Winners: Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2008". Broadcasting Press Guild. 4 April 2008 . Retrieved 26 February 2009. Set in the 1840s, this novel offered interesting glimpses into the social mores of a female dominated village. The single and widowed middle class female inhabitants put great store by propriety and maintaining an appearance of refinement. There were rules that regulated social visits and returning calls. The poor among them hid their poverty and ‘concealed their smart under a smiling face.’ The narrator (whose identity was not known until almost the end) revealed that ‘... we blinded ourselves to the vulgar fact that we were, all of us, people of very moderate means.’ Rank was important and so marriage was not to be entered into lightly until one had found a partner befitting one’s social standing. Culture, Arts and Entertainment". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007 . Retrieved 17 December 2014. The narrator, Mary Smith, related the goings-on of ladies in the village of Cranford (circa 1850s I think).

Ever since that day there has been the old friendly sociability in Cranford society; which I am thankful for, because of my dear Miss Matty’s love of peace and kindliness. We all love Miss Matty, and I somehow think we are all of us better when she is near us."I spent a week with the inhabitants of Cranford, a small village in Victorian North West England, a traditional community steeped in the code of gentility, and am glad to return to modern civilization. The Honourable Mrs Jamieson – As daughter of a governor and the widowed daughter-in-law of a baron, she is considered Cranford's social arbiter. a b "What's new - BARB". Barb.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 December 2005 . Retrieved 17 December 2014. Is it possible to discuss Cranford without using the word "charming?" It'd be like playing literary Taboo. Like trying to talk about The Road without saying "bleak," or Catcher in the Rye without "insufferable twat." This fictional city has an infallible religion of - abiding to the social-hierarchy and contempt for men. But the beauty of the novel is, though initially they speak of indifference towards men but nowhere there is a stern condemnation for men portrayed, rather in subtle gentle ways help towards their family is rendered and their wisdom/instruction is followed.

Irony and satire set the tone. Fantasy and the real are mixed. While the tone is light, threads of seriousness ground the tale in reality. This short tale by Elizabeth Gaskell portrays life in the middle 1800s in a rural English community modeled on Cheshire, a county in northwestern England. It focuses on the lives of women. The men in the village always disappear--either they die, or they quite simply go somewhere else. Underlying the fantasy of such a place ever existing are elements of down-to-earth reality, elements depicting the difficulties women of that era had to deal with. What was required of a woman to survive if left widowed? Spinsters, how might they get by? One’s rank and social standing had to always be considered. Keeping up appearances was the dictum of the day. Gossip was ever prevalent. The book looks at how women view / viewed not only men but also each other, now and in that bygone era of old-fashioned ways.The Gaskell Society Journal, Volume 22". The Gaskell Society. 2008. p.57 . Retrieved 25 April 2017. Meta (Margaret Emily), the second daughter, was sent at about the same age as Marianne to Miss Rachel Martineau, ... {{ cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= ( help) Friends in need (chapter 14). Though Matty will soon be penniless and can no longer afford a maid, Martha refuses to leave. Instead she proposes marrying Jem Hearn and taking Matty in as her lodger. Miss Pole calls a meeting of the ladies and they agree to sacrifice some of their own income to support Matty, while getting Mary's father to pretend that it comes as a return on her investments. The story does not consist of separate vignettes; the chapters intertwine, and the story becomes one. Miss Deborah Jenkins is the leader of the group and she decides to adopt Miss Jessie, the younger daughter of Captain Brown after his death, despite the fact that she is a niece of a shopkeeper.

Miss Jenkyns’s younger sister, Miss Matty Jenkyns, a complete contrast to her sister, takes over the proceedings of Cranford from her sister. Miss Matty, Mary Smith and another Cranford lady, Miss Pole, are received politely at the Holbrook home, and Matty is overcome when she starts to see how her life might have been had she accepted her proposal. Holbrook shows Mary around the house and grounds as Miss Matty and Miss Pole chat together. One of the reasons that Deborah had considered Holbrook unsuitable for her sister was that he cares very little for social status, or pleasing others. He cares about books and is content to work hard without trying to climb the social ladder of Cranford. Dinner at the Holbrook house is very pleasant and Holbrook singles out Miss Matty for the honor of filling his pipe for his after dinner smoke. He then selects a book of poetry to read aloud from. Miss Matty falls asleep whilst he is reading, she is so relaxed in his home. As the women leave Holbrook promises each that he will call on them which reignites Miss Matty's belief in her childhood dream of marrying him after all. Mr Holbrook dies not to soon afterwards, which changes Miss Matty's outlook on things. She encourages Martha to date because she does not want to stand in the way of her finding love and happiness which is what she feels that her sister did to her. Nancy Banks-Smith (19 November 2007). "The weekend's TV: Cranford". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 December 2014. Wafer bread-and-butter and sponge-biscuits were all that the Honourable Mrs Jamieson gave; and she was sister-in-law to the late Earl of Glenmire, although she did practice such “elegant economy.”Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell ( née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she omitted, deciding certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851–1853), North and South (1854–1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864–1866), all of which were adapted for television by the BBC. Elizabeth Gaskell is an English author of the Victorian age. This is the age where people start thinking of equality, equality between men and women, equality between the rich and poor. Cranford is a place where women run the social hierarchy. The social system has just two laws. The house on Plymouth Grove remained in the Gaskell family until 1913, after which it stood empty and fell into disrepair. The University of Manchester acquired it in 1969 and in 2004 it was acquired by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, which then raised money to restore it. Exterior renovations were completed in 2011 and the house is now open to the public. [42] [43] In 2010, a memorial to Gaskell was unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The panel was dedicated by her great-great-great-granddaughter Sarah Prince and a wreath was laid. [44] Manchester City Council have created an award in Gaskell's name, given to recognize women's involvement in charitable work and improvement of lives. [45] A bibliomemoir Mrs. Gaskell and me: Two Women, Two Love Stories, Two centuries Apart, by Nell Stevens was published in 2018. [46] [47] but there was another letter of exhortation from the grandfather, more stringent and admonitory than ever, now that there was a boy to be guarded from the snares of the world" When Captain Brown arrives in this female-centered society with his two daughters, he gains the respect of the women in town; However, he is killed in an accident, and his older daughter dies soon after. The town comes together to take care of his younger daughter until a suitable husband is found for her.