‘Victims in a Vacuum’: Inscribing Identities in Childhood and Deathbed Scenes (Public lecture, 26th September)

The Victorians were fond of rather mawkish depictions of the angelic child and deathbed scenes. Not surprisingly, later writers rebelled against these visions, as this next Late Summer Lecture with Morven Cook and Oliver Hancock will demonstrate. All welcome to Alington House, Durham on 5th September from 17.30. Since the Victorian period, depictions of the...

The Huge Power of a Tiny Book

Even great writers start from small beginnings. Eleanor Scorah reports on an encounter with a minuscule book, during Durham's Literary Juvenilia conference, which enticingly hints at the author who we would subsequently know and cherish as Charlotte Brontë. This is kindly cross-posted from Eleanor's blog, Object. This week I attended a talk called ‘The Brontë juvenilia, editing,...

Reflections on Charlotte Brontë: a personal view of ‘an independent will’ (Talk and Book Launch, 6th June)

Join Professor Christine Alexander, author and editor of more than 20 books, including several on the Brontës, for a talk on Charlotte Brontë followed by a book launch. Everyone welcome on 6th June, 17.30, in the Kenworthy Hall, St Mary's College. Places are limited so please register your free ticket via Eventbrite. About this Talk This...

The Magic Lantern from the Necromancers to the Marketplace

https://youtu.be/82Icn6v6WQM Roll up! Roll up! Experience a Victorian magic lantern show, performed by Phillip Roberts using traditional nineteenth-century equipment. This film was recorded following the show's premiere at our series Late Summer Lectures 2017. Phillip uses a modified late-nineteenth century lantern from the National Science and Media Museum, with original slides from his own collection. His...

New Podcast: Dickens’s Ghosts: An Altered Perspective

"Marley's ghost bothered him exceedingly.  Every time he resolved within himself, after mature enquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through, 'Was it a dream or not?." Scrooge's internal debate accurately reflects...