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. […]
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 lived at Plymouth Grove until her death, and during her father’s lifetime and beyond she helped to maintain the household’s standing as a noted centre […]
Who were the potential models for Signor Brunoni? Could Dickens (who performed as “The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rhama Rhoos”) have been one of them? What kind of text did Miss Pole use to research how the magic tricks are done? Christopher Pittard’s forthcoming book, Literary Illusions, explores the dialogue between Victorian literature and one of […]
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 […]
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was one of the most intriguing of Victorian heroines: unconventional, illegitimate, yet at the centre of a luminous circle of influential Victorians, including Elizabeth Gaskell, George […]
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was one of the most intriguing of Victorian heroines: unconventional, illegitimate, yet at the centre of a luminous circle of influential Victorians, including Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Florence Nightingale, the Rossettis and Gertrude Jekyll. She was someone who opened many of the doors we walk through today with barely a backward […]
of all the weary, killing wearing out bustles in this life that of the last week passed all belief’. Elizabeth Gaskell to her friend Eliza Fox, 1852 Elizabeth Gaskell was […]
Join Curator Elinor Camille-Wood as she takes you on fabulous fashion journey. You can find out more about the novel and tv adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic North and South. Take a peek at what characters like Margaret Hale would have worn in the 1850s, from large skirts to beautiful bonnets in an age of clothing […]
« 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 […]
“Consumption, I am aware, is a flattering malady” Charlotte Brontë, 1849 Disease and dying were common hazards for characters in Victorian novels. For the modern reader, 19th century novels can sometimes seem packed full of sentimental deathbeds like Jo’s death in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. The reality was that in 1800 approximately one in every three children […]
You can step into the wild side for a new spine-tingling talk on Victorian ghost stories, just in time for Halloween! Terrifying tales, ghostly ghouls, helpless heroines – there is everything you want in the classic Victorian ghost story. Our Chair, Dr Diane Duffy (who LOVES a bit of Gothic!), is back with a spellbinding […]
« 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 […]
« All Events 5 November - 30 November RECORDING ACCESS – “That Wicked Paris”: Fashioning the Good Englishwoman £5 – £6 Professor Amy L. Montz (University of Southern Indiana) gave our November lecture. She is the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the University of Manchester. The crises of authenticity sparked by the expanding British Empire and […]
A talk by Dr Julia Allen These two women were regarded as being outstanding authors during the times in which they lived. Mary Sidney Herbert (1561-1621) is mainly associated with her accomplished poetic translations of the Psalms. Amongst her other publications is a play based on the Antony and Cleopatra story, before Shakespeare wrote his […]
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” […]
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” was a recurrent theme, featuring exuberant schoolboys in stage-coaches. Then came the railways, with special trains even on Christmas Day. Food was also on the […]
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 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, […]
A talk by Jevon Thistlewood of the Ashmolean Museum. Richard Hooke’s career as a portrait painter neatly overlaps the rapid rise and development of commercially available black and white photography. The term “Photo-Painting” refers to the technique of overpainting photographs, usually in oil paint, to create portraits. In the absence of colour photography, portraits executed […]
RECORDING – Ruth, from Fact to Fiction with Livi Michael 3 March - 31 March £5 – £6 Our speaker on 3 March was the author Livi Michael, who told […]
« 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 […]