About this title: CRANFORD is a novel in the form of 16 tales set in an English village inhabited mostly by single women and widows, whose remote, powerless lives are portrayed with a combination of satire, amusement, and sympathy. Elizabeth Gaskell's fourth novel reveals her to be a master storyteller with a lively eye for the eccentric, but it also has a decidedly feminist slant that was unusual in its time (1853) as well as an ironically distanced narrator who was perhaps even more unusual in Victorian fiction.
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Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: The Platt & Peck Co., not dated. ( hb no dj, cover is very well owrn and rubbed, front hinge is cracked, pencil name fep, o/w in fair cond. ) read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN-13:9780199538270ISBN:0199538271
Description: Very Good. 0199538271 NOTE PLEASE READ BEFORE PURCHASE! ! For classes, page numbers may not be the same-Different Printing Barnes and Noble paperback same content exactly-Aside from different introduction/Afterward / notes, The original text has never changed, Nice Standard Used Condition, some cover wear, different cover, No writing or Highlighting, no spine creases, -well bound and solid, sold for content. read more
Edition: Edition Unstated
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Cary, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780192815316ISBN:0192815318
Description: Very Good- As issued No Jacket. Slight spine lean, corner bumps, price sticker rear cover, the book has a slight warp to it, and other light shopwear. read more
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Macmillan Company, N. Y.
Date Published: 1921
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. Hard Back. 24mo-over 5"-5¾" tall. The hard cover has very light shelf wear with a little fade....-----We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by..... read more
Description: Cover Art. Fair. No Jacket. Hand Book. 16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. The hard cover has shelf wear and fade....The binding is getting loose and the first page is the contents page none before....Light yellowing to the pages has some pencil markings....-----We are very careful when we list our books, but sometimes something minor may get by..... read more
Description: Good. 8vo. Hardcover, 1901. The usual ex-library treatments are present. Red cloth cover with gilt design and lettering on the front board and spine. 316 pages plus frontispiece and illustrations. Binding is sturdy. Cover and spine show mild shelf wear. Light sunning on the spine. Corners are gently rounded with small fabric tears. Hinges are cracked. Sinature split on page 129. Otherwise, pages are lightly tanned, clean and intact. Offered by the Antiquarian, Rare, and Collectable Books ... read more
"Cranford is a hugely entertaining novel and presents a delicious society from the first page; we are told that Cranford is ruled by the 'Amazons'. Though there are no battles, swords, or fierce gallops through the pouring rain in Cranford, there is the cat who swallows a priceless piece of lace, the many rules and regulations which the ladies of Cranford put in place for visiting hours, and the unforgettable cow which, falling into a lime-pit is thenceforth dressed in a flannel waistcoat.
What I find most admirable is the relationships between women which Gaskell shows in her novel. This can be seen most clealry when the ladies of Cranford band together to secretly aid Miss Matty in her bankruptcy. It proves the enduring and tender relationships which can exist, even in the strict and ordered Victorian society of the day.
The edition I own (the Penguin one, as shown) is an excellent edition with an appendix outlining domestic duties, servants, and a thorough section on 'Fashion at Cranford' which is both informative and interesting."
"Cranford was a sweet book. Miss Matty is a female Mr. Pickwick (to me Judi Dench is a bizarre casting choice for the TV show, for sure). Gaskell has an exclusively feminine view of the world; even in Confessions and My Lady Ludlow the major storylines involving men are narrated or dominated by women. In the latter the structure of a narrator is really pushed beyond a reasonable extreme; at points one is listening to events described by a person telling another person, telling another person, telling another person, telling the narrator. In fact in My Lady Ludlow the narrator herself is such a nonentity I really don't see the point of the framing device at all. This is true to some extent in Cranford as well but much less so. Jeremy made an interesting point about this structure being a very literal translation of the oral storytelling tradition to the written word."
"I actually read this book just to get over the emotional turmoil I was in after reading abother book (2666). I believe it would be the equivalent of a rebound. And it was a good way out. But I can't say I loved it. Nothing really happens during the short novella, or I should call them short stories. The women in Cranford don't like doing much. They don't like men (most of them are spinsters, or "old maids", as the returned brother calls Matty). They can't imagine doing business, which they find unbecoming. They seem to worry only of the clothes they wear, specially the caps, or bonnets, or whatever they call them.They like their knitting, and their tea and cakes. Oh yes, those cakes are particularly exciting for them. They get together a lot, and talk about their many prejudices, their traumas, and their fears. And they watch out for young people, so they don't let themselves get involved with love in any form. But they are crazy for kids. Very victorian ladies, they can only expect old age. And maybe other peoples adventures, that's why, when the long lost brother Peter comes back, they all love to hear his stories, which most likely are untrue, but they fall for them anyhow. I know it is supposed to be funny (there actually is a funny moment, but not really laugh out loud funny, so it's not worth mentioning), or so the blurbs say (and comments from other readers), but I just found it depressing. Oh well, I'll have to go back to the real world."
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