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 […]
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 […]
Elizabeth Gaskell’s interest in the fairy tale and her use of fairy-tale motifs throughout her writing have been curiously neglected by scholars. The fairy tale, like the Gothic and the ghostly, operates in a world of magic realism, its conventions straddling two worlds in which the supernatural is accepted as normal in an apparently realistic […]
Is Elizabeth Gaskell's House a 'typical' Victorian house? Surely houses changed a lot over Victoria's 63-year-long reign? Anthony Burton examines various aspects of Victorian domestic architecture, in order to show how Elizabeth Gaskell's House fits in. Doors open at 1pm and the talk begins at 1.30pm. We'll make a recording available for online viewing after the […]
We're thrilled to welcome Jessica Smith, Creative Arts Archivist at the John Ryland Research Institute and Library. As you may know, the John Rylands Library holds a collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's printed works and letters. They hold the original manuscripts for 'The Grey Woman', Wives and Daughters, The Life of Charlotte Brontë and 'The Crooked […]
Our Annual General Meeting takes place at Cross Street Chapel in Manchester 10.00 Tea and Coffee 10.30 Annual General Meeting 11.45 The Daphne Carrick Memorial Lecture - Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell Dr Emma Probett is a writer, researcher and podcaster. She has a PhD in Victorian Studies and is currently writing a book on Jane […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Margaret Emily Gaskell (1837-1913) – universally known as Meta – was the second of William and Elizabeth Gaskell’s four daughters, and the elder of the two who remained unmarried. She […]
We're delighted to welcome Duncan Hamilton to our March meeting. We live in a world of friction between the nations of the United Kingdom. Resurgent Scotland, resilient Wales and confident Northern Ireland jostle with long-dominant England for an equal voice on Britain’s national stage. From Scotland’s independence referendum to Brexit, the 2010s and 2020s have […]
« All Events The Gaskell Society Annual General Meeting 2025 12 April , 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Our 40th Annual General Meeting takes place at Cross Street Chapel in Manchester on Saturday 12 April, 2025. 10.00 Tea and Coffee 10.30 Annual General Meeting 11.45 The Daphne Carrick Memorial Lecture ‘It is only to the […]
« All Events Samuel Bamford and the Gaskells 7 October , 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm £5 – £6 We're delighted to welcome Robert Poole to our October meeting. He'll talk about the radical writer and reformer, Samuel Bamford (1788-1872), best known for his prominent role in the 1819 Peterloo demonstration in Manchester and his […]
RECORDING ACCESS – Samuel Bamford and the Gaskells £5 – £6 « All Events Robert Poole was the speaker at our October meeting. He delivered a fascinating lecture about the radical writer and reformer, Samuel Bamford (1788-1872), best known for his prominent role in the 1819 Peterloo demonstration in Manchester and his memoirs Passages in […]
« All Events 4 November , 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm “That Wicked Paris”: Fashioning the Good Englishwoman £5 – £6 We're absolutely delighted to welcome Professor Amy L. Montz of the University of Southern Indiana to give our November lecture. She is the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the University of Manchester. The crises of […]
Anthony Burton, one of our most popular speakers, returns for his annual festive lecture - now a traditional part of every Gaskell Society Christmas celebration. Elizabeth Gaskell liked to spend Christmas quietly by her fireside. But around her, Victorian people showed increasing seasonal mobility. Children came to celebrate with the family: “Home for the Holidays” […]
The term grand tour conjures up English aristocrats sent to the Continent to complete their cultural education. Less well known is the reverse grand tour. In the first half of the eighteenth century Continental visitors came in increasing numbers to Great Britain (including Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau). None came to Manchester. It was not until […]
The term grand tour conjures up English aristocrats sent to the Continent to complete their cultural education. Less well known is the reverse grand tour. In the first half of the eighteenth century Continental visitors came in increasing numbers to Great Britain (including Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau). None came to Manchester. It was not until […]
Through Elizabeth Gaskell and the female gothic, we will use the literary theoretical school of "creative criticism" to explore how to set up an autobiographical survey of an author and a genre. We will explore Gaskell's gothic short stories as well as the speaker's experience of writing this work in Manchester during a Fulbright Award, […]
« All Events Manchester Meeting – ‘Elizabeth and Ruth’ with Livi Michael 3 March , 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm £5 – £6 We're thrilled that our speaker for March will be the wonderful author Livi Michael, who will talk about the background research undertaken for her Victorian novel, Elizabeth and Ruth, published by Salt […]
« All Events Gaskell Society Annual General Meeting 2026 18 April , 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Free Our Annual General Meeting takes place at Cross Street Chapel in Manchester10.00 Tea and Coffee10.30 Annual General Meeting11.45 The Daphne Carrick Memorial Lecture The Rural Idyll and the Changing World: Challenging Conventionality in the Novels of Elizabeth […]