FULLY BOOKED
An Afternoon with Elizabeth Lowry
25 August 2022, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
FULLY BOOKED
We are so pleased to be welcoming Elizabeth Lowry to the Museum on August 25th.
Spend the afternoon with Elizabeth for a book signing and reading of her highly praised novel ‘The Chosen’.
Tender, intimate and atmospheric, this haunting novel transports the reader into the austere house and shocked heart one of England’s greatest writers
One morning in November 1912 Thomas Hardy’s wife Emma dies. The two were married for over forty years, though increasingly estranged for the last twenty. Though they lived in the same house, Max Gate in Dorset, by the time of Emma’s death they were no longer speaking, and rarely even met. Emma spent her days and nights upstairs in the attic, while Tom wrote and slept on the floor below.
For the last four years, Tom has been in a tentative relationship with a much younger woman, Florence Dugdale. Like his family – who resented and avoided Emma – Florence assumes that he’ll be glad to be free. He isn’t. He is utterly shattered by the loss of his wife.
While Tom is still overwhelmed with grief he finds both a memoir and a cache of secret diaries by Emma, in which she railed about his failings as a husband, accusing him of having been her gaoler. Why did Thomas Hardy really choose Emma as his wife? What happened to them? What is life like for a woman whose own life and ambitions are buried beneath the artistic career of her husband, as he soars to literary greatness? And why did they never have children?
This is a novel about grief and regret, about Thomas Hardy at seventy-two, about the mystery at the heart of his long marriage to Emma Gifford, and the cost – to him, to those around him – of a writer’s life. Set in the eleven days following Emma’s death, it’s a love story and a ghost story – and the story of how some of the greatest love poems ever written in English, the ‘Poems of 1912-13’, came to exist.
Important Announcement
On Friday 2nd June 2023 the cafe TASTE at Dorset Museum cafe will be closed from 2pm
for a private function.
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Opening hours:
Daily: 9.00am - 4.30pm
Sunday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Bank Holidays: 10.00am - 4.00pm -
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What's On
18 February - 22 June 2023
The Art of Seeing: An exhibition of photographs by Dorchester Camera Club
The Club is delighted to have this opportunity to exhibit some of their members’ prints in the Dorset Museum together with an audio-visual presentation.
Find out more22 March - 25 June 2023
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Explore the work of Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), one of the most important figures of modern and contemporary art. This spring Dorset Museum will show a major presentation of her work in this ARTIST ROOMS touring exhibition featuring works jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland.
Find out more29 March - 9 July 2023
PJ Harvey – Orlam
Dorset Museum is now displaying an archive of material relating to PJ Harvey’s verse novel Orlam.
Find out more4 June 2023, 10:00am-12:00noon
Louise Bourgeois’ Weaving | ArtyFacts
Help us to create a wonderful woven installation in our Sculpture Courtyard inspired by spider's webs and the artworks of Louise Bourgeois.
Find out more4 June 2023, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Dorchester Through the Lens of Thomas Hardy | Mark Chutter
Join Mark Chutter, Chairman and Academic Director of the Thomas Hardy Society, to explore how Hardy presents the town of Dorchester in his writing.
Find out more10 June 2023, 10:00am - 12:00noon
Roman Town House Tours
A guided tour of one of the best examples of a Roman Town House in England.
Find out more17 June 2023, 10:00am - 12:00noon
Roman Town House Tours
A guided tour of one of the best examples of a Roman Town House in England.
Find out more21 June 2023, 2:00pm - 2:45pm
Collections Discovery Centre Tour
Join our Collections Team for an opportunity to explore behind the scenes in the Museum’s Collections Discovery Centre.
Find out more22 June 2023, 5:00pm - 6:30pm
FREE | Museum After Hours
Join us for an opportunity to explore the Museum at this FREE late opening.
Find out more