At the Circulating Library

Title: Cranford

Author and Title: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. Cranford

First Edition: London: Chapman and Hall, 1853. 1 volume.

Serializations:

• "Our Society at Cranford", Household Words, 13 December 1851
• "A Love Affair at Cranford", Household Words, 3 January 1852
• "Memory at Cranford", Household Words, 13 March 1852
• "Visiting at Cranford", Household Words, 3 April 1852
• "The Great Cranford Panic", Household Words, 8 January 1853 to 15 January 1853 (weekly)
• "Stopped Payment at Cranford", Household Words, 2 April 1853
• "Friends in Need at Cranford", Household Words, 7 May 1853
• "A Happy Return to Cranford", Household Words, 21 May 1853

Summary: The novel is really a series of episodes in the lives of the residents of Cranford, a small town in Cheshire. The narrator, Mary Smith, visits the town and stays with her spinster aunts, the friendly Matilda "Matty" Jenkyns and the more rigid Deborah Jenkyns, both daughter of the late rector. The arrival of Captain Brown, a retired army officer, and his daughters the invalid Miss Brown and Jessie Brown, disrupt the smooth-running society. He, a champion of Dickens's novel Pickwick Papers, annoys Deborah with his taste in literature and rough manners. Captain Brown dies in a train accident and, after the death of her sister, Jessie marries Major Gordon. Matty visits an old lover Thomas Holbrook, a successful farmer, who dies after visiting Paris. The arrival of the traveling magician Signor Brunoni and his wife causes another stir in the town. Deborah dies, leaving Matty alone in the world. After the bank fails where Matty's small investments reside, she opens a small tea shop. She is saved from her poverty by the arrival of her wealthy brother Peter from India. (TJB)

Title Tags:

• Character: Cross-Dresser
• Reprint Series: Penguin Classics (2016)
• Reprint Series: Broadview Editions (2017)
• Reprint Series: Oxford World's Classics (2017)
• Setting: India

References: BL; Sutherland

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