Cranford
By Elizabeth Gaskell
A gentle satirical chronicle of rural English life in a town dominated by refined single women.
Table of Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS “Oh, sir! Can you be Peter?” A magnificent family red silk umbrella Meekly going to her pasture Endeavouring to beguile her into conversation She brought the...
OUR SOCIETY IN the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town...
THE CAPTAIN IT was impossible to live a month at Cranford and not know the daily habits of each resident; and long before my visit was ended I knew much concerning the whole Brown...
A LOVE AFFAIR OF LONG AGO I THOUGHT that probably my connection with Cranford would cease after Miss Jenkyns’s death; at least, that it would have to be kept up by correspondence,...
A VISIT TO AN OLD BACHELOR A FEW days after, a note came from Mr Holbrook, asking us—impartially asking both of us—in a formal, old-fashioned style, to spend a day at his house—a ...
OLD LETTERS I HAVE often noticed that almost every one has his own individual small economies—careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction—any dist...
POOR PETER POOR Peter’s career lay before him rather pleasantly mapped out by kind friends, but _Bonus Bernardus non videt omnia_, in this map too. He was to win honours at the S...
VISITING ONE morning, as Miss Matty and I sat at our work—it was before twelve o’clock, and Miss Matty had not changed the cap with yellow ribbons that had been Miss Jenkyns’s bes...
“YOUR LADYSHIP” EARLY the next morning—directly after twelve—Miss Pole made her appearance at Miss Matty’s. Some very trifling piece of business was alleged as a reason for the c...
SIGNOR BRUNONI SOON after the events of which I gave an account in my last paper, I was summoned home by my father’s illness; and for a time I forgot, in anxiety about him, to won...
THE PANIC I THINK a series of circumstances dated from Signor Brunoni’s visit to Cranford, which seemed at the time connected in our minds with him, though I don’t know that he ha...
SAMUEL BROWN THE next morning I met Lady Glenmire and Miss Pole setting out on a long walk to find some old woman who was famous in the neighbourhood for her skill in knitting woo...
ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED WAS the “poor Peter” of Cranford the Aga Jenkyns of Chunderabaddad, or was he not? As somebody says, that was the question. In my own home, whenever people...
STOPPED PAYMENT THE very Tuesday morning on which Mr Johnson was going to show the fashions, the post-woman brought two letters to the house. I say the post-woman, but I should s...
FRIENDS IN NEED IT was an example to me, and I fancy it might be to many others, to see how immediately Miss Matty set about the retrenchment which she knew to be right under her ...
A HAPPY RETURN BEFORE I left Miss Matty at Cranford everything had been comfortably arranged for her. Even Mrs Jamieson’s approval of her selling tea had been gained. That oracl...
PEACE TO CRANFORD IT was not surprising that Mr Peter became such a favourite at Cranford. The ladies vied with each other who should admire him most; and no wonder, for their qui...