Cranford (The Penguin English Library)

Gaskell's plots are village and people oriented, something like Jane Austin's. Unlike Austen, she provides not only the humorous descriptions of characters' actions and speech; she will at some point explain how that character came to be the way he/she is. I bought this because I had seen a PBS series based on the Gaskell's books. The TV shows omitted some characters and subplots and shortened or combined some actions. Even if you've seen the Cranston TV series, the novels are enjoyable because of the depth. They are a really good read.

A charming account of village life amongst the ladies of Cranford. Gaskell pokes gentle fun at their pretensions and affectations, while evoking sympathy for timid Miss Matty, long dominated by her sister and twice denied love and the chance of marriage.
Further misfortune befalls her before she finds unexpected happiness of a kind.

This story is wonderful if you love to read about people, their quirks, their daily life. The story itself is not what the book is focused on but instead it's about this group of women in a small English town and their view of life and the odd inner workings of their minds. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I believe there is also a movie made but it might be hard to track down. So far my favourite Elizabeth Gaskell book is North and South.

Gaskills character sketches are delightful to read. Her descriptions of village life are spot on. I have lived in a small village all my life, and with the exceptions of technologies and British class systems, this is how a small town still operates. Loved reading it and followed with the other novels based in Cranford ASAP.

What a wonderful book. I loved watching the Cranford series on my kindle and was so pleased to find the book. The stories came alive as I had faces to put to the characters. If you enjoy the book watch the series!

Loosely linked stories (sometimes described as a novel) about a group of spinsters and widows living in a small English town in the first half of the nineteenth century. They have small private incomes (Matty has 127 pounds a year and a pound contained a third of an ounce of gold - a new silk dress costs five pounds) and observe lives constrained by etiquette and class distinction. It has been praised for its "gentle" humor (although I was chilled by the "Irish beggarwoman" saying her children were starving who gets the door shut in her face). I think you have to have a certain interest in how life was lived in 1850 to read it through. In this edition, with the explanatory note it is mine of information on domestic arrangements. The narrator often points out how old-fashioned these ladies are and what fasions are new and draws comparisons going back over fifty years. This adds an extra dimension. The train has arrived but sedan chairs are still used. Some of the explanatory notes are written in British English that needs more explanation to Americans. The introduction by Charlotte Mitchell says a lot more about the place of this book in feminist history. Basically it is something you'd read for historical interest rather than immediate entertainment. I did not laugh out loud or find it hard to stop turning the pages.

I have the video and the book 'Cranford' and enjoyed both. However, I realized after I finished the book that I should've read it before I saw the video. It is filled with what we would call old fashioned expressions and I loved it. If you've seen the video, go ahead and get the book, you'll still enjoy it.

This book wraps you 'round and carries you into into the humble, hilarious and understated society of the women who inhabit the small town of Cranford; it is a treasure that you will want to read again and again.

I have just discovered this wonderful author after watching "Cranford" on Masterpiece Theatre. I ordered several of her titles and I am hooked. I will read everything she has written. As someone who always wished that Jane Austen had written just one more book (or two or five or forty!!!), Elizabeth Gaskell is a real find. Her works are more "worldly" than the mild Miss Austen, but her characters are just as compelling and I love her.