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 […]
Named as ‘Manchester’s best second-hand book sale‘ the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House second-hand book sale is a must visit for book lovers. Held within Manchester’s very own literary house, there are two rooms packed full of second-hand books of all genres. You can browse a wide variety of good quality contemporary fiction, crime, thrillers, classics, OS maps, biographies, […]
Named as ‘Manchester’s best second-hand book sale‘ the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House second-hand book sale is a must visit for book lovers. Held within Manchester’s very own literary house, there are two rooms packed full of second-hand books of all genres. You can browse a wide variety of good quality contemporary fiction, crime, thrillers, classics, OS maps, biographies, […]
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 […]
Named as ‘Manchester’s best second-hand book sale‘ the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House second-hand book sale is a must visit for book lovers. Held within Manchester’s very own literary house, there are two rooms packed full of second-hand books of all genres. You can browse a wide variety of good quality contemporary fiction, crime, thrillers, classics, OS maps, biographies, […]
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 […]
Moss and Mosses in Elizabeth Gaskell's Worlds This year's Joan Leach Memorial Lecture will be given by Dr Ingrid Hanson. In Mary Barton, Margaret’s grandfather Job Legh has been out ‘moss-hunting’, Margaret tells Mary, and the elderly Alice, reminiscing about her countryside youth, says to the girls: ‘Eh, lasses! ye don’t know what rocks are in […]
“I read for the same reason that I ate or drank; because it was a real craving of nature.” Join our friends, Kantos Chamber Choir as they examine the lives and passions of the mysterious Brontë sisters through the eyes of their friend and supporter, Elizabeth Gaskell. Kantos will evoke the wild, exposed landscapes of […]
“I read for the same reason that I ate or drank; because it was a real craving of nature.” Join our friends, Kantos Chamber Choir as they examine the lives and passions of the mysterious Brontë sisters through the eyes of their friend and supporter, Elizabeth Gaskell. Kantos will evoke the wild, exposed landscapes of […]
Every year, on a Sunday close to what would have been Elizabeth Gaskell's birthday, we lay flowers on her grave (10.45am) at Brook Street Chapel in Knutsford. This year, our service actually falls on the day itself, so our theme is birthdays and celebration. We also lay flowers on the nearby grave of the Gaskell […]
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 […]
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 […]
Named as ‘Manchester’s best second-hand book sale‘ the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House second-hand book sale is a must visit for book lovers. Held within Manchester’s very own literary house, there are two rooms packed full of second-hand books of all genres. You can browse a wide variety of good quality contemporary fiction, crime, thrillers, classics, OS maps, biographies, […]
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 […]
Many critics have considered the similarities between these two texts, thus suggesting one having influenced the other. Eliot’s reputation has been such that there is often an assumption that Gaskell would be influenced by Eliot, however, this could not be the case as ‘The Moorland Cottage’ was published ten years before The Mill on the […]
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 […]
Author Sherry Ashworth looks at how Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and Charles Dickens used biblical heroines to develop their own characters. Our Manchester meetings take place in Cross Street Chapel on the first Tuesday of the month, October-March (exc January). Everyone is most welcome to come along, members and non-members alike. Doors open at 1pm […]
The Gaskells’ relationship with the Portico Library is well-documented. A bust of William Gaskell sits in the Library, honouring his tenure as the Chairman - the longest running Chairman in the Library’s history. A handful of articles have explored William and Elizabeth’s relationship to the library, but in this early stage, we have only just […]
Many critics have considered the similarities between these two texts, thus suggesting one having influenced the other. Eliot’s reputation has been such that there is often an assumption that Gaskell would be influenced by Eliot, however, this could not be the case as ‘The Moorland Cottage’ was published ten years before The Mill on the […]
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 […]
Elizabeth Gaskell, Celebrity: How she coped with fame In ordinary life, Elizabeth Gaskell enjoyed a certain status in Manchester as the wife of a prominent clergyman. But she soon achieved fame in her own right, through her writings. This talk, by Anthony Burton, explains how these appeared at first anonymously, then under the names ‘E. […]
Named as ‘Manchester’s best second-hand book sale‘ the Elizabeth Gaskell’s House second-hand book sale is a must visit for book lovers. Held within Manchester’s very own literary house, there are two rooms packed full of second-hand books of all genres. You can browse a wide variety of good quality contemporary fiction, crime, thrillers, classics, OS maps, biographies, […]
