Cranford (Nonsuch Classics)

by ElizabethGaskell (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.31

  Cranford is a collection of linked short stories about the inhabitants of the eponymous small provincial town (based on Knutsford in Cheshire). Focusing in particular on the narrator Mary Smith, who has moved to nearby Drumble (Manchester) and Miss Matty Jenkyns, an elderly spinster, it is a nostalgic look at a place that is trying to retain its rural character as industrialisation, urbanisation and modernity encroach upon it. Interweaving comic episodes with perceptive social comment, it is a celebration of the better side of human nature, in which kindness and generosity of spirit triumph over adversity. Regarded by many as Elizabeth Gaskell's best-loved work, Cranford is a charming portrait of English rural society as it was before the Industrial Revolution changed the landscape of the country forever. First published in 1851, this is one of Mrs Gaskell's best-known works. It will appeal to people who enjoy the television adaptation.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.31

  Cranford is the best known and most charming of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels. It is a comic portrait of an early Victorian country village and its genteel inhabitants, mostly women, whose social attitudes remain firmly unchanging against the modernising world, and whose domestic details dominate conversation. Gaskell describes the uneventful lives of Cranford's inhabitants in this witty and poignant classic which deserves to be read and re-read.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1955

  $3.31

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $23.53

  The country town of Cranford is home to a diverse range of characters, whose seemingly uneventful lives are full of conflicts, failures, and unexpected connections. This edition provides a rich assortment of historical materials to put the novel in context, including the author's letters while writing the novel.