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Online Talk: Victorian Gothic – Haunted Houses and Night-time Terrors

Cross the threshold into a world of flickering gaslight and cold stone. Step beyond the velvet curtains of the Victorian home to discover the era’s greatest Gothic writers, from the atmospheric dread of Wuthering Heights to the suffocating psychology of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.

Find out more about the psychological stories of terror written by Elizabeth Gaskell’s contemporaries where crumbling buildings reflect unravelling psyches. We’ll consider terrifying tales about ancestral curses, haunted railways, dead lovers and doomed servants by British and American authors including Charles Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Edgar Allan Poe.

Join speaker Dr Emma Liggins, Co-Director of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, as we unlock the doors to Victorian Gothic Fiction, just in time for Halloween!

‘It was absolutely superb – very informative and delivered with authority.’ Visitor to previous online event

Tickets £6

Wednesday 28 October 2026, 7-8pm

What else do I need to know?

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Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is run by Manchester Historic Buildings Trust (charity no. 1080606) and all money gained through private tours, talks, room hire and ticket sales goes towards the ongoing maintenance and running costs of the House. If you would like to support the House with an additional donation you can do so via this link.