Cranford

by Elizabeth Gaskell

Patricia Ingham (Editor) and Coralie Bickford-Smith (Illustrator)

Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.

Gaskell's best known work is set in a small rural town, inhabited largely by women. This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty. But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries, tragic accidents, and the reapparance of long-lost relatives.

• ISBN10: 0141442549
• ISBN13: 9780141442549
• Publish Date: 6 November 2008 (first published 31 December 1992)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 11 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780141442549

Reviews

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is a collection of short stories surrounding the small town of Cranford and the eccentric women who live there.

As I said, Cranford is a small town which is high in the population of female. In the first section of the book, every male who enters the town drops like flies making it feel jinxed or like an old fashioned sorority.

Elizabeth Gaskell's novel is a sequence of short stories that all intertwine. I'm typically not a short story reader so it took me a while to get into it and go with the flow. Although, once there Cranford is enchanting! All the characters are so lively that one can not help but fall in love, which is odd because most of the females are against that.

You cannot write a review without speaking of Miss Matty. She is a kind old soul who while should seem a woman with much wisdom, she is in fact a nieve child-like girl who everyone coddles and adores because of her sweet nature. I won't say much in fear that I could give too much away, but an example of this is when Matty's companion is engaged to be married but worries about mentioning it in case it were to upset her and devises a plan so everything benefits the surrounding persons.

My favorite and what I felt to be the most entertaining stories is of Lady Glenmire's appearance. Believed to be the highest of society with the residence in town all in a tizzy over the preparations only to find that she is no different from themselves.

The running around reminded me of a Faulty Towers episode particularly the one where "The Germans" visit the hotel. Really, when I think about it the majority of these stories could have been a highly sophisticated Faulty Towers.