From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

Cranford

Elizabeth Gaskell

Start date: June 1, 2021

Finish date: June 30, 2021

Discussion: Short Story Classics

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Short Story Classics

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What Members Thought

Oct 21, 2019 Chrissie rated it it was ok

Shelves: humor, relationships, audible-uk, classics, hf, victorian, shorts, 2019-read, feminism, england

This short tale by Elizabeth Gaskell portrays life in the middle 1800s in a rural English community modeled on Cheshire, a county in northwestern England. It focuses on the lives of women. The men in the village always disappear--either they die, or they quite simply go somewhere else. Underlying the fantasy of such a place ever existing are elements of down-to-earth reality, elements depicting the difficulties women of that era had to deal with. What was required of a woman to survive if left w ...more

32 likes · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2009 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, __tea-scones-shelf, on-my-shelf

Just a charming and delightful book! I'll definitely return and reread this from time to time.

I loved her descriptions and her wit. The story was funny and heartwarming and what a wonderful bunch of characters to spend time with. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2009 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, 3ms, victorians, audio-books, hf-19th-century-europe, read-2009

Changing from an e-book to an audio book, from LibriVox.

5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2017 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001

I had never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell, before last year when I started reading the 1001 list of books "you must read before you die". I saw that Judi Dench was in a production of Cranford and that is what made me read this before the 2 other books on the list.

Although Cranford is not my favorite Victorian Novel (I would say Jane Eyre, Great Expectations and Doctor Thorne would vie for that title), I did enjoy this book, and I want to read more of her work.

...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2017 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, classics, vic-lit

I wanted to love this book. The humor is full of wit and very sly. The characters are intriguing, funny, smart and quite feminist. The book is quite modern despite its dated dialogue. It is a lovely expose' of the lives of women living 150 years ago. So why didn't I love it? I am not entirely sure, except that none of the characters lingered in my thoughts in the hours and days after I finished it. Honestly there is little about the book that I remember well. So my gut says it is worth 3 stars. ...more

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