Book Review: Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell

[olde_fashioned]

Title: Cranford
by: Elizabeth Gaskell
Genre: British Literature, Fiction, Classics

I have heard Cranford called Gaskell's most famous novel. I am not exactly sure why anyone would consider it so, unless it's because she wrote her stories about the rural village of Cranford in order to preserve the quaint country ways of life? According to the notes, Cranford is an alias for Gaskell's hometown of Knutsford, and most of the anecdotes and events related by various characters really happened, such as the cat eating the lace. That knowledge lends an extra element of interest to this heartwarming story with a home-y, cozy setting.

Naturally after reading North & South and Wives & Daughters I promptly put everything Gaskell wrote on my reading list, but I moved Cranford up to the top because it's a rule of mine to read the novels before I watch the movies. So, in anticipation of the impending airing in May of the Judi Dench mini-series, I ordered a copy from the library.



Cranford could easily be compared to Wives & Daughters, (or even Jane Austen's Emma, for a comparable background and Miss Bates) since they are by the same authoress and have similar styles. Told from the point of view of Mary Smith, (who, oddly enough, isn't even named until almost the very end) a young visitor and friend of the Jenkyns family, it is a laid-back representation of live in a small country village, where there are old ladies aplenty and news is scarce. Some of the greatest happenings in a resident's life might be the ordering of a new bonnet, or the great scandal of a maidservant having an admirer. *rolls eyes* The old ladies are very silly, very out-of-date, and very amusing. The opening passage sets the tone for the rest of the novel, which has a clever balance of silly and serious.

(all excerpts courtesy of Project Gutenberg)

"In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all
the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married
couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman
disappears; he is either fairly frightened to death by being the
only man in the Cranford evening parties, or he is accounted for by
being with his regiment, his ship, or closely engaged in business [elsewhere]..."

So straight away we are told that gentlemen are scarce, and therefore romance is not to be the object of this story. And although it is not the object, it is not entirely lacking.

Here's another excerpt that made me laugh:


"It was on this subject: An old lady had an Alderney cow, which she
looked upon as a daughter. You could not pay the short quarter of
an hour call without being told of the wonderful milk or wonderful
intelligence of this animal. The whole town knew and kindly
regarded Miss Betsy Barker's Alderney; therefore great was the
sympathy and regret when, in an unguarded moment, the poor cow
tumbled into a lime-pit. She moaned so loudly that she was soon
heard and rescued; but meanwhile the poor beast had lost most of
her hair, and came out looking naked, cold, and miserable, in a
bare skin. Everybody pitied the animal, though a few could not
restrain their smiles at her droll appearance. Miss Betsy Barker
absolutely cried with sorrow and dismay; and it was said she
thought of trying a bath of oil. This remedy, perhaps, was
recommended by some one of the number whose advice she asked; but
the proposal, if ever it was made, was knocked on the head by
Captain Brown's decided "Get her a flannel waistcoat and flannel
drawers, ma'am, if you wish to keep her alive. But my advice is,
kill the poor creature at once."

Miss Betsy Barker dried her eyes, and thanked the Captain heartily;
she set to work, and by-and-by all the town turned out to see the
Alderney meekly going to her pasture, clad in dark grey flannel. I
have watched her myself many a time. Do you ever see cows dressed
in grey flannel in London?"

Cranford @ Project Gutenberg

Poverty, which surely most of the inhabitants can be said to suffer from, is regarded as a thing not to be spoken of. Rather than lament the lack of pounds and pence, the ladies practice what Gaskell calls "elegant economy", and keeping their heads up high, they scrimp on paper, delay and prolong the use of candles, and contrive to make fancies for the many card parties themselves, then feigning ignorance as to what they might be. It's interesting to contrast such good stewardship with the frequent and seemingly unnecessary purchases of new lace caps and bonnets.

However petty these ladies can be, (one large disturbance in the day-to-day life of the villagers is caused by the visit of a peeress, and subsequently everyone is at a loss to remember the proper way to address someone of rank) when the "going gets tough" as the cliche goes, these tough old ladies definitely get going. Despite their domestic differences, when one of their own is suddenly struck down by poverty, they close rank around her and pitch in to help support her. It's really heartwarming, almost a reminder of what humans ought to do for each other in times of crisis.

My biggest complaint has nothing to do with the novel itself at all, but rather the way the book was published. I read the entire story without the appearance of any of the characters I've heard mentioned by those who have already seen the mini-series, so imagine my surprise when I turned to the last page, and still no Dr. Harrison! I have since found out that Gaskell wrote four pieces set in the village of Cranford, Cranford being the most famous, with the rest being Dr. Harrison's Confessions, My Lady Ludlow, and The Last Generation in England. The latter is an essay which was included in my copy of Cranford, but the former, Dr. Harrison's Confessions, is apparently a prequel to Cranford, and to add further confusion to the matter, My Lady Ludlow has been republished with added materials under the name of Round the Sofa. Now I may just be difficult to please, but in my mind, all of these should have been bound together in one volume.

And just in case I've confused everyone beyond repair, I am linking the various Wikipedia articles on the subject. ;-)

Cranford
Dr. Harrison's Confessions
My Lady Ludlow aka Round the Sofa
The Last Generation in England

So now I am off to hunt down copies of the aforementioned works, in order to finish the stories!

Project Gutenberg does have My Lady Ludlow and Round the Sofa, but not Dr. Harrisson's Confessions. I found an ecopy of that HERE. You'll have to forgive me for including so many links, but I wanted to share them in case anyone else has found this as confusing as I have. :-)

Comments

Re: Just a Question???

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Are you asking how a search engine works, as in, how it crawls the internet and locates a series of words on the web? I'm afraid I don't exactly understand your question.