Jeana's review of Cranford

Cranford (Penguin Classics)
by Elizabeth Gaskell

Jeana's review

rating:

bookshelves: beloved-classics, classics

status: Read in June, 2008

I thought I had read this book before, so when I sat down to watch Masterpiece Theatre and didn't recognize the storyline, I pulled it off the bookshelf and started rereading. Anyway, the television adaptation weaves in several stories that aren't in the book (what else is new?) but really, I thought the book was great without it.

Cranford is a town where there are a lot of old women (and very few men). Most of the women pride themselves on never having married--or if they have, the men always seem to e. The book carries a subtle sense of humor that is absolutely endearing. I took my time with this one and read a little here, a little there, some out loud because it was just a fun book to read. Yeah, it's a book about old ladies but that's what gives it its humor.

At the end, when Miss Matty loses all her money, the way the women of Cranford rally around her and offer what little extra each of them had (secretly, of course, so as to not hurt Miss Matty's pride) brought tea...more I thought I had read this book before, so when I sat down to watch Masterpiece Theatre and didn't recognize the storyline, I pulled it off the bookshelf and started rereading. Anyway, the television adaptation weaves in several stories that aren't in the book (what else is new?) but really, I thought the book was great without it.

Cranford is a town where there are a lot of old women (and very few men). Most of the women pride themselves on never having married--or if they have, the men always seem to e. The book carries a subtle sense of humor that is absolutely endearing. I took my time with this one and read a little here, a little there, some out loud because it was just a fun book to read. Yeah, it's a book about old ladies but that's what gives it its humor.

At the end, when Miss Matty loses all her money, the way the women of Cranford rally around her and offer what little extra each of them had (secretly, of course, so as to not hurt Miss Matty's pride) brought tears to my eyes. They truly loved each other, would do anything for each other.. They lived in a town that it is sad they don't seem to exist anywhere anymore.

I'll end this review saying that although slow in parts, this was a book I wouldn't mind picking up again in another couple years. I'll also leave with a quote I liked from when Miss Matty (near the end of the book) finds that maybe marrying and having a family wouldn't have been so bad after all:

"I am just as fond of children as ever, and have a strange yearning at my heart whenever I see a mother with her baby in her arms. Nay, my dear do you know, I dream sometimes that I have a little child--always the same--a little girl of about two years old; she never grows older, though I have dreamt about her for many years. I don't think I ever dream of any words or sound she makes; she is very noiseless and still, butshe comes to me when she is very sorry or very glad, and I have wakened with the clasp of her dear little arms round my neck. Only last night-perhaps because I had gone to sleep thinking of this ball for Phoebe--my little darling came in my dream, and put up her mouth to be kissed, just as I have seen real babies do to real mothers before going to bed."

MORAL NOTE =): This book is about as G as they come.
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Jeana's review of Cranford

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