Entry included with all house and garden tickets

Chatsworth is a house alive with stories. Its library, assembled by the Devonshire family over 500 years, is home to rare first editions, lavishly decorated volumes, and books annotated by past owners and readers.

Chatsworth has long attracted writers, readers and collectors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama. The collection shows the enduring importance of books and reading to those who have lived and worked in the house, reflecting passions, tastes and changing fashions. Some works entered the collection when they were inherited or gifted by authors and collectors. Some works are mysteries – their histories lost over time.

For the first time, and in celebration of the UK’s National Year of Reading, this exhibition brings together the library’s most exciting treasures, with first and early editions of works by authors including, Geoffrey Chaucer, Alexander Pope, Jane Austen, Caroline Lamb, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, Oscar Wilde, and T.E. Lawrence.

Also shared are associated manuscripts and letters from the Devonshire Archives, combined with furniture, sketches, and artworks.

For further details please see here.