Cranford
Cranford is an episodic novel by the English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It first appeared in instalments in the magazine Household Words, then was published with minor revisions as a book with the title Cranford in 1853. The work slowly became popular and from the start of the 20th century it saw a number of dramatic treatments for the stage, the radio and TV.
The work has no real plot, but is what The Athenaeum described as "a collection of sketches" on its appearance, affectionately delineating people and customs that were already becoming anachronisms. There it is the continuity of the characters involved that provides unity, rather than a linear narrative. Indeed, the perspective moves back and forth in time as past memories are introduced to account for the present. Necessary distancing is provided by the narrator, Mary Smith, whose point of view is that of a younger woman from a very different background simply reporting her experiences. As the daughter of a businessman living in Manchester she only visits Cranford occasionally, a device which is made to account for the episodic nature of the narration.
Excerpted from Cranford on Wikipedia.
Cranford
| Author | Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Genre | Domestic fiction, Humorous stories |
| Copyright | Public domain worldwide. |
| Book cover | - |
| Ebooks | Project Gutenberg |
| Scans | Google-digitized |
| Audio | Librivox | Internet Archive Reader: Sibella Denton 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 |
| Read online | Cranford |