The Victorians loved the festive season and created a new tradition of sending Christmas cards by important illustrators such as Kate Greenaway and Alice Havers. Victorian cards often included the bizarre and creepy with everything from murderous mice to feisty frogs marking the season. So, just why were Victorian Christmas cards so odd? Join Dr […]
We're especially delighted to welcome our dear friend, Frank Galvin, for our December illustrated talk. Frank is a retired museum curator who worked for Stockport’s Heritage Service for 32 years: he was responsible for Stockport’s eight heritage sites and managed a team of curators, designers and technicians. His projects included the Hat Works, The Stockport […]
'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year…' A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is the best known and most loved of all Christmas novels with its tale of Scrooge’s seasonal redemption through Christmas Past, Present and Future. But as we step into Christmas, the Gaskell Society's Anthony […]
A new season of Mary Barton events begins at Elizabeth Gaskell's House with this introduction to her first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life. The story is a tale of class strife, romantic love and action adventure as Mary Barton, daughter of a trade unionist, is torn between the working-class Jem Wilson and mill […]
Back by popular demand, Dr Diane Duffy leads us on a literary journey of discovery to the places, buildings and landmarks of Manchester as featured in Elizabeth Gaskell’s first novel Mary Barton, with extracts from the text to map the way. This fascinating talk will interest anyone who wants to find out more about historical […]
Carolyn Lambert is the Gaskell Society’s Letters Recorder, responsible for hunting down and investigating new Gaskell letters. Her talk will cover academic theories of letter-writing; letters in Gaskell’s fiction and the wit and wisdom of Elizabeth Gaskell, according to Carolyn: “one of the best letter writers of the nineteenth-century: gossipy, acerbic and endlessly entertaining” The […]
Rooms with a View: Soft Furnishings in North and South This talk will explore what the furniture in North and South tells us about the social world Gaskell inhabits. Dr Clara Dawson reflects on whether furniture provides us with an alternative narrative to the romance plot and the depiction of north and south, and […]
In this lively online event we take a closer look at two of literature’s best loved heroes – Mr Thornton from Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and Mr Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Sit back and enjoy a Valentine’s treat as we celebrate two delicious literary leading men. Discover how our heroes compare […]
Elizabeth Gaskell had a love of fashion, enjoying foreign styles on her travels, and a fan of beautiful shawls and patterns at home. This talk, by Margo Singer, looks at Elizabeth’s conflicting reactions to contemporary fashions in her letters and novels, as she sought to reconcile her desire for conservative dress for her daughters, and […]
‘I feel more like Cinderella, than anyone else you can imagine’: Elizabeth Gaskell’s visit to Chatsworth On Saturday 12 September 1857, Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughter Meta were amongst many tourists arriving at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire with their printed admission tickets. Their tour of the house was interrupted by an invitation to stay for […]
Join Dr Diane Duffy for a special look at 19th century women writers’ experiences, starting with Elizabeth Gaskell and reflecting on the lives of giants of literature including Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot. How were their experiences different to male writers? What did the reading public think of women? How did […]
A celebration of Mary Barton and the greatest 19th century literary heroines by women writers from Jane Austen to the Brontës. Writers like Elizabeth Gaskell question our views of Victorian women by creating characters who break the rules and challenge convention. Why are we drawn to Mary Barton and so many others? What sets them […]
A talk by Kathleen Gentle Kathleen Gentle, a postgraduate researcher at Anglia Ruskin University, examines the depiction of psychological abuse in familial and spousal relationships and focusing on Sylvia’s Lovers and the short stories “Morton Hall” and “The Grey Woman”. We are very grateful to Kathleen for stepping in at short notice to replace our […]
Elizabeth Gaskell had great hopes for the garden at Plymouth Grove, not just as a beautiful place to relax, but as a source of food for the family. She even joked that ‘I find my proper vocation is farming‘. Now you can find out about what she grew, where and why based on original sources […]
Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South continues to be beloved by fans around the world. Many who admire the novel or the BBC series, have been inspired to contribute their own twist to this iconic love story set against the backdrop of industrial England. Through the use of retellings and continuations, Gaskell fans have developed a […]
Our passion for North and South continues as we take a closer look at lead character Margaret Hale. Our heroine is famous for her growing love affair with mill-owner John Thornton (played so well by Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage in the 2004 BBC TV adaptation) and their relationship is at the heart of both […]
Bob’s book of this title appeared in August 2020 and highlights connections between Unitarian communities across England by following the life and times of Elizabeth Gaskell's dear friend, Janetta Bishop Mitchell. Janetta's closeness to the Reverend William Turner of Newcastle upon Tyne emphasises why a correct identification of 'Miss Mitchell' is significant to Gaskell biography. This […]
‘Revenge may be wicked, but it’s perfectly natural.’ Becky Sharpe, Vanity Fair, 1847 The stereotype of the Victorian woman is that of a domestic angel, pure, innocent and a helpmate to her husband. But the women in this talk challenge that with a vengeance! Enjoy a look at the dark side with the bad women […]
Mary Barton and the Year of Revolutions: ‘John Barton became a Chartist, a Communist’ Elizabeth Gaskell’s debut novel Mary Barton (1848) is recognised as one of the most important Victorian works to explore the working class Chartist movement, in this case through the character of Mary’s father, John Barton. Popular speaker Prof Mike Sanders is back to reveal […]
Kathleen Gentle's talk for our October meeting will focus on familial/spousal abuse in Gaskell's works. She'll discuss Gaskell's depiction of physical and mental cruelty and how she criticises her contemporary culture for their complicity in the abuse of women in spousal relationships. Kathleen completed her undergraduate and MA degrees in English Literature at the University […]
With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread— Stitch! stitch! stitch! Thomas Hood wrote the famous poem The Song of the Shirt (1843), in response to a newspaper report about a widow and seamstress named Mrs Biddell who was forced, like many seamstresses of her day, to […]
Ann Radcliffe and the Female Gothic – ‘A genius of no common stamp’ Get ready for a spooky night of literature as we celebrate the bicentenary of Ann Radcliffe, the ‘mighty magician’ of horror and the gothic. Once the highest paid author of the 1790s, Radcliffe’s most famous works include The Romance of the Forest […]
We're delighted to welcome back committee member and one of our favourite speakers, Anthony Burton. He'll be offering a tempting taster for our 2024 Conference, which explores the theme of travel. Anthony was intrigued by paintings featuring railway stations and omnibuses in the Dining Room at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. He has explored the background of […]
Dr Ian Nickson (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham) and Dr. Monika Smialkowska (Northumbria University) will talk about the largely overlooked career of Rosa Grindon. They will chart her journey from modest beginnings in a Derbyshire village to becoming a leading figure in literary and theatrical circles in Manchester, a ground-breaking Shakespearean scholar and, as a […]
As anyone who has attended Gaskell Society conferences, or joined any of the Gaskell House’s online events, will know, Anthony has a vast and wide-ranging amount of knowledge about Elizabeth Gaskell, her life, times and contemporaries. He will use Gaskell, Dickens, Austen and the Brontës to look at how writers have been promoted (or promoted […]
