Gaskell's Year and Jeanette Winterson's script about the Brontës

Because Brontëites tend to have a soft spot for Elizabeth Gaskell despite her errors of judgment (unavoidable as those might have been), we thought this article in The Times about the celebrations of the two-hundredth anniversary of her birth could be interesting per se, not just because of the Brontë connection. We have, however, marked in bold the Brontë-related events of this 'Gaskell year'.

It is time to move on from those corpse-strewn specials of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford shown on television at Christmas. For fans of the increasingly popular Victorian novelist, the mood of 2010 is distinctly cheerier, this being the year they celebrate their heroine’s bicentenary.
The author of Cranford, North and South and Wives and Daughters (all of them titles enthusiastically dramatised by the BBC in recent years), Mrs Gaskell was born in London on September 29, 1810, and on September 25 this year she will be honoured in the city of her birth when her name is added to a stained-glass memorial window in Poets’ Corner. For much of the rest of the year, however, the focus of commemoration will be on her adopted home city of Manchester (or “Drumble” as she calls it in Cranford). (The Times, Sue Corbett)

April 1 to 29 (Previews, 31st March) (Manchester's Portico Library)
Elizabeth Gaskell Bicentenary- An exhibition
April 8 (Manchester's Portico Library)
Brief Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell (due from Hesperus Press in May)
Book launch by Alan Shelston (president of the Gaskell society)
April 10, 11
Guided Tours and Walks at Tabley House and Park, Knutsford.

April 13 (Manchester's Portico Library)
Elizabeth Gaskell & Charlotte Bronte, based on the novelists’ close friendship and mostly in their own words.
A costume presentation by Intertheatre.

April 24, 11 am
Brussels Brontë Group (Room P61, Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, Brussels)
On the Brussels trail: Elizabeth Gaskell and The Life of Charlotte Brontë.
A talk by Prof. Angus Easson.

When Elizabeth Gaskell was asked by Patrick Brontë to write the life of his daughter, she already knew Charlotte well, but the demands of a biography meant she had to range widely to establish facts, particularly for the Brussels period. It became clear to her, already knowing Villette and having early access to the posthumously-published The Professor, that much autobiography was woven into them. In pursuit of materials, she visited Brussels, was given the cold shoulder by Mme Heger, but met M. Heger and realised something of the nature of the relation between him and Charlotte. This talk will trace this journey of discovery and consider how Gaskell faced the dilemma of writing about events potentially damaging to the living and to the memory of the dead. Given as a talk, rather than a lecture; intervention from the audience is welcome.

Professor Angus Easson has taught at the universities of Newcastle upon Tyne, London (The Royal Holloway College) and Salford, where he was professor of English until his retirement in 2000. He has published widely on Romantic and Victorian literature, notably on Elizabeth Gaskell, and has edited the Oxford World's Classics edition of The Life of Charlotte Brontë. He is currently working on supplements to the Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens and a book on Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Friday 14th, Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th and Monday 17^th May
10:30am - 5:30 pm except Sunday 1pm - 5:30pm.
Flower Festival and Victorian Victuals
Brook Street Chapel, Knutsford
Exhibition with Victorian high tea in the garden.

Outside of these times by request. Knutsford and District Flower Club are creating the flower arrangements and each arrangement will depict one of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Novels. There will also be a special arrangement on her grave.
Food & drinks will be served by members of the chapel dressed in Victorian Costume. This will be held either in the chapel garden or in the schoolroom depending on the weather.

June 9
Sheffield University Day School on Elizabeth Gaskell's longer short stories.

June 16 (Metropolitan University)
Dear Scherezade

The actress Gabrielle Drake will give a gala performance of her one-woman show, Dear Scheherazade, based on the writer’s novels and letters (its title deriving from Mrs Gaskell’s friend and editor Charles Dickens, who christened her “my dear Scheherazade” in tribute to her Arabian Nights-style storytelling.
Presented jointly by the Gaskell Society (gaskellsociety.co.uk) and the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, the performance will help to raise funds for a £2.75 million restoration of 84 Plymouth Grove, the Grade II* listed Manchester house where Mrs Gaskell lived from 1850 to 1865 and produced most of her work. (The Times, Sue Corbett)

June 25
Guided walk : Discover Knutsford's Cranford Days
with Joan Leach MBE as your guide
Sunday 25th June , 2.30 pm

Assemble in Canute Square. The walk will trace the scenes and people Elizabeth Gaskell knew and wrote about in Cranford.
The walk ends at Brook Street Chapel where she is buried with William and two daughters

July 14 - November 28 (Christie Gallery, John Rylands University Library)
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Connected Life

Elizabeth Gaskell was a prolific correspondent and stood at the centre of a wide and varied social network. Her personal connections extended to people in many different walks of life - from some of the most famous figures of the day to the poorest factory workers in her home town of Manchester.
This exhibition, which marks the bicentenary of her birth, draws on the Library's world-class Gaskell collections to explore her place in these diverse communities. It looks at how her social networks influenced her fiction and the worlds she depicted in her books. It also considers the worldwide community of readers past and present who have found enjoyment in Gaskell's work.

The exhibition draws on the library’s own extensive collection of Gaskelliana, including the manuscript of Wives and Daughters and the writer’s inkstand and paper-knife, but will also include loans from Mrs Gaskell’s descendants: her 1854 portrait by Samuel Laurence, and her passport (which shows how unusually widely travelled she was for a woman of her time). From the Brotherton Library at Leeds University (where it is on permanent loan from the Gaskell family) it will borrow her manuscript diary of 1835-38, in which she interestingly records her thoughts on the character development of her infant daughter Marianne, born in 1834. (The Times, Sue Corbett)

August 5
Professor Pamela Copron Parker talks on 'Elizabeth Gaskell and Autographs' at the John Rylands Library.

August 14 (Christie Gallery, John Rylands University Library)
Elegant Economy — the Clothes of Cranford, by The History Wardrobe

September
Exhibition on 'Elizabeth Gaskell's Cheshire' at Tatton Park, Knutsford.

September 5
Penny-farthing Race round Knutsford Moor.

September 14
Talk about the Whitfield Collection at Knutsford Library.

September 16
Jenny Uglow talks on 'Country and City' at the John Rylands Library.

September 18
History Wardrobe perform 'The Clothes of Cranford' at the John Rylands Library.

September 25
Dedication of window in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.

September 29
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Birthday Celebration
Wednesday 29th September
11am. A talk in Brook Street Chapel on Elizabeth Gaskell and her novels by Elizabeth Williams, Chairman of the Gaskell Society
12:30pm. Two course lunch at the Belle Epoque (Gaskell Memorial Tower)
3:00pm. Gaskell guided walk round the town by Joan Leach

Sunday 3rd October, 11am (Brook Street Chapel)
Service Commemorating Mrs Gaskell’s 200^th Birth Anniversary
A special chapel service dedicated to Elizabeth Gaskell followed by the laying of a wreath on her grave by the Gaskell Society. This will be followed by a finger buffet in the schoolroom.

October 6
Joan Leach gives talk on 'Elizabeth Gaskell and Cheshire' at Tatton Hall.

October 8 (Tatton Park)
Friday October 8th, 11 am
Lunchtime Lecture: Elizabeth Gaskell and the 19th century novel
Join Ed Potton, Assistant Keeper of Printed Books, and Fran Baker, Assistant Modern Literary Archivist, both from John Ryland's University Library, Manchester. Discover the secrets of Elizabeth Gaskell's world and literary works. Learn about surviving Gaskell archive materials from the John Ryland's collection, and what this tells us about her writing career. Special access to the atmospheric Egerton library. Lecture takes place in the impressive Mansion Entrance Hall - booking essential.

October 5-9
Victorian Music Hall at Knutsford Little Theatre (to include Old Poz).

October 11
Elizabeth Williams talks on 'The Life and Works of Elizabeth Gaskell' as part of the Wellington Literary Festival, Shropshire.

October 14
Alan Shelston talks on 'Gaskell and her Publishers' at the John Rylands Library.

Another Brontë-connected, albeit more remotely, author is Jeanette Winterson, who wrote Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (which in turn helped inspire the song Just Don't Read Jane Eyre by Los Campesinos!). She is featured in the Guardian today.

But to some, she had become insufferable – arrogant, pretentious. "I have made a lot of mistakes in my life," she says shrugging. But she argues that mistakes were inevitable because she was breaking new ground for women writers. "At college, I was told there were four great women novelists in the 19th century – Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Not one of them led an enviable life – all of them had to sacrifice ludicrously in order to be writers. I wasn't prepared to do that."You could become ill so that you could retreat to the bedroom, avoid your domestic responsibilities and write like Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti. You had to forget about writing if you weren't prepared to sacrifice any other things you might want from life, like kids or lovers. It's not like that now." (Stuart Jeffries)

But most importantly:

Winterson isn't writing a novel and hasn't been for three years. "You can't force it so I'm not going to." But she's expecting to be busy. She's considering writing two scripts – one about the relationship between Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas and another a BBC drama on the lives of the Brontë sisters. Will you write novels again? "I'm sure. I love writing. I always wanted to tell stories and I always want to be useful." (Stuart Jeffries)

Fingers crossed something will come out of that!

Now that there is a casting going on looking for a new Heathcliff and Cathy they might want to consider Gordon Brown, the Heathcliff of newspapers. The Independent writes,

Not many people are saying that about Mr Brown. A blend of Heathcliff, Lear on the heath and Frankenstein's monster, his vile treatment of his officials should be kept constantly in mind, especially when he next prates on about his values and the decencies which he absorbed during his childhood in the manse. Anyone who can talk about values and behave like Gordon Brown deserves a Pulitzer Prize for hypocrisy. Criminals are serving prison sentences for less morally culpable behaviour. (Bruce Anderson)

Psiquiatria e Toxicodependência talks about Jane Eyre, particularly Bertha Rochester of course (in Portuguese), Conquering the Classics reviews Wuthering Heights. Book Reviews posts about Agnes Grey.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights