North and South – Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell

Wednesday 2nd November, 2022

One of Elizabeth Gaskell’s most famous guests at 94 Plymouth Grove was that giant of Victorian literature, Charles Dickens. Two of the biggest names in English literature regularly corresponded from 1850 onwards and Charles Dickens edited Elizabeth in his weekly magazine Household Words as she wrote her much-loved novel, North and South. So did they actually get on? Did he influence her writing North and South? How did their work reflect shared concerns around poverty and class in ‘condition of England’ novels like Hard Times and North & South? And did he really say ‘If I was Mr G, O Heaven how I would beat her’? Join Dr Lydia Craig (The Dickens Society) and Anthony Burton (Elizabeth Gaskell’s House) for all the answers and more in this fascinating exploration of two groundbreaking writers.

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