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Cranford (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Creator: Patricia Ingham
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $8.03
You Save: $5.97 (43%)
New (28) Collectible (1) from $8.03
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 43477
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0143039415
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780143039419
ASIN: 0143039415
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
A gently comic picture of life in an English country town in the mid-nineteenth century, Cranford describes the small adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Rich with humor and filled with vividly memorable charactersincluding the dignified Lady Glenmire and the duplicitous showman Signor BrunoniCranford is a portrait of kindness, compassion, and hope.
Download Description
In this classic portrait of life in a quiet English village of the early nineteenth century, Elizabeth Gaskell writes with wit and affection of the foibles, follies and endearing eccentricities of its occupants as they struggle to maintain standards in their genteel poverty. This witty and poignant comedy, with its ironic observations on the pretensions of class is told through the eyes of a young woman who befriends the elderly ladies of Cranford.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Cranford (Penguin Classics) June 25, 2008
Cranford (Penguin Classics)I bought this book after having seen the Masterpiece production of it. The book is unique in that it is a novel set in the mid 1800s and comes complete with appendices explaining the words and references to people and events used throughout the book. It was very historically educational in addition to being a very interesting and well written novel. I very much recommend the book and I will be reading more by Patricia Gaskell
Cranford -- merely one of many June 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's true that the novel "Cranford" doesn't mirror the recent Masterpiece dramatization, however this is because the adaptation was based on a series of Mrs. Gaskell's works, of which "Cranford" is only one. The others are "Mr. Harrison's Confessions", "My Lady Ludlow" and "The Last Generation in England". Taken together, all four give a complete -and more familiar- portrait of the delightful village we saw televised. I recommend each of them highly.
 Cranford - Different than the PBS Mini-series June 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For those expecting the book and PBS Mini-series of the same name to mirror each other, your expectations will probably fall short. Although the book is very well written, it is definitely not light reading, and requires a great degree of concentration to understand the ins and outs of the plot - the characters are intertwined, but it is sometimes hard to remember how they relate to one another.
Overall, this book is a good, classical tale, but not recommended for bedtime reading! Strong coffee and concentration is needed!
 Classic historical literature which is actually fun to read. May 11, 2008
26 out of 29 found this review helpful
Let me begin this review by saying that if you are thinking about reading this book only because of the BBC series, you will find it very disappointing. The makers of that series used the authors name, the title of the book and some of the characters but the remainder of their production is pure invention. I am enjoying watching the BBC program, but it is not this book.
Ms Charlotte Mitchell provides an Introduction and Notes for this book. It is my belief that it is essesntial to read the Introduction in order to fully understand Cranford. Elizabeth Gaskell had written a series of stories which appeared at irregular intervals in a magazine edited by Charles Dickens titled Household Words. The stories first appeared together as a novel in 1853. Ms Mitchell uses the Introduction to explain the chronology for the publishing of this and other novels by Elizabeth Gaskell. She also takes this opportunity to explore the question of whether or not Cranford was ever meant to be taken seriously by readers of Ms Gaskell since her other novels are so very different in tone from this one.
One of the things I really appreciate which Ms Mitchell did was to include the Notes section to explain words and phrases which appear in the book which were very well understood in the 1800's but which may be unfamiliar to readers today. I read a lot of historical romantic fiction and these Notes gave me concrete explanations for words and phrases I have been too lazy to research for myself. I thought I knew what they meant before, now I know for sure. Items such as:
1. gigot - a sleeve style described as leg-of-mutton
2. baby-house - a dolls house
3. sarsenet - a soft thin silk material
4. blind man's holiday - a proverbial term for night or twilight
Ms Mitchell states in the Introduction that Gaskell later came to regret the fact that she had caused Colonel Brown to be killed in the first story. If he had remained a character longer in the series, I think that Cranford might have gone in a very different direction. As it is, Cranford is the story of a certain class of women, either unmarried or widowed, who live in a small English villiage. The main character is Miss Matty Jenkyns who only comes into prominence after the death of her older sister, Miss Deborah. The women relish their lack of male inhabitants and see themselves as lucky in not having to deal with the ways of men, which they see as uncouth and almost barbaric (they will speak too loud!). There is a very strict social structure among these women, even as to what time of day they can visit each other and what kind of clothes they should be wearing when the visits take place. These rules are in place to keep everyone on an even keel, so that everyone understands the rules, and no one may change the rules without the approval of the most prestigious ranking member of their set.
Cranford is a study in contrasts. The differences in the male approach to the world, with their freedoms, and the female approach to the world, with all the restrictions placed upon them. I can honestly say that I had fun reading this book. I grinned, smiled, chuckled and even laughed out loud. No episode was too tiny to cause a complete, unrealistic upheaval among the ladies of Cranford. One of my favorite parts of the story concerns how they all react when rumor and half-truths have them convinced that a gang of thieves and burglars are roaming the countryside. It is funny and heartwarming but also sad to see the lengths they go to in order to protect themselves and their households from these thieves who are, in reality, simply the result of gossip and overactive imaginations. Another part I am particularly fond of is when the main characters allow themselves to unbend to the extent of divulging to their friends what their worst fear is. Miss Matty revealed that she was afraid each night that a man was hiding under her bed. Her method of reassuring herself that no person was there was actually quite astute and surprising for this woman's character. But Cranford is not all warm feelings and quaint happenings. There are real tragedies which effect these women and move their lives into totally different directions.
This book is told in the narrative style, something which I usually do not like. There is very little dialogue. The name of the narrator is not even mentioned until page 137. I had read the persons name in the Introduction but I was very surprised to see that this type of presentation did not detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. It is not the most exciting book I have ever read, it is not a very long book, and it does not require much stretching of the readers intellect but I enjoyed all of the time I spent reading it and will certainly read it over and over.
Very highly recommended for any reader who enjoys historical fiction. It is not a romance, more a journal of the everyday lives of women who depend on themselves and their friends for comfort and companionship.
A book about nothing and everything May 8, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
(I would like to begin by saying that this book is very little like the PBS production that is being aired on TV right now. There are many characters that make their way into the miniseries, but many that the producers seem to have fabricated. However, though the producers do not stick to the plot of the book, I feel they have captured the spirit of Cranford.)
If anyone were to ask me what this book is about, I am not quite sure what to tell them. In essence, it is a book about nothing in particular and everything meaningful in general. The key characters are elderly ladies who, like prim Amazons in middle-aged caps, look after each other and those around them. The adventures in this story are so mild, yet taken so seriously by the characters, that I was myself as excited as they were to learn that a magician had come to Cranford, or that the new fashions had arrived, or that a Lady was to marry someone quite beneath her. The most moving part of the whole story is Miss Matti's past love, a love that she sacrificed for the sake of her family. Her stories brought many tears to my eyes.
Overall, I am so impressed with how such a simple story could be so altogether moving, and, quite unexpectedly, very fast paced. I read it very quickly yet I feel as if the tale will live with me forever.
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