From the Bookshelf of Reading the Classics…

Cranford

Elizabeth Gaskell

Start date: November 1, 2013

Finish date: November 30, 2013

Discussion: Past Group Reads

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What Members Thought

Dec 02, 2013 Everyman rated it really liked it

Cranford is quite different from Gaskell's usual work. I appreciate Gaskell most for her social commentary -- her unblinking stare, in books such as Mary Barton and North and South, into the underbelly of Victorian England and her stark detailing of the price which the working class had to pay to create the industrial empire that England was becoming.

Cranford is a much more gentle, almost kindly, book. It deals with the lives of a small group of older, single, genteel women living in a village Cranford is quite different from Gaskell's usual work. I appreciate Gaskell most for her social commentary -- her unblinking stare, in books such as Mary Barton and North and South, into the underbelly of Victorian England and her stark detailing of the price which the working class had to pay to create the industrial empire that England was becoming.

Cranford is a much more gentle, almost kindly, book. It deals with the lives of a small group of older, single, genteel women living in a village which is relatively isolated from the city world of the early 19th century. It is a village dominated by women; there are few men, and those there are play mostly minor parts (and two of them die quite early in the book). The book is a round of dinner and card parties, social rules (nobody visits in the morning; visiting hours start at noon, and one never stays more than fifteen minutes), shopping for hats and the latest fashions, and the effort to remain genteel on a limited income. There are no villains in the book, unless you count the unseen bankers whose failure causes financial hardship to a beloved main character.

It is a hard book to assign stars to, because it so heavily depends on what one is looking for. If one is looking for serious literature, for insight into the human condition under stress, this isn't it. If one is looking for a pleasant read about pleasant people whose most serious problem is what to do when the cat drinks the buttermilk in which your lace has been soaking, and your precious lace along with the buttermilk, it is very much the book you want to read. If you enjoy the Mitford series, or the work of Miss Read, you will almost certainly enjoy Cranford.

I should add that if you have seen the very enjoyable television film of Cranford, you will be very surprised by how different that is from the book. This is because the film is actually an amalgam of several Gaskell stories; there are main characters in the film who never appear at all in the book, and several characters in the film have quite different roles to play than they do in the book. So if you have seen the film, you will find the book quite a different experience. Not better, not worse, but different.

Overall, it's a good read for a winter evening when you want to cuddle up before the fire with a cat on your lap and a pleasant book to take your mind off the outside storm. But if you are looking for intellectual stimulation and insight into the human condition, look elsewhere. ...more

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