Rating  - Cranford - Different than the PBS Mini-series
For those expecting the book and PBS Mini-series of the same name to mirror each other, your expectations will probably fall short. Although the book is very well written, it is definitely not light reading, and requires a great degree of concentration to understand the ins and outs of the plot - the characters are intertwined, but it is sometimes hard to remember how they relate to one another.
Overall, this book is a good, classical tale, but not recommended for bedtime reading! Strong coffee and concentration is needed!
Rating  - Classic historical literature which is actually fun to read.
Let me begin this review by saying that if you are thinking about reading this book only because of the BBC series, you will find it very disappointing. The makers of that series used the authors name, the title of the book and some of the characters but the remainder of their production is pure invention. I am enjoying watching the BBC program, but it is not this book.
Ms Charlotte Mitchell provides an Introduction and Notes for this book. It is my belief that it is essesntial to read the Introduction in order to fully understand Cranford. Elizabeth Gaskell had written a series of stories which appeared at irregular intervals in a magazine edited by Charles Dickens titled Household Words. The stories first appeared together as a novel in 1853. Ms Mitchell uses the Introduction to explain the chronology for the publishing of this and other novels by Elizabeth Gaskell. She also takes this opportunity to explore the question of whether or not Cranford was ever meant to be taken seriously by readers of Ms Gaskell since her other novels are so very different in tone from this one.
One of the things I really appreciate which Ms Mitchell did was to include the Notes section to explain words and phrases which appear in the book which were very well understood in the 1800's but which may be unfamiliar to readers today. I read a lot of historical romantic fiction and these Notes gave me concrete explanations for words and phrases I have been too lazy to research for myself. I thought I knew what they meant before, now I know for sure. Items such as:
1. gigot - a sleeve style described as leg-of-mutton
2. baby-house - a dolls house
3. sarsenet - a soft thin silk material
4. blind man's holiday - a proverbial term for night or twilight
Ms Mitchell states in the Introduction that Gaskell later came to regret the fact that she had caused Colonel Brown to be killed in the first story. If he had remained a character longer in the series, I think that Cranford might have gone in a very different direction. As it is, Cranford is the story of a certain class of women, either unmarried or widowed, who live in a small English villiage. The main character is Miss Matty Jenkyns who only comes into prominence after the death of her older sister, Miss Deborah. The women relish their lack of male inhabitants and see themselves as lucky in not having to deal with the ways of men, which they see as uncouth and almost barbaric (they will speak too loud!). There is a very strict social structure among these women, even as to what time of day they can visit each other and what kind of clothes they should be wearing when the visits take place. These rules are in place to keep everyone on an even keel, so that everyone understands the rules, and no one may change the rules without the approval of the most prestigious ranking member of their set.
Cranford is a study in contrasts. The differences in the male approach to the world, with their freedoms, and the female approach to the world, with all the restrictions placed upon them. I can honestly say that I had fun reading this book. I grinned, smiled, chuckled and even laughed out loud. No episode was too tiny to cause a complete, unrealistic upheaval among the ladies of Cranford. One of my favorite parts of the story concerns how they all react when rumor and half-truths have them convinced that a gang of thieves and burglars are roaming the countryside. It is funny and heartwarming but also sad to see the lengths they go to in order to protect themselves and their households from these thieves who are, in reality, simply the result of gossip and overactive imaginations. Another part I am particularly fond of is when the main characters allow themselves to unbend to the extent of divulging to their friends what their worst fear is. Miss Matty revealed that she was afraid each night that a man was hiding under her bed. Her method of reassuring herself that no person was there was actually quite astute and surprising for this woman's character. But Cranford is not all warm feelings and quaint happenings. There are real tragedies which effect these women and move their lives into totally different directions.
This book is told in the narrative style, something which I usually do not like. There is very little dialogue. The name of the narrator is not even mentioned until page 137. I had read the persons name in the Introduction but I was very surprised to see that this type of presentation did not detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. It is not the most exciting book I have ever read, it is not a very long book, and it does not require much stretching of the readers intellect but I enjoyed all of the time I spent reading it and will certainly read it over and over.
Very highly recommended for any reader who enjoys historical fiction. It is not a romance, more a journal of the everyday lives of women who depend on themselves and their friends for comfort and companionship.
Rating  - A book about nothing and everything
I would like to begin by saying that this book is very little like the PBS production that is being aired on TV right now. There are many characters that make their way into the miniseries, but many that the producers seem to have borrowed from other Gaskell novels. However, though the producers do not stick to the plot of the book, I feel they have captured the spirit of Cranford.
If anyone were to ask me what this book is about, I am not quite sure what to tell them. In essence, it is a book about nothing in particular and everything meaningful in general. The key characters are elderly ladies who, like prim Amazons in middle-aged caps, look after each other and those around them. The adventures in this story are so mild, yet taken so seriously by the characters, that I was myself as excited as they were to learn that a magician had come to Cranford, or that the new fashions had arrived, or that a Lady was to marry someone quite beneath her. The most moving part of the whole story is Miss Matti's past love, a love that she sacrificed for the sake of her family. Her stories brought many tears to my eyes.
Overall, I am so impressed with how such a simple story could be so altogether moving, and, quite unexpectedly, very fast paced. I read it very quickly yet I feel as if the tale will live with me forever.
Rating - Cranford: An English village tale of widows and maidens in the nineteenth century world of Elizabeth Gaskell's youth
Cranford is a delight and an idyll of calm in our clamorous twenty-first century world of clutter and clatter! The short novel was first serialized in Charles Dicken's edited periodical "Household Words" during 1853. Its author was Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) of Manchester who was the wife of the Unitarian pastor William Gaskell. Despite a busy life of charity work, raising several children and a wide correspondence she managed to develop into a fine novelist. Gaskell was friendly with Florence Nightingale and became the biographer of her good friend Charlotte Bronte. This novel has become a popular miniseries on BBC TV and is being broadcast in the United States on the Masterpiece program on PBS.
Cranford tells the story of Miss Debroah and Miss Matty Jenkyns late middle aged daughters of a Church of England clergyman. We visit their quiet world of sewing, morning visits to friends, afternoon teas and trips to church events. We learn that they are old fashioned disdaining the coming of the railroad. Miss Deborah engages in a very humorous argument with Captain Brown (significantly this character is killed by a train) over whether Dr. Samuel Johnson or Charles Dickens is the best writer. We learn that Miss Matty had been courted by the eccentric farmer Mr. Holbrook. We learn he has 26 cows or one for each letter of the alphabet. Holbrook dies as an old man after fulfilling his dream of visiting Paris. We discover the story of the siblings wandering brother Peter who leaves home after a quarrel with their stern father. Peter becomes a sailor. Several years later he returns from India to be reacquainted with his surviving sister Matty and his friends in Cranford.
We meet such eccentric old maids as Miss Pole and learn of other residents of the tiny village. Cranford is based on Knustsford the village in which Mrs. Gaskell grew to womanhood. Knustford is located close to Manchester in the industrial north of Great Britain.
One of the most heartwarming tales of Cranford is to see how the friends of Miss Matty rally around and support her when she loses all of her money in a bank which failed.
Cranford is a gentle glance into a rural England which only exists on the printed page. It is a loving little story of ordinary men and women bound together by blood, love and common interests. Excellent!
Rating - If you liked the mini-series...
...do try the book. I had to read this at school at 14 (so often enough to put anyone off anything) but it has remained an absolute favourite which hardly anyone else seemed to have read until recently. It is a little gem. The episode where the narrator goes through a bundle of old letters is especially poignant and has remained with me ever since that first reading. You will know what I mean - but you'll need something to wipe away a tear!
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