Blogs & News

: Online Talk: Laughter and Literature – Comedy in Elizabeth Gaskell

“Out of the way! We are in the throes of an exceptional emergency! This is no occasion for sport- there is lace at stake!" Cranford, 1853 The hard-hitting novels of a Victorian minister’s wife may not be the most likely place to look for comedy but Elizabeth Gaskell’s writing is packed full of mirth. Even in her social novel Ruth about an unmarried mother, there is room for a little laughter. Humour and grief can be regular bedfellows

: Online Talk: The Fallen Woman – Sex and Sin in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Ruth

Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Ruth was banned and burned for its portrayal of a young woman who had sex before marriage. The story instantly became a ‘prohibited book’, even within her own home. For modern readers, there is no explicit sex in the book so it may be hard to understand the outraged response. What made Ruth such a dangerous book? Join Elizabeth Williams as she reveals the truth about Victorian attitudes to female sexuality and their impact on

: Online Talk: Motherhood – The Good, The Bad and The Tolerable

‘No one loves me, -no one cares for me, but you, mother’ Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels are often pre-occupied with mothers and motherhood. The role of mother was regarded as the peak of Victorian womanhood. Women were thought to be domestic angels, designed for the sacred role. As the real life mother to four daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell was once dismissed as a cosy writer of domesticity, wrongly regarded as being ‘unintellectual… and easily shocked’. So, what did she actually have

: Online Talk: Sex and Scandal – Writing the Erotic in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Novels

Sex. Sensuality. Eroticism. Such words are not usually associated with Elizabeth Gaskell, the respectable Victorian wife of a Unitarian minister. Yet novels like North and South reveal a woman willing to write about secret desires and intimate feelings. How were such matters to be publicly discussed in an age famous for sexual repression? Take a look at the art of love in literature from great romance to unrequited affection in works including North and South, Ruth, Sylvia’s Lovers, Cousin Phyllis,

: Online Talk: The Real Ruth – Mapping Elizabeth’s Gaskell’s Ruth

Enjoy a literary journey of discovery as you go on a virtual visit to the places, buildings and landmarks featured in Elizabeth Gaskell’s shocking novel Ruth. Extracts from the book map the way to locations around Wales, Cheshire and the English countryside with speaker Dr Diane Duffy. Join us for a fascinating new insight into Elizabeth’s novel about Ruth, a ‘fallen woman’ in Victorian society.  You can delight in some beautiful 19th century writing and vivid descriptions along the