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In the delicately impoverished town of Cranford, everyone is keen to know everyone else's business. The community is almost devoid of men, and in their place a solid matriarchy has formed. Manners must be observed, house calls must not exceed a quarter of an hour, and neither money matters nor death may be discussed in public. But the peace is often disturbed. Rumoured burglars, literary disagreements, and the arrival of Captain Brown and his tactless daughters all cause ripples, warmly charted by the conversational narrator, Mary Smith. When the past erupts through the fragile class distinctions and disputed tea sales, the customary perspective of the town shifts in small but perceptible ways forever. First published as a magazine serial from 1851 and then in novel form in 1853, Cranford is the best-known work by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65). This reissue is of the 1853 second edition.
List of contents
1. Our society; 2. The captain; 3. A love affair of long ago; 4. A visit to an old bachelor; 5. Old letters; 6. Poor Peter; 7. Visiting; 8. 'Your Ladyship'; 9. Signor Brunoni; 10. The panic; 11. Samuel Brown; 12. Engaged to be married; 13. Stopped payment; 14. Friends in need; 15. A happy return; 16. 'Peace to Cranford'.
About the author
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, also known as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English author, historian, and short story writer who lived from 29 September 1810 to 12 November 1865. The very poor and other members of Victorian society are all depicted in great detail in her novels. Both readers of literature and social historians will find her work interesting. In 1848, Mary Barton, her debut book, was released. The earliest biography of Charlotte Bront was Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Bront, which was released in 1857. She only covered the moral, sophisticated portions of Bronte's life in her biography; the rest was left out because, in her opinion, some of the obscenity details should be kept out of public view. The BBC has adapted each of Gaskell's most well-known novels for television, including Cranford, North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865). Gaskell wrote to Charles Dickens at the beginning of 1850 seeking his guidance on how to help a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison. Ruth's title character had a model thanks to Pasley in 1853. Her remaining books, Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1855), are the most well-known (1865). She gained notoriety for her writing, particularly for her ghost stories.
Summary
Originally published as a magazine serial and then printed in novel form in 1853, Cranford is a playful tour of a peculiar country town. From the stately, stern Miss Jenkyns to the timid Miss Betsy Barker and her flannel-wearing cow, the inhabitants are all acquainted, and all poised to overhear scandal.
