BOOK REVIEW ; CRANFORD

Title : Cranford

Author : Elizabeth Gaskell

Again, this is a book for my 19th century british fiction course. It took only 3 classes to disembowel, due to being a short novel and on top of that, a realist novel. I remembered the horror of the romantics in class while we started to discuss it! How dreary, plain, and trivial it seemed! Yet with the guidance of our professor, we managed to pick the finer points of Gaskell's, passages that brings weight to the discussion much like how Jane Eyre did.

And in today's class, we ended our discussion of Cranford while sipping Gunpowder green tea. Ironic, eh? For those who've read this book, you'll understand.

Cranford is a snapshot of a provincial village in England in the mid 19th century. This particular town prides itself with its old ways and superiority of women. Gentlemen were scarce, and often sent on errands to the bigger towns of London and Manchester (in this book described as Drumble). A realist novel like Cranford focuses on the details, rather than big events, so we see a lot of attention given to the attire and small incidents that won't merit much a page in Gothic novels like Jane Eyre. (pardon me my references). Although a small town, the society clings still to the hierarchical form of classes, forming an organic society where the 'genteel' prefers the lower classes to exist only for their duties. Yet, much sympathy, comradeship and love comes up in this story.

Championed by two spinsters (Deborah and Matty Jenkyns) and narrated in vignettes by an outsider (Mary Smith), Cranford gives you the comfort of what England should be.

To those who wants to try to venture into the classics but not into reading, I reckon you guys to go on youtube and find the BBC series of Cranford. It's not the exact rendition of the book, but it's a good portrayal of what I think it should be. My professor said the series is a combination of all Gaskell's work, so you might see additional characters and twists of plot, which meshes nicely enough so you'll get the whole picture.

Rating : 9/10 (sorry, realist novel lovers)