George Eliot at 200 at The Mansion House Calderstones Park, Liverpool

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

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A Reader's Day: George Eliot at 200

23 November 2019

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

The Mansion House Calderstones Park.
The Mansion House Calderstones Park.
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In July 1857, aged 37, the daughter of an estate manager and a single woman with failed relationships behind her and no certain prospect of a professional future, Midlands country girl Marian Evans wrote: “I feel that all the terrible pain I have gone through in past years, partly from the defects of my own nature, partly from outward things, has probably been a preparation for some special work that I may do before I die.”

Two years later, she published Scenes Of Clerical Life under the pseudonym George Eliot (because single women didn’t get published) and the rest, as they say, is literary history.

This special Reader’s Day, 200 years after Evans/Eliot’s birth, near Nuneaton in 1819, is a celebration and exploration of the life and work of one of the world’s greatest writers. Join The Reader – a national charity promoting reading – at their newly refurbished Calderstones Park centre, The Mansion House, to share the experience of some of George Eliot’s work.

Are you a struggler? If you’ve never managed to get going with Middlemarch, fellow readers can give you a boost. Are you a thinker? If you think Darwin and Marx had the biggest ideas of the nineteenth century, think again as you look at human beings through the eyes, and heart and pen of this powerful thinker, whose biggest thought was ‘sympathy’. Are you a fan? If you already love George Eliot, come back to her now and revisit a favourite work with others who are experiencing her fiery energy for the first time.

Where to go near George Eliot at 200 at The Mansion House Calderstones Park, Liverpool

library
Shop
The Reader, Calderstones Park

The Reader brings people together through a shared love of literature and their home is in the beautiful Calderstones Park in Liverpool.

food and drink
Liverpool
Café or Coffee Shop
Rose Lane Coffee

Speciality coffee, delicious sweet treats and the super friendly staff make Rose Lane Coffee one of the best coffee shops in Liverpool.

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Liverpool
Café or Coffee Shop
Bean There Coffee

Sample delicious croissants with your lovingly made cappuccino at Bean There Coffee & Kitchen in South Liverpool.

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Liverpool
Shop
Resurrection

Resurrection is a long-established clothes shop, selling quirky items from both larger and niche brands to Liverpool’s fashion lovers.

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Liverpool
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A Slower Space

A Slower Space offers a curated selection of homeware, candles, jewellery and more, all in a relaxing atmosphere, on the iconic Penny Lane.

Liverpool
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Sudley House

Liverpool’s Sudley House is the only surviving Victorian merchant art collection in Britain still hanging in its original location.

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Frankie’s Paint-It Pottery

Frankie’s Paint-It Pottery is a friendly place to relax and exercise your creative muscles by having a go at pottery painting.

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Chamber 36 City Centre

Serving excellent Pan-Asian dishes and quirky cocktails, Chamber 36 is a stylish restaurant on the edge of Liverpool’s China Town.

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Dead Ink Books

Dead Ink Books is an independent bookshop on Smithdown Road in Liverpool, exclusively stocking books from independent publishers.

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Belzan

Belzan is a modern bistro serving delicious food in a relaxed and friendly setting, in an unexpected location.

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