many that followed featured […]
Manchester is the dramatic backdrop to literary classics, such as Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, and lesser-known works, such as Isabella Banks’s The Manchester Man. The city has been at the forefront of industrial change and political radicalism but what about literature? How have events from the Industrial Revolution to Peterloo inspired writers? How are the lives of […]
Available until 30 November 2024. Hannah Palmer, a PhD student at Loughborough University, talks about her research into abortion and maternal histories in nineteenth-century literature and culture. Her thesis explores these issues in Gaskell’s letters and comments more generally on Gaskell’s role within her community. This is a recording of a talk Hannah gave to […]