Your Autumn 2024
Posted
18th June 2024
in blog, Events, Gaskell House Blogs, other
Look ahead to cosy evenings in with a new programme of online events designed just for you, starting this September. Share your love of literature with like-minded people from around the world – all from the comfort of your own home!
The Wives and Daughters season continues with everything from Darwin and literary science to a comparison with other classic authors including Jane Austen and George Eliot. We kick off the season with a look at how Elizabeth Gaskell’s final novel explores the Victorian interest in science and logic through the character of Roger Hamley, heavily based on the famous evolutionary scientist and author of The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin.

Then take a fresh look at women’s lives through Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters in our talk on the Domestic Novel in September with our friends at Jane Austen’s House. You can enjoy a comparison between Elizabeth’s final novel and George Eliot’s masterpiece Middlemarch in October with the Eliot Fellowship too.
Explore the life of unmarried women, both fictional and historical, with our event looking at A Life of Freedom in October. Or step over into the dark side with our Halloween special talk marking the bicentenary of Lord Byron. Try taking a creepy look at literature’s terrifying undead from Dracula to Poor Claire with our Brides of Dracula talk by Dr Diane Duffy.
On a sunnier note, you have the 20th anniversary of the classic TV adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South to celebrate in November. Join Bafta award-winning screenwriter Sandy Welch to wish North and South a Happy Birthday, alongside our expert panel.

Over two decades the series has developed an international fan base with admirers across the globe. The BBC period drama of Elizabeth Gaskell’s groundbreaking novel set against the industrial backdrop of Victorian Manchester has encouraged new readers of the original novel and huge fan devotion. Watch out on our social media to find out how you can have your questions put to Sandy and her panel.
Manchester is the dramatic backdrop to many of Elizabeth Gaskell’s work so we’re celebrating Lancashire Day on 27 November with a talk marking the city’s portrayal in literature. Have a glimpse at literary classics like North and South and lesser-known works, such as Isabella Banks’s The Manchester Man.

Lastly, you can grab a mince pie, pull up a cosy chair and enjoy some seasonal goodwill with a talk about how Manchester’s working classes celebrated Victorian Christmas.
We’ve got so many good things planned for you this autumn. There are online tours of the house, book groups and our in-person monthly second-hand book sale – recommended as the best in Manchester.
You can take a look at this season’s events by clicking the link here.
What will you choose?