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 humour and mirth. Even in her social novel Ruth about an unmarried mother, there is room for a little laughter. Elizabeth Gaskell often brings the

: 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 Literary Locations – 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

: Online Talk: Ruth – An Introduction

Our new season of Ruth events begins with a special introduction to Elizabeth Gaskell’s most shocking novel. Her story about a single mother was ‘banned, burned and denounced from the pulpit’ for its controversial storyline. So as the respectable wife of a Unitarian minister, why was Elizabeth Gaskell the first to tell the story of a ‘Fallen Woman’? How did her writing challenge contemporary stereotypes? And what about Elizabeth’s real-life plea to Charles Dickens for help with a seduced