Cranford

Written by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Narrated by Mandy Gasson

“I'll not listen to reason...Reason always means what someone else has got to say.”

Enjoy the saga of a small town’s idiosyncrasies and values in Cranford, a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, author of North and South.

In a small town called Cranford, everyone knows everyone’s business. As families and individuals live their lives in the small Victorian town, they are challenged to change and adapt to new social customs instead of ascribing to out-of-date customs and ideals.

This novel is presented in vignettes and short sketches that show the humorous bits of living in Cranford, rather than having a particular plot. Main characters include: Mary Smith as the narrator; the Jenkyns family, who, with their friends, represent “the old ways” of Cranford; and the impoverished Brown family, whose arrival in the town is the precipitating action for many of the social changes early in the novel.

Cranford, like many other novels of the day, was written as a series of magazine articles, and the divisions between the segments make the narrative more understandable. The book is often cited as being “structureless,” with the main structure being the individual vignettes that follow a particular few characters and events at a time. The novel reached popularity after Gaskell’s passing, and has been adapted for film and television several times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spotify Audiobooks
• Release date: Apr 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094254562

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) was an English author who wrote biographies, short stories, and novels. Because her work often depicted the lives of Victorian society, including the individual effects of the Industrial Revolution, Gaskell has impacted the fields of both literature and history. While Gaskell is now a revered author, she was criticized and overlooked during her lifetime, dismissed by other authors and critics because of her gender. However, after her death, Gaskell earned a respected legacy and is credited to have paved the way for feminist movements.