Cranford: Mrs Gaskell

First published as Our Society In Cranford in 1851 in Dickens' Household Words, this is an episodic and satirical novel of daily life in a small English country town (based on Mrs Gaskell's own home town of Knutsford). It is an affectionate portrayal of people, customs and old-fashioned snobbery that were already becoming anachronisms; the narrator is '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 Drumble (Manchester) she only visits Cranford occasionally, a device which is made to account for the novel's episodic presentation. Apart from Mary, there are characters both fabulous and ridiculous: The Misses Jenkyns, daughters of the former rector; their brother Peter, who ran away to India and who had the good sense to stay there; Miss Pole, the town gossip; the Honourable Mrs Jamieson, daughter of a governor and the widowed daughter-in-law of a baron - Cranford's social arbiter; Dr Hoggins, a local surgeon of uncertain social status as he has a 'vulgar' surname and his sister, a wealthy widow yet regarded by Mrs Jamieson as her social inferior; Betty Barker, retired milliner to the gentry and former maid to Mrs Jamieson; Captain Brown, a half-pay army captain, who comes to live at Cranford with his two daughters. These and many more all make up the fantastic melting pot that is Cranford.