‘Reader, I married him.’

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a closer look at classic romances from your favourite authors. Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell created some of the best-loved heroes ever to grace page or screen with Pride and Prejudice’s Mr Darcy, Jane Eyre’s Mr Rochester and, of course, North and South’s smouldering Mr Thornton.

Now popular speaker Elizabeth Williams is back with a new talk celebrating how these very different writers tackled love and romance in their famous works. Alongside the classic romances, we look at re-ignited love with Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth in Persuasion, unrequited love in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, the slow-burn of Molly for Roger in Wives and Daughters and the destructive love found in Ruth. How did Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell each show the inner-life of their classic heroes and heroines? How did they convey eroticism in an age of repression?

Now you can sit back and enjoy a Valentine treat as we contrast three classic women writers and their leading literary men to celebrate our eternal love-affair with romantic novels.

‘I love her talks. She makes diving into history and literature so very relatable to the ideas and challenges we face today.’ Visitor to online event

Tickets £6

Wednesday 12 February 2025, 7-8pm